Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
2-Year-Old Disappears From Bedroom
Aired September 08, 2006 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, a mother`s worst nightmare. She tucks her 2-year-old into his crib, settles onto the sofa in the very next room for a video. Now the bedroom`s screen is found slashed, we think from the outside, and the baby is gone. Tonight, the search for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. We investigate the clues left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s very loving. He`s just so sweet. You know, I can`t see anybody wanting to harm him. You know, he`s precious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.
Where is 2-year-old Trenton Duckett? Out to Marilyn Aciego, reporter with "The Daily Commercial," Orlando, Florida. Marilyn, what happened?
MARILYN ACIEGO, "DAILY COMMERCIAL": Well, police are telling us that Melinda laid Trenton down at 7:00 PM on August 27, and she sat down to watch a movie. When she got up to check on him at 9:00, he was gone.
GRACE: Out to Angeline Hartmann with "America`s Most Wanted." Angeline, what are the facts surrounding his disappearance?
ANGELINE HARTMANN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, investigators say this. They are right now putting together a timeline, so they`re still questioning everybody. But the facts are, the baby did go down to sleep at 7:00 o`clock. And this is according to the mother. And then the mother said she checked on the baby at 9:00 o`clock. She had two friends over that night, and they watched a movie. Everything was fine...
GRACE: Who were the friends?
HARTMANN: We understand there were two gentlemen she had invited over. They watched a movie, "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." No problem. No sign of any problems. Again, she checked on the baby at about 9:00 o`clock that night and discovered that he was missing. She called investigators right away.
Turns out, when investigators got there, they checked out everything, and then we understand the mother pointed out that there was a screen that had been ripped, and it was, you know, very unusual. And so that screen has been taken for testing, we understand, and investigators say it doesn`t look like there`s any indication from that screen that the child has been harmed. But obviously, it`s very unusual, at this point.
GRACE: To Pat Brown, criminal profiler. Pat, what could they be looking at at the screen? Remember, there was a big controversy when Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her own home, much like Trenton Duckett, and a window had been -- that was the barrier that had been breached. And the big question was, Was it breached from the outside or the inside? You can look at a screen, a window screen and tell which way the cut went. What else could they be looking for?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, they`re going to be looking at how big the slash was in the screen, Nancy. Is it something that looks like the person had to open it up to get in? We`re talking about an adult climbing in the window, and they have to be able to access it. So they`re going to be looking at how big the cut is for that.
And then, if you`re pulling a child back through the window, what they`re saying is they didn`t see any signs of any injury there. So in other words, when the child`s being carried back through, where the child might have been scratched by the screen, cut by the screen, so there might be blood on the window -- they`re not seeing that. So that`s good. That`s good news.
And so they`re looking to see whether it was breached from the outside or it was -- or was cut not from the outside, which would be a staged crime scene. And so they want to look to see whether we have a stranger abduction and then whether it could actually be done the way -- from the outside, as it might have been done.
GRACE: And Vito Colucci, private investigator with Colucci Investigations -- Vito, of course, they`re going to be looking for fingerprints on this screen. As Pat just told us, was the cut big enough, the slash big enough to take the child out of it, or was it merely removing the screen? Now, that`s interesting! If you cut the screen to go through the window, you have to take the screen out of the window. So I guess after the child was taken out, the perpetrator thought to put the screen back into the window before left?
VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: I`m having trouble with that, Nancy. Time of day, between 7:00 and 9:00, o`clock, all right, you have three adults in the next room watching a movie. Child is going to see a strange person. Maybe this 2-year-old is going to scream. All right, I just can`t picture this. Something`s not sitting right with me with this whole screen thing.
GRACE: Well, I understand -- I understand where you`re going, Vito, and I said the same thing when Elizabeth Smart was taken, when Danielle Van Dam was taken from her home. It doesn`t always make sense. And boy, were we surprised when we found out some wacked-out polygamist was looking for a child bride and set his sights on Elizabeth Smart.
Joining us right now, I`m hearing in my ear, two very special guests with us tonight, the mother and father of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. Let`s go out to Josh Duckett. This is Trenton`s father. Please help us tonight analyze the clues left behind in the disappearance of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett from his Florida home, sleeping while the mom was in the next room watching a movie.
