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Melinda Duckett (21) committed suicide after an interview with Nancy Grace regarding her missing son

Filed Under: Suicide - Gunshot

Melinda Duckett (21)

Date: Sep 08, 2006
Suicide by: Gunshot
Location: Leesburg, FLA
URL:  go to their myspace
Former prosecutor turned talk show host Nancy Grace is unapologetic about her aggressive approach to a mother who committed suicide after an interview about the woman's missing son.

Twenty-one year-old Melinda Duckett was the mother of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett, who has been missing since Aug. 27.

Grace interviewed Duckett over the phone on Sept. 7 as part of a taped segment for Grace's show. Before the interview was over, the talk show host was pounding her desk and demanding, "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"

One day later, Duckett shot and killed herself just hours before the taped interview aired on CNN Headline News.

In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" today, Grace said that she takes no responsibility for Duckett's suicide.

"If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide," Grace told ABC News' Chris Cuomo.

"To suggest that a 15 or 20 minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing," she said.

Melinda Duckett reported her son missing from their Leesburg, Fla., home on Aug. 27. She said he disappeared from his crib while she watched a movie on television with friends.

Investigators have stopped short of calling Duckett a suspect but have focused increasing attention on her movements just before the boy vanished. Police have seized notes, a computer, camera and other items from her home.

Duckett's family members disputed any suggestion that she hurt her son. They said that the strain of her son's disappearance pushed her to the brink, and the media sent her over the edge.

"Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end," Duckett's grandfather Bill Eubank told the Associate Press Tuesday.

Some media analysts agree, saying Grace's interview went too far.

"How is that questioning doing anything but making a person in a desperate situation feeling even more desperate?" said Hub Brown, a professor at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications.

Grace, however, insists her line of questioning was reasonable.

"Long story short, Trenton Duckett is still missing," she said on "Good Morning America." "And now police are agreeing with me."

Grace said that Duckett would not provide a timeline for her whereabouts in the 24 hours before her son's disappearance.

Duckett also appeared to stumble over Grace's questions about whether or not she took a polygraph test or where, exactly, she was shopping with the boy before his disappearance.

But now that Melinda Duckett is dead, none of those questions can be answered. Cuomo asked Grace if she felt her hard line stance has compromised the police investigation.

"No I don't," Grace said. "Any interview followed hours and hours of police interrogation of Melinda Duckett. Unfortunately, Melinda Duckett had attempted suicide in the past."

Grace added that in murder and missing persons cases, it's common sense to look at the last person seen with the victim.

"And she [Duckett] admitted to her own lawyer...she grabbed a shotgun, diaper bag and the baby hours before he went missing and went on an eight hour odyssey through a national forest for target practice," she said. "And that is actually where police are searching today with cadaver dogs."

Police concluded their search Thursday night in Ocala National Forest for 2-year-old Trenton. They say they have no physical evidence linking Melinda Duckett to the area of the forest canvassed by investigators. A search of construction site earlier this week also turned up nothing.

Trenton Duckett's family is holding a prayer vigil in Leesburg for the boy.

Grace said the focus should not be on the interview, but on finding Trenton Duckett. "While I sympathize with her family and know as a first-hand victim of crime myself, you look for somebody to blame, anybody," she said. "And today the family is blaming me. ... But I would suggest their efforts go towards finding this baby."
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http://mydeathspace.com/article/2007/07/26/Melinda_Duckett_(21)_committed_suicide_after_an_interview_with_Nancy_Grace_regarding_her_missing_son

We wanted to wait until they found Trenton to post this but it isn't looking too likely.  :cry:
There are a few different threads about Melinda and Trenton on MDS and to merge them all would make it very confusing.  So this one is probably best for new info or to start a new discussion about Melinda and what happened.
Has anyone seen the sex tape? That would be kind of creepy to watch.
Further proof that Nancy Grace is an evil, cockfaced slag.

