Where is Trenton Duckett?

Joshua Duckett, father of missing 2-year-old Trenton Duckett, looks toward the sky as friends lift their candles to the heavens during a candlelight vigil.
DOUG ENGLE/STAR-BANNER

Article published Sep 16, 2006
Hope & mourning
Crowds gather in The Villages, Leesburg to grieve for mother, pray for missing son
BY FRANK STANFIELD, AUSTIN L. MILLER AND FRED HIERS
STAR-BANNER

LEESBURG - Police are launching a massive search this morning in the Ocala National Forest for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett, who has been missing for more than two weeks.

More than 60 police and rescue workers will be searching an area east of Farles Lake, including 18 or 19 K-9 units and Marion County Fire-Rescue's Technical Rescue Team, which is trained in wilderness rescues.

Today's hunt for the missing child comes one day after his mother, Melinda Duckett, was eulogized in an afternoon memorial service in The Villages, and an evening candlelight vigil for Trenton was held in the Leesburg downtown square.

"I hope they don't find anything," Joshua Duckett told the Star-Banner, referring to what could turn out to be the discovery no one wants to think about.

"We're putting out fliers," he said, referring to volunteers, including Mark Lunsford, whose daughter, Jessica, was abducted and killed in Citrus County last February. "We hope he's still out there."

Leesburg police at first described the tip that led them to the Ocala National Forest as a "routine tip," but Capt. Steve Rockefeller Friday conceded it was actually a "notch above" because the tipster said he not only saw but talked to Melinda, and saw the boy in her 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse the weekend she reported him kidnapped from her apartment. Police are not disclosing his name or saying what day he saw her (she reported him missing on Sunday, Aug. 27), in case someone else calls in with information.

LAWYER TALKS OF TRIP
Rockefeller refused to discuss a news story in the Orlando Sentinel on Friday quoting Melinda Duckett's lawyer as saying her client told her she did in fact go to the forest that weekend.

Duckett reportedly told her divorce attorney, Kimberly Schulte, that she made a rambling eight-hour car trip with Trenton hours before she reported that someone had cut the screen to his bedroom window and kidnapped him.

The road trip stretched from her apartment in Leesburg, to the forest, to the Altamonte Mall and T.D. Waterhouse Center in Seminole and Orange counties.

Duckett was supposedly on her way to a public gun range in the forest to try out a shotgun she had recently purchased. However, she could not find the range, Schulte said.

Duckett then supposedly went south toward the Orlando area. Schulte did not return repeated phone calls to the Star-Banner.

Rockefeller refused to disclose any investigative details about that part of her trip, including whether mall security videotape showed the 21-year-old woman and her son in the parking lot, or whether anyone saw her at the arena best known as the home of the Orlando Magic basketball team.

Suspicion has fallen on Duckett because she refused to take a polygraph and because she is the last one to report seeing Trenton.

MEMORIAL SERVICE
Most of the day Friday was draped in sorrow, especially as mourners gathered for a memorial service at Chapel of Christian Faith church in The Villages.

Melinda's parents, Jerry and Beth Eubank, of Lockport, N.Y., attended, as well as her grandparents, Bill and Nancy Eubank, of The Villages of Lady Lake. The senior Eubanks attend the church that was filled Friday with 300 people who showed up to pay their respects.

Melinda's parents were whisked away in a kind of shell game of cars, with Jerry Eubank squealing the tires of his Ford Explorer in the church parking lot to avoid speaking with the reporters and photographers who had waited for an hour to speak with the family.

Not everyone rushed to leave, however."I knew Melinda. She was a kind and delightful person. She was devoted to her child," said Miriam Chevalier, owner of the day-care center where Melinda Duckett often dropped off Trenton.

"I feel there's been a lot of rumors going on without knowing the actual facts," Chevalier said leaving the service. "There's not enough to judge, so I don't know what to believe," she said.

"He's a wonderful little boy," she said. "The kind you want to hold and kiss and not let go. I just hope he's found."

Chevalier owns It's a Kid's World in Fruitland Park.

"[Trenton] was always smiling and got along well with all the other kids," she said.

Melinda was also not acting in any way to suggest there was a problem, according to Chevalier.

Villages resident Margie Brady said she sometimes spoke with Melinda and Trenton when they came to the church with Melinda's grandparents.

"She was pushed over the edge," Brady said of Duckett's suicide last Friday at her grandparents' home. "She was under a lot of pressure."

"And Trenton was a precious little boy," Brady said. "Melinda loved him."

TROUBLING RECORDS
Court records obtained by the Star-Banner, however, did shed some light on the deeply troubled family life of the estranged couple.

Last April, Joshua Duckett complained to a Sumter County Sheriff's deputy that Melinda was "squeezing, shaking and threatened to harm their son."
The Department of Children & Families and Bushnell Police Department said they found no evidence of abuse.

A month later, after DCF became involved with the family on May 2, Joshua Duckett was given custody of Trenton for a time.

A month later, Joshua filed a motion for voluntary dismissal in a surprising letter.

"I want to state that my former fiancee, Melinda M. Eubank, is not crazy and is not nor has she ever been an unfit mother," he wrote on June 13 of last year.
The legal battle was not over, however.She was awarded sole custody on May 23 of this year.

On June 14 she filed for divorce, according to a Lake County court record, and on "or about" July 3, she said in a sworn statement that she had received a threatening e-mail from Joshua to her MySpace.com account. The court file was stamped Aug. 28, the day after Trenton was reported missing, and had been filed, apparently on Aug. 25, by Schulte.

"I hate you because you ruined my life and took my son," the e-mail, allegedly from Joshua, began.

The excerpt of the copy submitted to the court file, including misspellings and punctuation said:
"i am going to hunt you and your damn son down one day and kill both of you. years ago you stole my heart. . ." the expletive filled message said.

"I don't even think Trenton is my son anyway and your going to pay for what you've done to my life. i want you to be put through torture."

Joshua Duckett declined to address the e-mail issue head-on, saying: "I'm not allowed to talk about it."

He said investigators have asked him not to talk about it.
"The truth will be known in time," he said.

RAINY NIGHT VIGIL
Joshua's friends, Kay Moats, 19, and Sarah Goepfert, 22, organized Friday night's vigil in Leesburg.

Edward and Sandra Hovatter of Fruitland Park, who have a 6-year-old son, Clayton, had not planned to come to the 7:30 p.m. vigil, but they wanted to be supportive.

"We have a child and it hits home," said Sandra Hovatter.
They hoped their prayers would be answered.

"I hope so. I pray he's found alive, but reality sets in. I hope for my sake I'm proven wrong," she added.

A 20-minute downpour couldn't break the resolve of the 300 who showed up to pray and sing "It Is Well With My Soul."

At least one spectator brought a mixed message.
Chase Newcomb, a man in his 20s, put a McDonald's Happy Meal at the base of the city fountain.

"I don't think he'll enjoy another one," Newcomb said.

Not everyone agreed.
"We still have faith we're not giving up until we find him, Goepfert said, while holding her 8-month-old son, Landon.

Joshua Duckett said though he misses his son, he is confident he will be found alive.

"Yes, I'm 100 percent confident. It is the only way to think so."

His mother, Carla Massero said she's praying "for a safe return. I'm staying confident and I'm keeping faith," she said.

THE SEARCH
Agencies participating with Leesburg police in today's search include the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Division of Forestry.

Anyone with information is urged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Frank Stanfield may be reached at frank.stanfield@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4105; Austin L. Miller may be reached at austin.miller@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4118; and Fred Hiers may be reached at fred.hiers@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4157.

http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/NEWS/209160387/1001/NEWS01