Welcome, Josh. Thank you for being with us. You just told us that you cooperated with police and they checked everything out, and they clarified and cleared where you were that night. Where were you?
JOSH DUCKETT, MISSING BOY`S FATHER: I was actually in Bushnell with some friends. And all of the friends that I have, they`ve got contact numbers, names of every person that I was with throughout the night. And then I was back home before 9:00 o`clock.
GRACE: When did you learn Trenton had been taken?
JOSH DUCKETT: Around 9:45 -- between 9:45 and 10:00.
GRACE: That evening?
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes. Sunday evening.
GRACE: Now, on a Sunday evening -- what did do you when you first learned he was gone?
JOSH DUCKETT: I immediately started asking questions, and the officer that notified me had no information to give me, so I got dressed and left straight from my house and went straight to the Leesburg Police Department.
GRACE: You got dressed. Why were you undressed?
JOSH DUCKETT: I was in bed. I mean, I was ready for bed.
GRACE: Where do you work?
JOSH DUCKETT: So...
GRACE: Where do you work?
JOSH DUCKETT: I work for Doneright (ph) Electric in Wildwood (ph).
GRACE: Do you get up early in the morning to go to work?
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: What time do you get up in the morning?
JOSH DUCKETT: I normally leave my house by at the latest 6:00 o`clock.
GRACE: So you were already in bed at 9:45. How far away from the home do you live?
JOSH DUCKETT: I`m an hour away from Leesburg.
GRACE: When was last time you saw Trenton?
JOSH DUCKETT: The end of June.
GRACE: And what are your visitations with the little boy?
JOSH DUCKETT: Every other weekend and then on Wednesdays.
GRACE: Do you always see him?
JOSH DUCKETT: I have up until June.
GRACE: And what do you do with him when you get him?
JOSH DUCKETT: Just family stuff. I mean, have friends over to visit. We go to parks. We go out to eat. Just family activities, spend a lot of time, go swimming.
GRACE: He`s a beautiful...
JOSH DUCKETT: Just the average family stuff.
GRACE: I know a lot of people may think this applies to boys, but he is a beautiful, beautiful little boy.
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: Would he have cried out if a stranger had taken him?
JOSH DUCKETT: Most definitely.
GRACE: Or he may have slept through it.
JOSH DUCKETT: I find that one hard to believe because he was a very, very light sleeper. I mean, if you moved him while he was asleep, he automatically woke up.
GRACE: Interesting.
With us also a special guest, Melinda Duckett. This is Trenton`s mom -- simply watching a movie in the next room, goes in to check on her son, he is gone. Melinda, thank you for being with us. Melinda, where was the bed in relation to the window?
MELINDA DUCKETT, MISSING BOY`S MOTHER: The bed is underneath the window.
GRACE: Question. I want to talk to you about that screen. When you first went in the room, was the window still open?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well, it had only been cracked about three or four inches to begin with. And second of all, when I walked in there, that`s obviously not the first thing that I was looking for.
GRACE: Of course.
MELINDA DUCKETT: As soon as I saw him not in the bed, I was looking throughout the room and in the closet.
GRACE: Could he get out of the bed?
MELINDA DUCKETT: He`s in a toddler bed right now. He`s not in a crib. And there`s a lot of things...
GRACE: What is that? What`s a toddler bed?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I big your pardon?
GRACE: What`s a toddler bed?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Oh. It`s real low to the ground. It`s got a wooden frame on it, all soft curves and everything, soft edges, a regular crib mattress inside. Just basically what you use for an average toddler.
GRACE: Was he able to get out of it?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Yes, he was. But he was very good. He would -- you know, once he was tired, he would lay down. He wouldn`t, you know, fuss or anything. And he wouldn`t get out and, you know, start messing around or anything.
GRACE: Was he sleepy that night? Was he ready to go to bed, or did he resist?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No. Extremely. He was tired. We had had a long day out. And my son is not a light sleeper whatsoever. You can move him from room to room, and he`ll still be asleep. And on top of that, he is very friendly and very outgoing to everyone. He can walk in a room full of strangers and make friends with people. And so I mean, if he met someone new, he would start playing with them. He wouldn`t cry. He never had tantrums or anything.
