Hundreds of runners are expected to flock to Rancho Bernardo Community Park Saturday to symbolically complete the jog that slain Poway teen Chelsea King never got to finish.
The 17-year-old's body was found in a shallow grave alongside a tributary of Lake Hodges on March 2, five days after she went missing during an after-school run. Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, 30, has been charged with sexually assaulting and murdering the straight-A student.
Beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday, runners will meet in the parking lot of Westfield North County on Via Rancho Parkway to catch shuttles to the northern San Diego park. A three-mile run/walk over trails near the lake is scheduled to begin two hours later.
The memorial event is being set up via a Facebook page titled "Finish Chelsea's Run." Pets on leashes and children are welcome, according to organizers.
Gardner could face the death penalty if convicted of killing the teen, who was a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Poway High's cross-country team. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for early August.
The defendant is also charged with attacking a young female jogger in the same park in late December. In that earlier incident, the 22-year-old victim escaped after elbowing her attacker in the face.
In addition, investigators have described Gardner as a "focal point" of their investigation into the apparent murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido, who went missing while walking to school in February 2009. The high school freshman's remains were discovered on a remote hillside in the Pala area two weekends ago.
