Articles by Editor,Wilko Martinez-Cachero

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Terrified mother's final screams caught on tape as abductor prepared to murder her

Terrified mother's final screams caught on tape as abductor prepared to murder her GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING By WILKO MARTÍNEZ-CACHERO, US REPORTER Published: 21:33 BST, 10 October 2025 | Updated: 21:36 BST, 10 October 2025 A Florida mother's blood-curdling final screams as her abductor readied to kill her were captured on tape, ABC's 20/20 reported. Denise Amber Lee, 21, should have been home caring for her two young sons - Noah, two, and Adam, six months. Instead, when her husband Nathan returned from work, his children were alone and his wife was nowhere to be found. He frantically dialed 911. Hours later, it was Lee herself making a haunting 911 call that hinted at her terrifying whereabouts. Barely able to speak and struggling to catch her breath, she pleaded: 'Please let me go, please let me go. 'I just want to see my family again!' As it turned out, Lee was making the muffled 911 call from her captor's car, and she using the abductor's phone. Denise Amber Lee, 21, should have been home caring for her two young sons when she was abducted and killed Lee's husband Nathan (right) called 911 after returning home to find his wife missing and his two children alone That afternoon on January 17, 2008, Michael King had been spotted by a neighbor 'slowly circling' Denise's block in a dark green 1994 Chevrolet Camaro. King had taken Lee from her Florida home and driven her to his cousin's home around 5.30-6pm, where he asked for a shovel, gas can and a flash light, according to court documents. As King prepared to take off, his cousin heard a girl's voice cry out 'to call the cops.' When King's confronted him, the abductor said to not 'worry about it.' Lee's dramatic 911 call was placed at 6.14pm, according to court documents. In the call, exclusively released by ABC's 20/20, she was heard saying: 'Please, my name is Denise. 'I'm married to a beautiful husband and I just want to see my kids. Please. 'I just want to see my family again.' Lee was abducted from her Florida home by Michael King in January 2008 Dramatic footage revealed the 911 call she placed while in her captor's car Police said they 'absolutely knew' Lee had been abducted But she never did. King sexually assaulted, shot and killed Lee before dumping her body in a shallow grave in an area of undeveloped land. Chris Morales, the deputy chief of the North Port Police Department, revealed his reaction to Lee's haunting 911 call. He said: 'When that call came in, we absolutely knew that she was abducted.' As the chilling conversation continued, so did Lee's pleas for mercy. King's voice could be heard in the background while she screamed: 'Please let me go! 'I'm sorry, please let me go!' Former Charlotte County sheriff Bill Cameron, who is now retired, was tasked with playing the 911 call to Lee's father Rick Goff, a veteran sheriff’s detective. Rick Goff, Lee's father, recalled hearing his daughter's voice on the 911 call Former Charlotte County sheriff Bill Cameron was tasked with playing Lee the chilling call Cameron recalled the gut-wrenching moment. He said: 'I played it for him. He cried and he said, "That's her". 'That was horrible for me and horrible for Rick.' Speaking to 20/20, Goff described Lee's death as 'tough to deal with.' He remembered the 911 call: 'She's trying to save her life, get back to her kids.' However, Denise's call was also the cause of controversy and change. Despite making that desperate plea to police, authorities were unable to trace the 21-year-old's phone signal in real time. Law enforcement also did not use a 911 call from Jane Kowalski, who was driving from Tampa to Fort Myers that day when she heard 'horrific screaming' from King's Camaro. Noah and Adam Lee were two years-old and six months old, respectively, when their mother died Lee's sons still honor their mother to this day Noah (left) and Adam (left) were only two and six months old when their mother was killed In court, Kowalski said that she had never heard screaming 'like that in my life.' She called 911 describing King's appearance, as well as a the dark Camaro he was driving. Kowalski even offered King's location on the 911 call. However, her call was not dispatched to the police searching for Lee. Police identified King as the murderer after finding Lee's hair and belongings at his home and near the crime scene. In April 2008, the Florida Legislature unanimously passed the Denise Amber Lee Act, which requires 911 operators in the state to complete at least 232 hours of training. Lee's children, now teenagers, remember their mother as a hero. Noah Lee said: 'I always say she sacrificed herself to make sure we were safe. We came first.' Adam, who was six months old when his mother died, added that he writes her name in the clay before every baseball game he plays - to 'know that she's there with me.' He said: 'I'm doing it for her and for my dad because we're a part of her and I feel like people hearing from us can kind of see how important she was [and] how amazing she was.' Share or comment on this article: Terrified mother's final screams caught on tape as abductor prepared to murder her Add comment

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A 10-year-old girl lied about bullies chopping her hair off. Now her mother has been engulfed by an explosive sex and deceit scandal