GRACE: Where were you sitting in relation to his bedroom?
MELINDA DUCKETT: The bedroom is connected to the hallway. The living room is -- gosh, if you picture the apartment like a U shape, the front door would be at the bottom of the U shape. The living room would bed at the top left-hand corner. His bedroom would be, I guess you`d say, catty- corner...
GRACE: Got it.
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... from the living room.
GRACE: So you were a hallway, essentially, away from him, and the TV was going.
MELINDA DUCKETT: Quite a ways. Right. The TV`s at the other end of the living room, right.
GRACE: OK. Last time you saw him was around 7:00, when you put him to bed. And what time...
MELINDA DUCKETT: No, that`s wrong.
GRACE: OK.
MELINDA DUCKETT: I put him to bed around 6:30. I`m not sure how technical they`re getting, but my friends arrived at 7:00. I checked on him before that.
GRACE: Right. OK. So 6:30, you put him to bed. You went back in to check on him at what time?
MELINDA DUCKETT: It was before 10 to 7:00 because that`s when I got the phone call that they said they were on their way.
GRACE: OK. And when did you realize he was missing?
MELINDA DUCKETT: It was after the first movie that we had watched. We`d actually planned on two. We went back and we asked them what time we had called the officers, and they said, I believe, it was 9:14. So it was between that time period I`d say...
GRACE: So only...
(CROSSTALK)
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... 10 or 15 minutes before.
GRACE: About two-and-a-quarter hours...
MELINDA DUCKETT: Right.
GRACE: ... is all that had passed since you had checked on him. Now, it`s my understanding thought he was hiding, and you started looking for him.
MELINDA DUCKETT: Yes. He had just learned how to open up the closet door that morning. And I thought that it was, you know, really a moment, like a Kodak moment, there. So that was the first place that I looked. The window, the rest of the room -- there`s nothing there for him to hide or anything, so I didn`t even think about it. And he`s not one to go under the bed or anything like that.
GRACE: Now, when did you notice the screen on the window slashed?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well, when -- after I checked out his room, I checked the bathroom and my room, which are right down the hallway, which he could have gotten to without me seeing him.
GRACE: Right.
MELINDA DUCKETT: Like I say, he doesn`t ever do that kind of thing, so it would have been extremely unusual, but you know, when you`re in panic, you, you know, want to check every possible thing there is. When I came back up the hallway, I looked in his room again, and there was actually a picture that had been on the windowsill and that had fallen. And that`s why I looked to the window because there`s curtains and everything else there. So it`s not like, you know, it`s just open to the world.
GRACE: Melinda, the window -- you said when you put him to bed, the window was up about three inches. What position was the window in when you saw it again?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Gosh...
(CROSSTALK)
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... the window was open, and the screen -- I know they have taken measurements. It was cut up, up to 10 inches on one of the sides. and that screen -- it is not a hard-wire screen, where you`re going to get cut by it if you touch it. It is very soft. It`s very old because it`s been in that apartment complex. And so for them to say, Well, you know, we think that, you know, he`s fine and all this other kind of stuff, you`re not going to get hurt on that thing.
GRACE: OK, question. Did the person -- I mean, did they take the screen off in order to get the boy out?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No. No, and I don`t know why all these things are coming up. It was in the window. All it was was cut along the sides and the bottom. There was nothing that was missing.
GRACE: OK. Was the cut -- you said 10 inches?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Yes. When they came in, the investigators, they measured everything, and they said it was 10 inches high.
GRACE: OK. I`m just -- so you think the person went in and out leaving the screen on the window?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well, I don`t think it came off at all...
GRACE: OK. Got it.
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... because it was still there. They dusted everything for fingerprints. Unless someone was wearing gloves or whatnot, they wouldn`t have been able to do that. And we`ve gone over this a million and one times and thought of all the possibilities with it.
GRACE: So you think the screen stayed on the window and the person came in and out, out that window. Was there any other entrance to the bedroom, other than that window and the door?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No. There aren`t.
GRACE: OK. With us, the parents of Trenton Duckett. He is a 2-year- old little boy out of Florida. We are analyzing the clues left behind. Can you help us find this boy?
