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Word Of Woman In Distress Didn't Reach North Port Police

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By JOHN DAVIS and ZAC ANDERSON of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

NORTH PORT - A witness called 911 and said she saw a woman banging on the window of a Camaro and screaming for help as a car made its way down U.S. 41 on Thursday night, but the information apparently never got to officers searching for Denise Amber Lee.

Janet Kowalski gave authorities an exact location for the car as it pulled up beside her at 41 and Cranberry Boulevard at 6:30 p.m. She stayed on the phone for several minutes as she drove south on 41, updating authorities on the car's location.

Lee, 21, was found in a shallow grave Saturday, shot to death.

When the call came in, dozens of officers were looking for Lee and the green Camaro. The search included officers in patrol cars, some on foot with police dogs and a helicopter with heat sensors that allow authorities to detect someone in the dark.

Kowalski told the 911 operator that she saw the driver repeatedly push a woman down in the back seat of his car and that the woman slapped the passenger-side window as if trying to get out. Kowalski also said she heard the woman screaming "like she never heard before," according to documents released Tuesday.

Authorities had been looking for Michael King and his green Camaro, which had a black grille protector, since shortly after Lee, 21, was reported missing at 3:20 p.m. An alert on the car went out at 5 p.m., and authorities stepped up their search after receiving two 911 calls reporting that King had abducted Lee. On one of those calls, Lee could be heard begging her abductor for her life.

King, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. Authorities say they also have evidence that King sexually assaulted Lee.

Kowalski later identified King as the man she saw driving the Camaro.

What happened to Kowalski's call remains unclear. At least two other 911 calls -- one by a relative of King who said King had borrowed a gas can and shovel and was spotted pushing a tied up Lee into his car, and a second in which Lee begged for her life -- were handled by Sarasota County dispatchers and immediately passed on to searchers.

Because Kowalski called 911 from just inside Charlotte County on Cranberry Boulevard, her call was handled by the Charlotte County 911 center. The call was not patched through to the North Port police, who were directing the search for Lee.

"They handled the call from beginning to end," North Port Police Department Capt. Robert Estrada said.

Charlotte County Sheriff John Davenport said Tuesday that dispatchers should have known of the alert on the Camaro and immediately should have relayed any information to North Port police.

"There will be comments made," Davenport said. "We will be looking into all of this, and things will come out, but this is all speculation right now. I know some of the information is wrong."

The state attorney's office has refused to release copies of any 911 call connected to the Lee case.

Kowalski called 911 as the car pulled up beside her as she stopped at the light at Cranberry Boulevard and U.S. 41. The car then pulled in behind Kowalski as she drove south on U.S. 41, she told the dispatcher. As Kowalski drove she reeled off the names of the streets she passed on the largely undeveloped stretch of U.S. 41. After about three miles the two cars got to Toledo Blade Boulevard, and the Camaro quickly made a left turn onto Toledo Blade, she told authorities.

King was arrested about three hours later on that same road, his pants by that time soaking wet and covered with mud. Lee was nowhere to be found.

As Kowalski watched Lee fight for her life, searchers were looking for her near Tropicare Boulevard and others were heading to Karluk Street, where King had stopped to borrow a shovel, gas can and flashlight from his cousin, Harold Muxlow.

North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis declined to answer questions regarding the handling of the Kowalski call.

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