Mother faces daughter's killer

SAN DIEGO, May 17 (UPI) -- The mother of one of convicted rapist-murderer John Gardner's victims says she met him face to face before his sentencing in a California courtroom.

Carrie McGonigle told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday she had the jailhouse meeting with Gardner because she needed closure in the February 2009 slaying of her 14-year-old daughter Amber DuBois.

"I needed answers," said McGonigle, who also has a 7-year-old daughter. "I waited 15 months, and I needed some answers.

"I don't want to hold on to all that anger and all that hate."

Gardner, a 31-year-old sex offender was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life sentences for the rape and murders of DuBois and another San Diego girl, Chelsea King, 17. He also pleaded guilty to attempting to rape 22-year-old Candice Moncayo.

McGonigle said she wanted to hear Gardner explain why he targeted her daughter and how he captured her.

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "He said, 'I had a knife and a gun. He says he didn't show it. I don't know.

"She had nowhere to go. She was stuck."

Gardner drove her to another location where he assaulted her before killing her.

Kelly King, mother of Chelsea King, told him during his sentencing that he had "dismantled a family life that was built on love, trust and faith, but you did not destroy it."

Gardner, shedding tears, refused her demand that he look at her.