We`ll all be right back, but very quickly, to tonight`s "Case Alert." Harvard University classical music student vanishes, Quincy, Massachusetts. Twenty-three-year-old Jane Park was prepared to start grad school this fall. She`s 5-3, 110 pounds, short black hair. Take a look. If you have info, call Somerville police, 617-625-1600.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leesburg police hold up a poster containing photos of missing 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. They also display images of Trenton`s estranged parents, mother Melinda and father Josh.
JOSH DUCKETT: It would have to be somebody that`s cold-hearted, I mean, to take somebody`s little kid away from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Won`t you help us find this little boy, a 2-year-old toddler just learning how to open up the closet in his bedroom, gone from the crib in his home.
Let`s go out to our reporters before we bring in the legal team. To Marilyn Aciego, the reporter with "The Daily Commercial" and Angeline Hartmann with "America`s Most Wanted. To Marilyn. What was the little boy wearing? What would we expect to see him in?
ACIEGO: Police were first reporting that he was possibly wearing a blue-and-green striped shirt, but later press releases, they said he was wearing no shirt. And the only thing we really know is that he was wearing no shirt -- no shirt -- or I`m sorry, no shoes, no socks and denim shorts. We know that for sure.
GRACE: OK. So that`s what the boy was sleeping in. There`s a shot of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. To Angeline Hartmann. Angeline, tell me about the timeline. It`s my understanding that for some reason, police are trying to reconstruct the 48 hours preceding the disappearance.
HARTMANN Here`s what investigators are telling us, Nancy. They are not ruling out anything at this point. They want to talk to, they want to find whoever saw or came in contact with Trenton Duckett 24 to 36 hours before his disappearance. So we`re talking about the last weekend in August. They want to put together a timeline. They`re constructing that right now to figure out -- we understand that Trenton went with his mother to the convenience store maybe the Saturday before he disappeared...
GRACE: Do they have video of that in the convenience store?
HARTMANN They`re still checking on that right now and...
GRACE: Are there witnesses that place them there?
HARTMANN That`s what investigators are trying to figure out. If somebody saw these two, the mother and son, then maybe they noticed something -- somebody else watching the two or -- who knows. They`re just trying to figure out everything that went on before the disappearance, and they`re hoping that`s going to provide some clues.
GRACE: Tell me, who, other than the mom, was last one to see Trenton Duckett before he went missing and when, Angeline?
HARTMANN We understand that the child spent some time with the grandmother on Saturday and spent some time with the mother, and then all day Sunday was with the mother, and then again there were the two friends there on Sunday. But the two friends have reportedly said they did not see the child Sunday night when they went there to watch the movie.
GRACE: Out to Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett. Have you taken a polygraph?
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: You pass it?
JOSH DUCKETT: They didn`t say whether you pass or fail, but the response was favorable, they said.
GRACE: What questions did they ask you on the polygraph?
JOSH DUCKETT: Just if I knew where he was, if I had anything to do with it, just everyday questions that they would ask in case like this.
GRACE: Did they strap you into the machine?
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: Who was there?
JOSH DUCKETT: FBI agents.
GRACE: Did you have a lawyer with you?
JOSH DUCKETT: No.
GRACE: Did you feel like you needed a lawyer?
JOSH DUCKETT: No, not at all.
GRACE: Do you currently have lawyer?
JOSH DUCKETT: No.
GRACE: Out to Melinda Duckett. This is Trenton`s mom. Melinda, have you taken a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I`ve spoken to the investigators, and Joshua is on the outside loop of it, and as far as the investigative techniques are concerned with polygraph, stress test, physical searches, interviews, et cetera, my family and I have fully cooperated with local law enforcement and...
GRACE: Have you taken a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... the federal and everything...
(CROSSTALK)
MELINDA DUCKETT: And locally, they don`t have enough necessary experience, and that`s why the FBI was called in to begin with. I`ve been instructed to only speak with them, with their unit, and anything that they release to the media or public is up to them. Now, as far as...
GRACE: Have you taken a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: ... or anything -- like I said, I mean, anything that I do or anything is in cooperation with them. I`m doing everything they want me to. But as far as details and everything, I mean, I`m leaving everything up to them.
