Thousands gather at Poway memorial for Chelsea King

People gather at a memorial service held at Poway High School for teenager Chelsea King Saturday March 13, 2010, in Poway, Calif. Thousands of people attended the memorial for the 17-year-old girl whose murder has shaken her community and spurred calls for legal changes in how child sex offenders are treated. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Volunteers handed out sunflowers to an overflow crowd of more than 6,000 mourners arriving at Poway High School today to honor slain teenager Chelsea King, described by her principal as a “shining light” that the community must make sure is never extinguished.

Family, friends, classmates and throngs of others sat beneath her giant image over the football stadium grandstand, as the sun beamed through cloudy skies.

Poway High School Principal Scott Fisher, speaking from a stage festooned with sunflower bouquets, told the crowd the events in the two weeks since Chelsea’s disappearance and the discovery of her body have filled the hearts of everyone at the school, and “millions who never had the privilege of knowing Chelsea.”

“While we mourn,” Fisher said, ”Chelsea’s passing has strengthened the bonds of this community more than I could have ever imagined.”

Today’s event was arranged by family as a celebration of Chelsea’s life, and the supply of 6,000 tickets for the stadium had been exhausted by 8 a.m., causing the family to request others to watch it online. Coverage was transmitted on the Internet by the San Diego Union-Tribune and local TV stations.

The memorial got underway at 2 p.m. and featured music from the Poway High School band and the San Diego Youth Symphony, of which she had been a member.

Pastor Harry Kuehl, of the Church of Rancho Bernardo, said “our world has been rocked” by Chelsea’s death.
Chelsea’s cousin, Stephanie Dorian, said the teenager’s story has touched the world.

“She has not died in vain,” Dorian said. “Neither did Amber Dubois.

Chelsea and Amber have become the catalyst to a new generation coming together before our very eyes to demand ‘No, never again.”’

Dorian asked for a moment of silence in memory of King and Dubois, an Escondido High student who may have fallen victim to the same alleged sexual predator.

King, an avid cross-country runner, disappeared Feb. 25 while going for an after-school run in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. A search by law enforcement teams from numerous agencies, aided by thousands of citizen volunteers, ended five days later with the discovery of the girl’s body in a shallow grave along a drainage near Lake Hodges.

Members of the Poway High School soccer team arrive at a memorial service held at Poway High School for teenager Chelsea King Saturday March 13, 2010, in Poway, Calif. Thousands of people attended the memorial for the 17-year-old girl whose murder has shaken her community and spurred calls for legal changes in how child sex offenders are treated. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Three days after the girl went missing, registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing her. Police said DNA found on the victim’s underwear incriminated Gardner.

Dubois, 14, vanished while walking to school in February 2009. The Escondido High freshman’s skeletal remains were found Saturday on a hillside in Pala, near the Riverside County line.

Gardner is being investigated in Dubois’s disappearance. He is also charged with sexually assaulting a different woman in Rancho Bernardo Community Park Dec. 27.

Tags: Amber Dubois, Chelsea King, chelsea king memorial, Church of Rancho Bernardo, Escondido High School freshman Amber Dubois, John Albert Gardner III, Lake Hodges, Pastor Harry Kuehl, Poway High School, Rancho Bernardo Community Park, sex offender laws, SWRNN

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