Media Coverage May Have Pushed Missing Boy's Mom Over Edge
- From: "tiny dancer" <tinydancer357@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 01:06:02 -0400
Family: Media Coverage May Have Pushed Missing Boy's Mom Over Edge
2-Year-Old Remains Missing
POSTED: 8:49 pm EDT September 9, 2006
UPDATED: 9:13 pm EDT September 9, 2006
Family members of a mother who committed suicide while a search continued
for her missing 2-year-old son said the intense media coverage in the case
may have pushed her over the edge, according to a Local 6 News report.
Leesburg authorities said Melinda Duckett's body was found Friday in a home
at 638 Rainbow Lane in the Villages of Lady Lake. Police said the house
belonged to the woman's grandparents.
Local 6 News reported that Melinda Duckett's grandparents said media
coverage may have been too much.
Two days before she died, Melinda Duckett told Local 6 News that she was
frustrated that the media and police were scrutinizing her whereabouts
before her son vanished.
And in a taped interview that aired hours after Melinda Duckett's suicide,
CNN news anchor Nancy Grace grilled the woman about her alibi on national
television.
"Where were you?" Grace asked Melinda Duckett. "Why aren't you telling us
where you were that day? You were the last person to be seen with him."
"We were just shopping, going around?" Duckett said.
"Shopping where?" Grace asked.
"Well, we didn't go any where specific," Duckett said.
"If you went shopping, you had to go into a store -- what store did you go
into?" Grace said.
"I wasn't (going to get) into any specifics," Duckett said.
The boy's father, Joshua Duckett, said he did not think the media was unfair
in their coverage.
"At first, the media was rough on me too and I had a lot of fingers pointed
at me and stuff like that," Duckett said. "To me, I don't feel the media was
unfair to either side."
"Despite Melinda Duckett's apparent suicide, police are not yet publicly
calling her their primary suspect," Local 6's Mike DeForest said. "They say
everyone is still a possibility at this point."
Saturday, investigators searched Melinda Duckett's apartment but so far
there was no sign of a suicide note.
Joshua Duckett said he is optimistic his son will be found but the death of
his estranged wife complicated things.
"It hits you like a ton of bricks," father Joshua Duckett said. "It makes it
that much harder."
According to authorities, Trenton Duckett was last seen in his room. His
mother first noticed he was missing around 9 p.m. Leesburg police said a
screen on a window in the boy's room was cut and that he was apparently
taken through the opening.
Melinda Duckett had earlier told Local 6 News that the day before Trenton
vanished, she and the child were driving around visiting friends and family.
Detectives are still searching for witnesses who can either back up her
account or contradict it.
The search continues for the missing boy.
http://www.local6.com/news/9815793/detail.html
.
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