GRACE: Right. Have you taken a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I`ve done everything they`ve asked me to.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH DUCKETT: I`ve given my whole story. I`ve cooperated. Everything that I have, that I`ve been doing, they checked it out, and so far, they`re satisfied with what they`ve found.
To me, it would have to be somebody that`s cold-hearted, I mean, to take somebody`s little kid away from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Can you help us find this little boy, Trenton Duckett, apparently taken from his own home in Florida, his mom watching a movie in the next room, between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 PM on a Sunday evening, the window screen found slashed about 10 inches.
To Melinda Duckett, Trenton`s mom. Could they tell if it was slashed from the outside? Have you asked them?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No, honestly, that never came to mind. I mean, there wouldn`t have been anyone in my house.
GRACE: Are they taking prints on it?
MELINDA DUCKETT: They`ve already -- right, they did two. One the police department did and then I believe one the FBI did.
GRACE: Melinda, my producers tell me police say they offered you a polygraph and you haven`t taken it yet.
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well, I`m not sure what the police are doing. I`m not working with the police. But everything with the FBI is being handled.
GRACE: Have the FBI offered you a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I beg your pardon?
GRACE: Have the FBI offered you a polygraph?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Everything that they have done (INAUDIBLE) and asked and everything, we`ve cooperated with. Just like with my husband, obviously, you know, there`s nothing coming up with anything.
GRACE: To Josh Duckett. That`s Trenton`s father. You say the FBI poly-ed you?
JOSH DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: Did they offer it to you or tell you you had to do it?
JOSH DUCKETT: They offered it to me. They asked if I`d do it voluntarily, that they couldn`t make me do it, and I voluntarily done it.
GRACE: Let`s go out to Mark Lunsford and Marc Klaas, two tireless victims` rights advocates, both of them having lost their little girls, both of them having their child taken from the home, very similar to this case.
Friends, thank you for being with us. I know -- to Mark Lunsford -- you have actually been helping in the search for Trenton Duckett. What have you been doing, Mark Lunsford?
MARK LUNSFORD, FATHER OF ABDUCTED AND MURDERED GIRL: Yes, Nancy. I`m mainly here just to show support to the families. I understand what it`s like to walk into a bedroom and not find your child, and I understand what it`s like to have to go out and put up flyers as a father. That`s what I`ve been doing with Josh. But you know, I`m here for them, if they need someone to talk to that understands how it feels and what they`re going through.
GRACE: Where have you been searching?
LUNSFORD: What we`ve been doing is putting out flyers yesterday. Yesterday was my first day here. I was called by a friend of mine and asked to come to show support.
GRACE: Right.
LUNSFORD: So I came out and helped hand out flyers yesterday. Today, you know, of course, we`re here in the studios, doing your show, or this evening. Sorry. And -- but -- and then tomorrow, I have to leave for Indiana for the initiative on Jessie`s Law.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president of Beyondmissing. What should be being done right now? And I remember you, when Polly went missing, you begged for a polygraph.
MARC KLAAS, BEYONDMISSING.COM: Well, yes. I mean, you just do what you have to do. I see so many similarities between all of our situations, the child taken in the middle of the night, or the child taken at night in a house full of people, and so that`s entirely possible.
I think what we might be looking at here are two perpetrators. I`m finding it very difficult to see how somebody could grab a little sleeping baby and then get out of a window.
I`ll tell what you I think the public can do right now. They can log onto our Web site, Beyondmissing, download the PDF poster of this child and then create their own distribution list, like a chain letter, and get this all around the country really quickly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two-year-old Trenton Duckett is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s only two years old, he`s precious. He`s really fun, loveable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Trenton`s mom put him to bed at 7:00 on Sunday night. When she went in to check on him two hours later, he was gone. Detectives believe Trenton may have been taken from his bedroom window.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, CNN ANCHOR: Can you help us find this little boy, Trenton Duckett, taken from his own home as he was sleeping. His mom in the next room watching a video movie. This occurred between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday night. There is a $5,000 reward, tip line 1-800-call-fbi. Back out to our victims` advocates, Mark Lunsford and Marc Klaas. Marc, before we went to break, you were describing what you think needed to be done. Marc Klaas, also, what clues jump out at you?
