SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A legislative-reform agency created in memory of slain Poway High School senior Chelsea King will mark Wednesday's fifth anniversary of her murder by releasing a musical tribute penned by a local singer-songwriter.
The tune honoring Chelsea, a straight-A student who died at the hands of an ex-con rapist on Feb. 25, 2010, "will soon become an anthem for our cause," Chelsea's Light Foundation representatives stated in an online posting.
The composition, titled "A New Reality," was written and recorded by San Diego vocalist Jenn Cruz. It will be released via Facebook and Twitter, according to the foundation.
Chelsea, 17, was jogging near Lake Hodges in Rancho Bernardo when 30-year-old convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III abducted her. He raped and strangled her, then left her body in a densely wooded area where a member of a search team found it five days later.
In the course of investigating Chelsea's murder, police learned that almost exactly a year earlier, Gardner had sexually assaulted and stabbed 14-year-old Escondido High student Amber Dubois.
Gardner, who previously had been convicted and served prison time for molesting a 13-year-old neighbor girl, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the murders of Amber and Chelsea.
He also was ordered to serve another 24 years due to prior convictions and received an additional 25 years to life for attacking a 22-year-old jogger in late December 2009, in the same park where Chelsea's murder would take place two months later. The woman managed to escape by elbowing Gardner in the face, breaking his nose.
Following the loss of their daughter, Brent and Kelly King championed Chelsea's Law, state legislation mandating lifelong prison terms for those convicted of violent sex crimes against children and increasing oversight of paroled sex offenders.
The King family also established the Chelsea's Light Foundation Sunflower Scholarship Fund and an annual "Finish Chelsea's Run" 5-kilometer jog-walk. The 2014 installment of the yearly fitness event raised more than $85,000 for college tuitions and ongoing efforts to expand Chelsea's Law, according to organizers.
Cruz will sing "A New Reality" as well as the national anthem at this year's run March 7 at Balboa Park, according to the foundation.