It was a shocking claim of Dickensian cruelty that shook the city of San Antonio to its core. Outraged mother Andie Rae Castillo said her adorable ten-year-old daughter Taylor had her thick brown locks chopped off by bullies as she slept on the bus home from Compass Rose Legacy public charter school earlier this month. Castillo, who has long railed about the anguish she says Taylor has suffered, took to TikTok and shamed bosses at the Texas school into launching an investigation. The post was captioned: 'She ain't letting no bullies stop her. 'First thing tomorrow morning is (sic) raising hell at that school.' But the truth, when it finally emerged, was even more disturbing: Taylor had cut her own hair off. There were no scissor-wielding bullies. Andie apologized, while insisting Taylor had been driven to tell a single lie by an extended period of torment. Now though, a close relative has come forward to brand Andie an attention-seeker more concerned with fame and freebies than her daughter's wellbeing. Andie has angrily denied those allegations. She says her relative has an ax to grind over an alleged sexual impropriety. The drama exploded hours after the Daily Mail published its story about Taylor's haircut on Thursday. An anonymous female relative phoned our reporter with what she insisted was the real story about Andie's antics. That relative - subsequently identified by Andie herself as her cousin Kimberly Almendarez - said: 'I know this mother. 'She has capitalized on her child many times. 'There have been incidents and she has verbally expressed to us, our family, about creating wish lists for her kids when she makes comments like this on her TikTok.' A wish list is an online page shared by someone on shopping websites like Amazon filled with items that can be bought as presents for the page owner. Andie's public Amazon wish list lists an assortment of makeup and beauty products, room décor for kids, walkie-talkies or action figures - worth about $370 in total. Particularly notable is a selection of Stanley Cups Andie has suggested that her followers purchase. Andie first hit the headlines in February after she posted about Taylor's anguish over being bullied for having a fake version of one of the sought-after drinks containers. Well-wishers subsequently inundated the little girl with Stanley Cups and a post showed Taylor surrounded by 15 of them. The video was captioned: 'This is something bigger than a girl and her cup. Teach your kids kindness. 'Acceptance. Empathy. Compassion. Decency and most importantly how to be a friend to those who are being bullied.' Taylor was filmed thanking her 'TikTok tías' (aunts) and added: 'Oh yeah, my Amazon wishlist is in my mom's bio.' Comments under a TikTok video since deleted by Andie gushed over the happy ending to her 123,000 followers, many of whom appeared after the incident. 'Thank you to everyone. Her Amazon wishlist is linked in my bio,' Andie captioned the post in another reminder of the gifting page. 'Not me crying about a girl and her Stanley's' Consuela Shania replied, in a post liked by Andie and 22,700 others. 'Waittttt is this the result of the video where the little mean girls was bullying her because of her bedazzled Stanley?' Another user called Niy asked. 'Yes,' replied Andie, before adding an emoji smiling face surrounded by love hearts. But Kimberly has suggested the incident was trumped up by Andie for social media glory. 'It was like, a couple girls that were making fun of her because she had a fake Stanley Cup,' she said. 'Her mom blew that out of the water. It's ridiculous, honestly. She is just trying to get free stuff and attention. 'I don't want to talk about the little girl,' Kimberly added. 'She is a family member of mine and she is a child. 'I'm more concerned about her mom and the way she approaches things. The only reason why she made a big deal is because she knows she can get stuff.' Kimberly has also questioned Andie's angry claims that school bosses requested a public apology from Taylor over the haircut lie. 'No one asked the little girl for any type of apology,' she said. 'My understanding is that [Andie] was going to have her apologize. That was her punishment, that she was gonna go on social media to apologize. 'No one to my understanding asked her to do that. That was actually her own mom that was gonna have her do that.' When asked about the claims, Andie said Kimberly's allegations all stemmed from an alleged sexual impropriety. 'This is all petty drama with [Kimberly],' Andie told us, before detailing claims the Daily Mail has not been able to substantiate. 'She's upset because once I found out (about those claims), I told my family what was happening, and ever since that, my family has stopped talking to her because it caused - obviously - a big rift.' The Daily Mail has contacted Kimberly for a response. Meanwhile, the war between the two women continued on Facebook Friday morning. Kimberly wrote: 'Sadly [Andie] continues to come to social media because she was caught' and 'now has to bring in family drama.' Andie added that Kimberly 'takes full advantage' of 'any chance she finds to bring me or my daughter down.' And while two grown women squabble, a little girl continues to suffer. The Compass Rose Legacy school told the Daily Mail: 'After a thorough investigation into a reported incident, we have confirmed that no bullying or misconduct took place. 'Unfortunately, misinformation was shared publicly. 'We assure our community that the safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority, and we are committed to responding with integrity, transparency, and care.' The school added that there had been 'no record of 'ongoing' bullying over the course of three years.' There was only one official record about a 'drinking cup' that was 'directly addressed' by the administration, the school told the Daily Mail. Andie continues to question the school, claiming bosses there had treated it as a problem involving one bully. She insists multiple children are behind the alleged abuse. The school told the Daily Mail that Andie 'misheard or misrepresented' the Texas anti-bullying policy, which defines bullying as 'a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more students directed at another student.' Despite the worsening scandal, Andie is standing firm on the bullying claims. She now plans to move Taylor to another school and says other parents at Compass Rose plan to do the same over abuse suffered by their children. Andie told the Daily Mail: 'My only comment is the school took way too long to do anything and it took my daughter to go to extreme measures for them to finally acknowledge that she was being bullied - like, to even have a meeting with the principal. 'There wasn't another child involved. It was my daughter who cut her who did it to herself - but honestly, I'm just over this whole thing already.