Amber DuBois' Mom Wants Murderer John Gardner to Answer Questions About Daughter's Final Hours

May 6, 2010— -- After more than a year of agonizing over her daughter's fate, the mother of a California teenager murdered by John Gardner wants details about her final hours.

For 13 months, Carrie McGonigle lived with the horrifying thoughts about what could have happened to her missing daughter, 14-year-old Amber DuBois.

Now that she knows her daughter was raped and murdered less than two hours after being snatched on her way to school, she wants to know how Gardner got her and why.

"The last hour of her life was spent with this freak," McGonigle said. "If I get some of my questions answered I'll be a lot better."

"I don't want to know gory details. I don't want to know if she suffered," she said. "I don't want to hear if she cried for me."

Though Gardner, 31, is a convicted sex offender who has confessed to raping and murdering both DuBois, who disappeared in February 2009, and Chelsea King, 17, whose body was found five days after she vanished on Feb. 25. He has taken the advice of his attorney and declined to sit down with his victims' families until after he is sentenced next week.

It's a choice that doesn't sit well with McGonigle who wants to hear what he has to say before she prepares the victim impact statement she'll read in court.

"There are things I want to say that nobody knows about except for me and the police," she said, declining to elaborate. "I won't feel comfortable saying the things I want to say to the world unless I have answers from him."

Gardner's lawyer, deputy public defender Michael Popkins, said he doesn't understand why McGonigle can't wait another eight days to speak to Gardner. He has advised his client not to say anything more about the crime until after sentencing.