by the Left Coast Rebel

As many know, there have been several recent developments in the Amber Dubois case, the missing teen from 2009. Investigators had been working overtime near Kit Carson park on a lead. It turns out by chance that her body has been found in an entirely different area of San Diego, Pala to be exact. This just in from 10 News San Diego:

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — Skeletal remains found in Pala were positively identified as those of missing Escondido teenager Amber Dubois, the Escondido Police Department announced Sunday.

Sign on SD (U/T) has more details:

“The discovery was made in the early morning hours Saturday in a very rugged, remote area of Pala,” said Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher. “Escondido police and sheriff’s homicide was following a lead in the case when they made the discovery.”

The remains were positively identified through dental records, Maher said.

The discovery comes just days after the body of 17-year-old Poway girl Chelsea King was found buried in a shallow grave along the shores of Lake Hodges.

Investigators have been working to determine if John Albert Gardner III, a 30-year-old registered sex offender who was arrested in Chelsea’s slaying, may have also been connected to Amber’s disappearance. Gardner was living about two miles away from the area where the Amber vanished.

Sheriff’s officials are continuing to provide further information during a news conference in Escondido.

The discovery ends the painstaking search for Amber that took family members, law enforcement and hundreds of volunteers throughout southern California and into Mexico over the past 13 months.

Her family said it was unlikely she ran away. She had no extra clothes, and she was excited to purchase a lamb she was going to raise through the school’s agricultural program. The $200 check she carried to school that day has never been cashed, police said.

Instead, authorities have said she most likely got into a vehicle with someone, possibly someone she knew.

Two witnesses who knew Amber saw her walking on North Broadway near the football field with a tall, dark-skinned boy described as “doughy.”

But she, nor the boy, were ever captured on security cameras near the front of the school. Escondido police, with help from the FBI and other agencies, have spent thousands of hours investigating the case.

Last summer, search dogs from Maine hired by the family apparently traced her scent to the Pala library, but no one there remembered having seen her. Bloodhounds used by the FBI several months later found no hint of her there.

Authorities renewed the search effort again last week, draining a murky pond at Kit Carson Park after receiving a tip that three girls had found a bag with hair around it in the pond in May.

Divers scoured the pond and others combed the banks, but Escondido police concluded Saturday afternoon that no new evidence had been found.

Investigators have not revealed if they’ve been able to interrogate Gardner regarding Amber’s case since his arrest.

Amber’s father, Maurice Dubois, on Saturday likened the ordeal to a hellish, never-ending rollercoaster ride that he just wanted to get off.

“We need to have our closure. If she’s somewhere around, we won’t stop until we find her,” he said.

A $100,000 has been offered in case. It was unclear Sunday if the reward money would be paid to anyone.

Investigators have said Amber’s disappearance bore many similarities to Chelsea’s.

Chelsea, a senior at Poway High School, vanished Feb. 25 after apparently going for a run in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. She never returned home. Her black BMW was found in the parking lot.

A breathless five-day search in the vicinity ended Tuesday with the discovery of her body.

Gardner, who was arrested at a nearby restaurant, Hernandez Hide-A-Way, on March 28, has been charged with murder in Chelsea’s case, as well as assault with the intent to rape in a separate attack on a 22-year-old jogger Dec. 27.

Authorities identified Gardner from semen on a piece of Chelsea’s clothing that was run through a national DNA database at a state lab last weekend, California Department of Justice said.

Our thoughts, hope and prayers go out to Amber Dubois‘ family tonight. We hope that this story can be used to strengthen child sex offense law in California. Involvement of John Gardner is unsubstantiated but possible at this point. If it turns out that he was involved then we have a serial killer on our hands as well.