[quote author=Wick link=topic=8955.msg472245#msg472245 date=1185406613]
Has anyone seen the sex tape? That would be kind of creepy to watch.
[/quote]

What?  :2huh:


[quote author=Kristinella link=topic=8955.msg472249#msg472249 date=1185406726]
Further proof that Nancy Grace is an evil, cockfaced slag.
[/quote]

TRUTH.  :nod:
[quote author=nerysinci link=topic=8955.msg472251#msg472251 date=1185406862]
What?  :2huh:


TRUTH.  :nod:
[/quote]

I'm pretty sure one of the skeletons in Melinda Duckett's closet was that she did a wee bit of amateur porn.
Hot tipper Amraann supplied a link to a story that confirms a rumor that’s circulated all day: that Melinda Duckett, the deceased mother of missing child Trenton Duckett, dabbled in amateur porn. Local 6 of Florida has a slideshow of highly redacted images in Duckett in various poses, including this…ahem…fetching one of her leaning, nude, on Trenton’s crib. In the available videos, police say they can hear a baby crying in the background of at least one; whether that baby is Trenton is unknown.

http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/2006/11/15/melinda-ducketts-side-business-amateur-pornography/

[quote author=Kristinella link=topic=8955.msg472249#msg472249 date=1185406726]
Further proof that Nancy Grace is an evil, cockfaced slag.


[/quote]

In this one case, having seen the Nancy Grace interview with Melinda, I don't think Grace was that much at fault.  Grace asked her where she was the day her child "disappeared" and Melinda would not answer.  Why did she volunteer to go on the air if she was afraid to answer simple questions?  I think we all know what happened to little Trenton. 

(ok, that last line did sound a little Nancy Graceish..sorry).

I never saw the interview, actually I hardly ever watch Nancy Grace.
I do not believe she was pushed over the edge by Nancy though,
I think if she didn't know what happened to her son she would not have "given up"

She felt guilty about it, maybe she had thought she could handle the questioning (not just by Nancy, but by everyone) but she couldn't take it.
Guilt is a bitch!  I am not a fan of Nancy Grace at all but to blame her for this woman for choosing to end her life is ridiculous, completely ridiculous!  She killed herself over her child being missing and likely dead either at her own hand or the hand of someone else.  I think she did it.  To come onto a show like Nancy Grace's and expect that she is going to not ask tough questions is asinine.  That is what she does.  :stupid:

Nancy Grace is an ignoramous. Clearly it's not her fault a child murderer offed herself (I'd say good riddance, but now we'll never know what happened to Trenton.)

I used to watch her, albeit with a grain of salt. After seeing her disgrace a wonderful family & attack an innocent victim b/c she likes to think in her tiny pea brain mind that husband killers are always innocent, I just can't believe any of the chunky diarrhea that spews out of her infected mouth.  :x

RIP Trenton
[quote author=emotionsickness link=topic=8955.msg472411#msg472411 date=1185418428]
Nancy Grace is an ignoramous. Clearly it's not her fault a child murderer offed herself (I'd say good riddance, but now we'll never know what happened to Trenton.)

I used to watch her, albeit with a grain of salt. After seeing her disgrace a wonderful family & attack an innocent victim b/c she likes to think in her tiny pea brain mind that husband killers are always innocent, I just can't believe any of the chunky diarrhea that spews out of her infected mouth.  :x

RIP Trenton
[/quote]


She said "chunky diarrhea."  :puke:
No way is Nancy Grace responsible for Melinda's suicide. That's just silly. People choose suicide for their own reasons and it just can't be blamed on anyone else.

However, I totally cannot stand Nancy Grace so I missed the interview.

I still like to cling to the belief that Trenton is alive somewhere. Illogical, I know, but I keep clinging.
[quote author=deeply shaded link=topic=8955.msg472437#msg472437 date=1185420473]
No way is Nancy Grace responsible for Melinda's suicide. That's just silly. People choose suicide for their own reasons and it just can't be blamed on anyone else.

However, I totally cannot stand Nancy Grace so I missed the interview.

I still like to cling to the belief that Trenton is alive somewhere. Illogical, I know, but I keep clinging.
[/quote]


Me, too.  I prefer to believe that she stashed Trenton with a loving family to keep him away from his father and planned on joining up with him again later.  When the media attention and questioning became too intense for her and realized her "kidnapping" story wouldn't be believable, she chose to exit rather than give up Trenton's whereabouts.  Probably complete fantasy, but I prefer to believe that way until if/when Trenton's body is found and it is proven otherwise. 


