Missing Boy's Mother Says She Was 'Misunderstood' In Suicide Note

LEESBURG, Fla. -- A woman who killed herself days after reporting her 2-year-old son missing said in a suicide note she ended her life after facing ridicule and criticism.

According to a two-page handwritten letter authorities released Saturday, Melinda Duckett, now named the primary suspect in the disappearance of her son Trenton, said she loved her son dearly and she was misunderstood.

The balance of the letter spoke to the heavy media questions endured in interviews just before the suicide, including a confrontational spot on CNN Headline News' Nancy Grace in which the host and guests openly questioned her innocence.

Twenty-one-year-old Duckett killed herself with a shotgun at her grandparents' home on Sept. 8. Her suicide came a day after a contentious Grace taping, and family members have blamed critical media reports pushing her to kill herself.

Authorities have not found any signs of Trenton, despite massive searches in the Ocala National Forest. Duckett told police he disappeared from his bedroom on Aug. 27.

A scaled-back search based on a new tip is scheduled for Sunday or Monday.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

http://www.local6.com/news/9919231/detail.html

If your at all interested in reading the circle jerk that has been this case, you can follow the link and scroll too the bottom where you will find a way to read all the previous articles.

The thing I find amazing about this case is the flack that Nancy Grace is taking. She had a phone interview with this woman, the Mother Melinda agreed to give this interview and when Grace smelled a lie and wanted to know why she couldn't remember the errands she had been on, everyone has gone out of their mind about how Grace treated this bastion of Motherhood...of course right after, I think within 24 hours, this woman killed herself, with a shotgun NO LESS!! Of course everyone felt terrible for this woman. The police had already decided the child had probably been killed by his "misunderstood Mother" but after what I think is a month, they have been unable to find the body.

At one point they were even talking about catching alligators in the Ocala National Forrest to see if one of them had consumed the small child. The day after the child supposedly dissappeared, his LOVING Mother, threw away his toys, photos of him and his sonogram...WHO DOES THAT??? Even if you know your child isn't coming home, parents who love their children usually hang on to something, many of them keeping their childs room set up like that for years before being able to let go. NOT GOOD OLD MELINDA THOUGH...she reported him missing and threw his things out in double time.

The poor Father was falsely accused of having sent threatening emails that he was going to kill the Mother and his own son...investigators have proven she was the one who authored the emails and sent them to herself.

There is even a website talking about how to boycott Nancy Grace and get her fired etc. all because she supposedly mistreated this murdering bitch. Frankly running her over with my truck AND then backing up and running over her again wouldn't be mistreating her in my opinion.

I read about this the other day and couldn't believe it. There are so many things that point to the mother's guilt (throwing away the child's memorabilia, the emails, the conflicting statements, etc).

But the one that takes the cake is her suicide. If a mother thought there was even the smallest chance of her child coming home, she would want to live for them. I would only blow my brains out if my son's body was found- there is no way I could go on. However, if I decided to take my life before, there is always the chance he could come home and, OOPS!, Mommy blew her brains out.

Grace keeps focus despite woman's death By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

"Anybody who believes Nancy Grace was chastened by the suicide of a young mother following their tough television encounter doesn't know Nancy Grace.

The prime-time prosecutor continues to focus nearly full-time on Melinda Duckett, piling up evidence to point to the Florida woman's guilt in the disappearance of her 2-year-old son, Trenton, all with the support of her bosses at CNN Headline News.

The case points a spotlight on the hard-charging Grace, who has quickly joined Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann among the most polarizing personalities in cable news.

"I remain dedicated to the ongoing fight for crime victims everywhere," Grace said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Right now, our focus is on helping find baby Trenton Duckett safe and sound, and we will pursue the case until there is a resolution."

Melinda Duckett, named Thursday as the primary suspect in her son's disappearance, shot herself on Sept. 8, a day after taping the interview. Grace questioned her about what she was doing on the day Trenton disappeared, pounding her desk and asking: "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"

While Duckett's ex-husband is among the people who say Grace shouldn't shoulder any blame in the suicide, questions were raised about CNN Headline News' sensitivity in airing the interview after knowing Duckett had killed herself. Portions were rerun again Thursday.

"I don't fault Nancy Grace for asking the questions," said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. "That's her job. That's her shtick. She's an entertainer. The problem is what happened afterward. She's gone on a personal jihad against this woman. At what point does CNN step in and say `enough's enough?'"

