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Murder Charge Added, Details Given In North Port Slaying

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Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: January 22, 2008

Updated: 01/22/2008 11:08 am

Late Monday night, prosecutors added first-degree murder to the charges against the man being held in the slaying of Denise Amber Lee, a North Port woman found in a shallow grave Saturday.

Michael King

The charge was upgraded at roughly 11:30 p.m. Monday against Michael Lee King, the North Port man accused of kidnapping and killing the 21-year-old mother of two.

The probable cause affidavit released today also identifies a witness and gives details of Lee's final hours.

According to the report, Janet Kowalski was in the southbound lanes of U.S. 41 at Cranberry Boulevard about 6:30 p.m. when a dark-colored Camaro pulled up on the left side of her vehicle. The Camaro's passenger-side window was partially down.

Kowalski told investigators she made eye contact with the driver, whom she later identified as King. While sitting at the light, she heard screaming "like she never heard before" and observed what she thought to be a woman's hand "slapping the left passenger window hard like she was trying to get out."

The driver, Kowalski said, kept pushing someone down into the back seat.

Kowalski called 911 from her car, the report states.

The incident occurred roughly 15 minutes after Lee made a 911 call that tipped police off to her abduction, authorities said.

Kowalski tried to let the Camaro pass her, the report states, but the Camaro ducked in behind her. So Kowalski, still on the phone with police, read off each intersection they passed until the Camaro made an abrupt turn on northbound Toledo Blade Boulevard, toward Interstate 75.

The affidavit also says Lee was killed by a gunshot wound to the head and that a ring found in King's car was a white metal ring with a heart, identified by Lee's husband, Nathaniel, as the victim's.

King was arrested Thursday evening after Lee's husband reported the woman missing about 3:30 p.m. Prosecutors early Friday charged King, a 36-year-old unemployed plumber, with kidnapping Lee.

Lee's body was found early Saturday in a shallow grave dug into a remote, wooded area of North Port.

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