After Media Spotlight Fades, Search For Trenton Continues

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Cops say someone took two year-old Trenton Duckett from his bedroom on August 27.

It's been months of searching for Trenton Duckett with no new leads, but Trenton's father still believes his son is alive. 

The last credible lead came in November 2006, when the Marion County Sheriff's Office says a potential witness stepped forward, claiming she saw Trenton on the day he disappeared.

If what this witness says is accurate, this will have been the first reported sighting of Trenton during the mysterious 12 hours before his disappearance, that until then had been unaccounted for. According to the the Sheriff's Office, a Wendy's Restaurant employee claims that Melinda Duckett went through the drive-through in Belleview, with Trenton in the car, on the morning before he disappeared.  The same employee claimed that Melinda Duckett returned to the drive-through about half an hour later, allegedly without Trenton.  This eyewitness account could be the spark that revitalizes the search for Trenton Duckett yet.

'Team Trenton' Searches For Answers

Joshua Duckett, father of Trenton Duckett, is not the kind of man to sit back and wait for things to happen -- especially when it involves his son. In October 2006, Joshua hired a private investigator and, along with help from family and volunteers, created the 'Team Trenton' headquarters. 'Team Trenton' will assist police in the search for 2-year-old Trenton, who has been missing since August 27, 2006.

A local company has donated three computers and phones, along with office area to 'Team Trenton.' Joshua, along with volunteers will take in tips, create flyers, and run their newly created web-site, www.helpfindtrenton.com.

Joshua hopes that investigators, along with 'Team Trenton' can crack this case and find out what happened to his son Trenton.

Investigators are working with Interpol, as some have speculated that Trenton may have been sent out of the country.

Cops Suspected Mother from Beginning

Melinda Duckett claimed to "live" for her son Trenton in her MySpace blog posts. But investigators say it sure didn't look like it from the moment they first stepped into her apartment.

Inside, they say they found several suspicious items. Trenton's things were out back in the garbage: his toys, snacks, and lots of photgraphs, including his sonogram.

Investigators also discovered freshly painted walls in some places; they reported an "unknown stain" on a hall wall and "blood like stains" on some bedding.

Police said that Melinda Duckett's refusal to take a lie-detector test, and her reluctance to cooperate with authorities were also red flags that led them to look at Melinda more closely.

Intense Searches Turn Up No Sign of Trenton

Police spent several days using dogs, ATVs, and helicopters to search through the saw palmettos and slash pines of the Ocala National Forest. Dive teams searched muddy lake bottoms in zero visibility. They found a garbage bag that looked like it had teeth marks and blood on it, and called in alligator trappers. And still no sign of Trenton Duckett.

They were acting on an account provided by Melinda Duckett to her attorney, which would have placed her in or near the Ocala National Forest on the day Trenton went missing. She said that she set off for a shooting range in the Forest that she had frequented before, got lost, and wound up driving around central Florida for eight hours.

Investigators say her story conflicts with two tips that place her at a Leesburg business at at 8:00 AM, and walking into her apartment without Trenton around 3:00 PM.

Search Continues for Trenton After Mom Kills Herself

Melinda Duckett's grandparents found her body slumped in their bedroom closet on Sept. 8. Cops say she bought a shotgun in a pawnshop two days before Trenton went missing, but shot herself in the head with one of her grandfather's shotguns.

Melinda's grandparents blamed the media for her death, saying that reporters put too much pressure on the young woman. Suspicion mounted after a lawyer advised her not to take a polygraph test. Another revelation didn't help: police say her story about where she was during the 26 hours prior to Trenton's disappearance just wasn't adding up.

Cops are still trying to construct a timeline of Melinda, Joshua, and Trenton Duckett's whereabouts on August 25 and August 26. But now with Melinda's suicide, they're changing the direction of their investigation, moving away from the possibility that a stranger abducted Trenton, towards the idea that Melinda may have either hidden or murdered the child.