Scarborough's show last week paid almost as much attention to Grace's conduct as Grace did to the Duckett case. He calls Grace a "runaway beer truck" and said CNN Headline News gives her free rein because of her importance to the network.

A CNN Headline News spokeswoman dismissed that assessment as absurd.

Kenneth Jautz, CNN Headline News chief, said he hadn't spoke to Grace about her coverage and said he saw no reason for her to change.

"Nancy is passionate and outspoken about crime and the rights of victims, particularly in children's cases," he said. "I think that comes across in the show. I think she's been very successful because of her passion, because of her no-nonsense direct approach."

By any measure, "Nancy Grace" is a hit. It has also helped CNN Headline News transform itself: after more than two decades of running constant news updates, the network made Grace the star of its first real show in February 2005. Ratings for the time slot tripled almost overnight, and Grace frequently gets a bigger audience than Paula Zahn on CNN.

Her show airs twice in prime time, live at 8 p.m. ET and repeated at 10.

Grace went to college to be an English teacher, but her life changed in 1980 when her fiance was killed in a mugging by a man out on parole. Convinced that victims were overlooked in the criminal justice system, she became a prosecutor in Atlanta, then a quick-witted and forceful pundit for Court TV and other outlets.

True crime stories have become a genre unto themselves on cable TV, with Grace and Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren leading the way to especially strong ratings last summer following Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba.

Grace's show feels like a courtroom on speed. Using evidence both solid and circumstantial, she pieces together cases with a prosecutorial zeal. The attention puts pressure on real authorities investigating cases. All of it, she believes, benefits crime victims.

"You're an angel to so many people, you just don't know," one fan from South Carolina said on Thursday's show.

Her critics find Grace too quick to make damning judgments, suggesting her work runs counter to the justice system's presumption of innocence. Her hunches are often right, but what kind of damage can they do when she's wrong? (The police themselves admit that they believed from the beginning Melinda, the Mother was involved.)

Seven years ago, Grace said she "would definitely have voted to indict" the Ramseys in their daughter JonBenet's death. "There's no doubt in my mind," she said. When John Mark Karr was arrested this summer as a suspect in the girl's murder, she repeatedly called him a "perv" before the allegations fell apart. The case remains unsolved.

When runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks was missing, Grace said, "I just don't believe it's a case of cold feet" before it turned out to be exactly that.

Lauren Ritchie, a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel, suggested Grace went over the edge by suggesting in a "Good Morning America" interview that guilt made Melinda Duckett commit suicide. (I want to know how this statement by Grace is wrong...The Mother killed her child, hoped to get away with it, Grace nails in an interview the Mother herself CHOOSE to give...it then started to become apparent to the Mother that she was NOT going to get away with killing her child, so she topped herself, the world is a better place for it as well)

"Grace's performance so far is only a slim cut above TV show host Jerry Springer's antics," Ritchie wrote. "Springer, however, doesn't masquerade as respectable."

CNN Headline News emphasizes that "Nancy Grace" is an opinion-based show, not a traditional newscast, Jautz said. He defended the network's decision to air Duckett's interview after she killed herself, saying both parents wanted to speak to Grace in the hope of locating Trenton.

"We always make sure that we have people who disagree with her point of view on her show," he said. "We have more people who disagree with her than agree with her point of view."

That can be risky. When a lawyer on Thursday's show suggested it was possible someone other than Duckett could have thrown away the pictures of her son that were found in a Dumpster near her home, Grace cut him off. "Until you have something sensical to say," she told him, "I'm locking you back up."

With critics suggesting Grace's relentless focus on the case is cruel to Duckett's family, virtually all of Wednesday and Thursday's shows were devoted to Trenton's disappearance. "Nancy Grace" averaged 689,000 viewers the first three days of the week, comfortably above the show's third quarter average of 534,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Grace appeared close to crying Thursday when Melinda's ex-husband came on her show and said that despite people blaming Grace in Duckett's death, "I don't hold you responsible at all."

She also flashed defiance.

"To all the people that have been riding me like a mule about questioning her, I would advise them to A, take a look at the (news conference) today when police named her the primary suspect and B, join us in the search to find this baby," she said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060925/ap_on_en_tv/ap_on_tv_nancy_grace;_ylt=ArEJo9NHBIaPOT.werOMWqKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

When this first happened, it frightened me that in a town, within 30 minutes from me, further away from Orlando then me, someone could snatch a child from his own bed, with his Mother in the next room. It made me fear just a little more for our safety, as it did alot of people...but now we find out the truth...