[quote author=MorbidlyLovely link=topic=8955.msg472477#msg472477 date=1185423684]

Me, too.  I prefer to believe that she stashed Trenton with a loving family to keep him away from his father and planned on joining up with him again later.  When the media attention and questioning became too intense for her and realized her "kidnapping" story wouldn't be believable, she chose to exit rather than give up Trenton's whereabouts.  Probably complete fantasy, but I prefer to believe that way until if/when Trenton's body is found and it is proven otherwise. 



[/quote]

I admittedly don't know much about this but what does that mean?  You are talking about Josh right?
[quote author=Olivia link=topic=8955.msg472484#msg472484 date=1185424076]
I admittedly don't know much about this but what does that mean?  You are talking about Josh right?
[/quote]

Yeah...there were major custody issues and fraudulent emails and false accusations later retracted.  The custody situation for that child was atrocious.  I think she would have done anything to "punish" Josh, even stashing Trenton and creating a "kidnapping" scenario, underestimating how difficult it would be to keep that ruse going. 

Until they find a body, I'm going to give Melinda the benefit of the doubt that she did in fact love her child and hid him in a misguided attempt to get back at her husband.  Likely plain ignorance on my part, but it's easier than picturing that beautiful little boy buried somewhere.  :|
[quote author=MorbidlyLovely link=topic=8955.msg472485#msg472485 date=1185424204]
Yeah...there were major custody issues and fraudulent emails and false accusations later retracted.  The custody situation for that child was atrocious.  I think she would have done anything to "punish" Josh, even stashing Trenton and creating a "kidnapping" scenario, underestimating how difficult it would be to keep that ruse going. 

Until they find a body, I'm going to give Melinda the benefit of the doubt that she did in fact love her child and hid him in a misguided attempt to get back at her husband.  Likely plain ignorance on my part, but it's easier than picturing that beautiful little boy buried somewhere.   :|
[/quote]

Oh right.  I thought you meant keep him away from Josh for all the right reasons. As in Josh was abusive or something.  Not because she was just a selfish bitch.
[quote author=Olivia link=topic=8955.msg472489#msg472489 date=1185424397]
Oh right.  I thought you meant keep him away from Josh for all the right reasons. As in Josh was abusive or something.  Not because she was just a selfish bitch.
[/quote]

Nah.  I kind of surmised he was a bit indifferent as a parent in some instances (not visiting the child when he was hospitalized with pneumonia), but I never heard he was abusive.  I think it was just a very personal war between the two of them (Melinda and Josh), and Trenton became embroiled in their attempts to hurt one another. 

I did hear an interesting theory on a news show, in which a journalist mentioned the possibility that whoever she had stashed Trenton with could be dressing him as a girl and thus throwing off any potential sightings until he could be taken to a "safer" area when the heat was off of the investigation.  That helped me to cling a little to what is probably false hope that Trenton is alive and well somewhere. 
Man, I was wondering what was going on with this story, if anything. Sadly- the fact that Trenton has never appeared means the odds of him being stashed with friends are pretty low.

I hate Nancy Grace too, but this chick was uncooperative and seemingly suffering from a wicked guilty conscience. I bet she thought people would be more on her side and wasn't prepared to deal with the scrutiny and questions of the entire situation- not just snagglefaced Grace.
[quote author=MorbidlyLovely link=topic=8955.msg472492#msg472492 date=1185424710]
Nah.  I kind of surmised he was a bit indifferent as a parent in some instances (not visiting the child when he was hospitalized with pneumonia), but I never heard he was abusive.  I think it was just a very personal war between the two of them (Melinda and Josh), and Trenton became embroiled in their attempts to hurt one another. 

I did hear an interesting theory on a news show, in which a journalist mentioned the possibility that whoever she had stashed Trenton with could be dressing him as a girl and thus throwing off any potential sightings until he could be taken to a "safer" area when the heat was off of the investigation.  That helped me to cling a little to what is probably false hope that Trenton is alive and well somewhere. 
[/quote]

Yeah it would be good if he was alive and I guess it is possible but so unlikely.  I mean who wouldn't question where a new child to the family came from.  Unless of course if someone has him and didn't take him out.  The girl theory could make it easier for whoever has him, but I still think he is dead  :cry:

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