Detectives recovered several valuable clues from Melinda's grandparents' home and her apartment, including three letters written just before her death, and two laptop computers. Melinda also kept a blog on MySpace.com, which investigators are currently poring over to try get a better sense of Melinda's mental state during the days and weeks leading up to Trenton's disappearance. What follows below is an excerpt of one of her posts, dating from some time in June:

I HAVE LIVED FOR MANY THINGS THROUGHOUT MY LIFETIME, LIVED AND LEARNED LESSONS THAT HAVE MADE ME THE PERSON THAT I AM: WHETHER THAT BE A GOOD THING OR NOT IS LEFT TO YOUR OPINION. BUT THOSE LESSONS TRUELY HAVE SHAPED MY VALUES AND ONE COMPONENT THAT I HOLD EXTREMELY VALUABLE IN MY LIFE, IS MY SON. HIS NAME IS TRENTON AND I HAVE A FEELING THAT MANY OF THE PEOPLE I TALK TO DO NOT KNOW ABOUT HIM AND EVEN MAY STOP TALKING TO ME AFTER THEY READ THIS. (BEING THE FACT THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DATE ME INSTEAD OF BEING FRIENDS AND DO NOT WANT A CHILD INVOLVED) OF COURSE THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT ARE SHALLOW AND I DO NOT WANT THEM INVOLVED IN MY LIFE ANYWAY.

No one knows for sure what, if anything, Melinda's ramblings on MySpace have to do with Trenton's disappearance. But investigators are still hoping that they can glean something from all this evidence that will lead them to Trenton, dead or alive.

Grabbed Through a Bedroom Window?

Two year-old Trenton Duckett was safe and sound in his bedroom at about 7:00 PM on the night of August 27. That's what Melinda Duckett told police when she reported Trenton missing. She said she was in the same Windemere Villas apartment watching the movie "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" with two male friends.

When she went to check on Trenton around 9:00 PM, he was gone. Police said they received a 911 call at about that time reporting Trenton missing. When investigators arrived, Melinda pointed out that the screen on the bedroom window had been cut. Suspecting that someone may have broken into Trenton's bedroom and grabbed him through the window, they sent the screen to the lab to examine it for further evidence.

Police in Leesburg initially questioned friends, relatives, neighbors and local sex offenders. They scoured the Windemere Villas apartment complex and nearby neighborhoods. With the help of volunteers, they distributed fliers with photos and information about Trenton throughout Florida and as far north as Georgia. And still no Trenton.

So the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI joined in the search. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also lent a hand by sending out thousands of electronic fliers to area businesses.

On September 6, advocate for missing kids Mark Lunsford arrived to support the Duckett family. His nine year-old daughter Jessica was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in early 2005.

Trenton was about three feet tall and weighed about 40 pounds. He has brown eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a blue and green striped shirt, or no shirt, denim shorts, and diaper.

Young Love Goes Bad Via E-mail

Trenton's mom Melinda began dating Joshua Duckett in high school. They married in July 2005, one month before Trenton's first birthday.

And then they broke up. Melinda and Joshua, both 21, separated and moved to different cities. In June, Melinda filed for divorce. The courts later granted her a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband and custody of Trenton. They based their decision in part on a profanity-laced e-mail sent to Melinda from Joshua Duckett's MySpace account, which he had denied sending. 

Since then, family members say that Melinda and Joshua had been fighting over who should keep the child.

Investigators later determined that Melinda Duckett had falsely accused her husband of sending the e-mail that threatened to "hunt you and your damn son down one day and kill both of you."

After obtaining subpoenas for Melinda Duckett's Internet provider, cops discovered that Melinda Duckett had hacked into Joshua Duckett's MySpace account and sent the e-mail to herself in early July.

According to police, Joshua was at his mom's home in nearby Sumter County during the time that someone reported Trenton missing. He's said to have taken and satisfactorily passed a polygraph test.

History of Violence

In the early days of the investigation, cops placed Trenton's dad Joshua Duckett under close scrutiny. He's the son of James Duckett, the former Mascotte, Florida police officer who's on death row for raping, strangling and drowning an 11-year-old girl in 1987.

The elder Duckett, 48,  was behind bars when his grandson Trenton was born. But he kept up with the boy's life through visitations with his son.

In 2005, Joshua Duckett tried to get the court to issue an injunction against his mother, accusing her of harassing calls and threatening to kidnap Trenton. A judge rejected his request.