She also refused to take a polygraph...

If it were my child, I would be two inches off the ass of the cops investigating the case until they did find my child...they would have to get a restraining order against me...

stupid.

....

But the one that takes the cake is her suicide. If a mother thought there was even the smallest chance of her child coming home, she would want to live for them. I would only blow my brains out if my son's body was found- there is no way I could go on. However, if I decided to take my life before, there is always the chance he could come home and, OOPS!, Mommy blew her brains out.

Exactly. The only reason she killed herself is she knew that her child was not coming back. And knew the reason why. Either she killed him, or knows who did, and did nothing to stop it.

I think she killed the child and realized the law was closing in...Nancy Grace just shined a light on it for her...

I hope that bitch burns in hellfire eternal for what she no doubt did with her child.

Released DCF Documents Show Troubled Life Of Missing Boy

POSTED: 6:32 pm EDT September 27, 2006

UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT September 27, 2006

"The mother of a missing 2-year-old Leesburg boy allegedly held the child over water to provoke his father and violently squeezed the child's chest during another occasion, according to Department of Children and Families documents released Wednesday night.

Investigators have been searching for Trenton Duckett since his mother, Melinda Duckett, reported him missing late last month.

Police recently named Duckett the prime suspect in her son's disappearance, and new DCF documents paint a tumultuous picture of Trenton's life before he vanished, according to the Local 6 News report.

"Several pages of DCF reports were released, outlining the trouble life of Trenton Duckett and alleged abuse at the hands of his mother," Local 6's Jessica D'Onofrio said.

There are more than 70 line items in the DCF report.

The chronology of the Duckett case begins in April of 2005 when an allegation was made from the child's father, Joshua Duckett, that indicated Melinda Duckett planned to harm the toddler if he didn't come to her home.

A few weeks later, a judge removed Trenton from Melinda Duckett's care and placed him with his fater, the report said.

In June of 2005, another report was received alleging Duckett dangled Trenton over water, endangering the child to deliberately provoke his father. It was also alleged that she squeezed the child's chest leaving marks, according to the report.

The documents showed that during the next year, Trenton was passed back and forth between his mother, father and grandparents.

At one point, Trenton was placed in Foster care for a few days, the report said.

"The release of this report may shed some light now on how allegations of parental abuse and neglect of the child were handled by DCF before Trenton went missing," D'Onofrio reported. "Joshua Duckett has been vocal about it criticizing DCF on how they handled the case."

Local 6 News talked with DCF representative Al Zimmerman who said the chronology shows that when an accusation was made, they took it very seriously and so did the judicial system, the report said.

Zimmerman said the in Nov. of 2005, the court returned Trenton to his mother, and it was noted that DCF didn't think that was a good idea.

A judge ordered DCF to release the files to the media Wednesday.

DCF officials said it had no problem with it and are willing to discuss the case."

http://www.local6.com/news/9949290/detail.html

This case just keeps getting worse...If people don't see the reality now, they never will. They are defending a woman who is a child abuser and more probably a killer.

Check out this website, people wanting Nancy Grace fired because of how she treated this bitch when she had a phone interview. People of this world are dumber then I realized.

Nancy Grace should be given a medal for her restraint if you ask me. My heart is sick at the thought of what this poor child had to go through.

http://firenancygrace.com/default.asp

I keep watching but I haven't heard a word about him.

I doubt they will ever find his body.

Their best chance was when they spoke of pulling aligatos out of the Ocala National Forest which is where the so called Mother was the day she reported her child missing. After the news came out they were suggesting this, they decided against it.

My guess is that either she killed him at home accidently or she killed him on purpose, maybe shot him and then she disposed of him in the National Forest. Just prior to making this post I drove through there, its an odd place and very secluded. The ideal place to dump a body.

With a child so small, he would be almost imposible to find.

I thought it interesting, blah blah blah, blah blah blah

Letch finds my shiny white arse interesting.

Hi I am in the UK and we had nothing to look at on this , but from what I have read here I find it very hard to think that this woman had nothing to do with her childs dissapearence.

HI, I'm not from the UK and I think your a fucking jackass.

Well done Jhony5, a good response from a well educated idiot

Actually my education is seriously lacking.

No kidding, I would never have thought it

Why not? Its pretty fucking obvious. Gosh.