Parents of Chelsea and Amber ‘Deeply Hurt’ by New Book

A war of words between the parents of girls killed in two high-profile murders and a San Diego-based true crime author went public Thursday on the Internet.

The dispute is over publication of the book Lost Girls, by former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Caitlin Rother.

In a posting on the Chelsea’s Light Facebook page, Brent King and Carrie McGonigle wrote that they were “deeply hurt” by Rother’s unauthorized account of their daughters’ deaths. King is the father of Chelsea King, and McGonigle the mother of Amber Dubois.

They asked the author to donate 100 percent of her personal revenue from the book to a nonprofit that helps crime victims.

In response, Rother posted on her own Facebook account that she was aware of their feelings and sorry for their losses.

“I’m also sorry they don’t see it this way, but this is my way of honoring their daughters—to try to prevent other young girls from being raped and killed by sexual predators,” Rother said.

She said “true crime” was a long-standing book genre that does not require authorization from people connected to the case. She also said she maintains friendly relations with victim families from her previous works.

Rother turned from newspaper reporting to book writing after she covered the Kristin Rossum case, in which a woman who worked as a toxicologist at the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office was convicted of murdering her husband while she was allegedly having a love affair with her supervisor.

King, a Poway High School senior, disappeared while jogging in January 2010 in the hills near Rancho Bernardo Community Park. Her body was discovered several days later beside Lake Hodges.

Dubois, a freshman, vanished about one year earlier while walking to Escondido High School.

A registered sex offender, John Albert Gardner III, confessed to killing both teens and led authorities to Amber’s remains in a remote section of northern San Diego County.

Rother said her book has received positive reviews so far, though she knew there would be some controversy.

“I believe that this is a story that needed to be told in depth, not in sound bites in the media,” she said in her statement. She said she hoped to educate her readers about sex offenders.

-City News Service