ORLANDO, Fla.-
A missing 2-year-old boy was shuttled between two feuding parents and even into foster care in the months before he vanished and his mother committed suicide, newly released documents show.
The boy’s father had reported Melinda Duckett threatened to harm their son on several occasions during their marriage. He even alleged she held a knife to his leg and threatened to kill him last year.
Florida Department of Child & Families investigators determined that was the only allegation that could be verified. In several others, there were “some indicators” for possible child neglect, but little evidence to support abuse, according to the five-page document released Wednesday.
DCF spokesman Tim Bottcher said there were “never really any clear-cut indicators that Trenton was abused.”
Duckett committed suicide almost two weeks after reporting the boy missing Aug. 27 from his bedroom at her Leesburg home. She has since been named the primary suspect in the boy’s disappearance after investigators found some of Trenton’s toys, photographs and a sonogram photo in a trash bin in her apartment complex.
The case has drawn national attention from a spot on America’s Most Wanted and several nights’ coverage on CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace program. Some blamed Duckett’s suicide on Grace’s aggressive questioning in an interview the day before she shot herself. Grace accused Melinda Duckett of hiding something because she refused to take a polygraph test after her divorce attorney advised her not to.
The boy’s father, Josh Duckett, has repeatedly criticized the state for allowing Melinda to have custody of their son. Court documents show he didn’t complete the agency’s requirements to keep the boy, such as taking several counseling classes.
Duckett told The Associated Press he didn’t have enough money to complete the last class.
According to the court document, the last known dispute between Josh and Melinda occured July 5, when she told authorities she received a threatening e-mail from him.
Detectives investigating Trenton’s case have since found Melinda sent that letter to herself. Before she killed herself, they prepared charging documents based on that fraudulent threat so they could arrest her if she tried to flee before they completed their investigation into the disappearance.
Then they waited and watched, hoping Melinda would lead them to the boy.
She did not. Repeated searches of woods and remote areas near her home have failed to find him.
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