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 was seen by a neighbor ‘slowly circling’ Denise’s block in a dark green 1994 Chevrolet Camaro.

King had taken Lee from her Florida residence and driven her to his cousin’s home around 5:30-6:00 pm, where he requested a shovel, gas can, and a flashlight, as per 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, now retired, was given the responsibility of 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.’

The episode airs on 20/20 on ABC at 9pm Eastern Time on Friday October 10, 2025.