KLAAS: The thing that really strikes me is the fact that this window screen had only been cut 10 inches and it hadn`t been removed. And I`m struggling with how somebody gets into a room, takes a little baby and somehow struggles out the window with that child all I guess at dusk when there may or may not be other people around. It seems kind of inconceivable although obviously not impossible.
GRACE: To Melinda Duckett, Trenton`s mom, was it already dark at 7:00 p.m. there?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Honest to goodness I don`t remember. But I do know that when the investigators came in to do the visuals and everything, when they leaned in through the window they could hit the bed. God forbid if Trenton was up or something like that and he was standing up or what not. Nobody would need to crawl in the window. I don`t know if that would be a possibility or not, they`ve already gone over that. But the people, I mean they`d stretch in there and they`d be perfectly fine getting in and out.
GRACE: I want to go out to Vito Colucci, private investigator with Colucci Investigations. Vito, when does the FBI get brought in on a case like that?
COLUCCI: Well in this case they got brought in right away and I`m glad because when you have, sometimes if you have a smaller police department like you know Nancy, they throw up their hands, they say we`re in over our head, come in and help us. You know, so that`s what`s going on. I`m very glad of that. And even the police department -- don`t forget, there`s 50 sex offenders within five miles of this house. They`re interviewing them, re-interviewing them. They`re not locked in on any tunnel vision. These cops are doing a good job. They didn`t graduate from the Boulder Colorado Police Academy. These people are good, they`re doing a good job. But I`m telling you Nancy, one and one is not adding up to two on this case.
GRACE: What do you mean by that?
COLUCCI: Well what I mean is, I`ll give you one possibility that I know the police are looking at. There`s a possibility the child wasn`t in that bed to start with. The two adults that were in that house that night did not see the child at all. So if I`m the lead investigator I`m going to interview everybody, like I said, not pointing the finger at anybody. Father, mother, relatives, I want to know if there is any drug use, I want to know everything that`s going on, on both sides. This is a bitter nasty divorce but these people need to get on the same page. Father says the child is a light sleeper that would cry and scream. The mother says a heavy sleeper, would go with anybody. You have to answer a lot of questions for me if I`m the investigator on this.
GRACE: To Melinda Duckett, Trenton`s mom, who were the two guys that came over that evening?
MELINDA DUCKETT: All they were, were friends. In fact one was going off in the military for years afterwards, the next day.
GRACE: Have they been questioned?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Yes, they have.
GRACE: Did they take polygraphs?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I don`t know.
GRACE: Have you spoken to them since they were questioned?
MELINDA DUCKETT: One of my friends I have, the other one completely disappeared.
GRACE: Where did he go?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I have no clue.
GRACE: Is that the one that went overseas?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No.
GRACE: What about that to Josh Duckett, Trenton`s dad. Did you know one of these friends had disappeared?
JOSH DUCKETT: No, not to my knowledge.
GRACE: Let`s go out to the lawyers, David Schwartz, Nicole Deborde, both of them veteran defense attorneys. Joining us out of the New York and the Houston jurisdictions. To David Schwartz, how do you approach a case like this? And are you surprised that everybody hasn`t lawyered up?
DAVID SCHWARTZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yeah I`m very surprised. Especially I`m very surprised that Melinda hasn`t lawyered up. I mean her answers to your questions are elusive at times and one in particular is that she`s not working with local police. You know you`re in this situation, it`s a horrible tragic situation, now you`re going to pick and choose what law enforcement agencies you`re going to work with and what you`re not going to work with? This is a desperate situation for desperate measures. You`re going to be working with everybody. That answer makes absolutely no sense to me, Nancy.
GRACE: Explain, Melinda. I`m sure you have an answer. Melinda Duckett, Trenton`s mom.
MELINDA DUCKETT: All four of those agencies, Leesburg Police, Lake County Sheriff, the FBI from Quantico and the FBI from Ocala, none of them are on the same page. The FBI out of Ocala specifically told me to only speak to them and to deal with them so that all of them could be on the same page with everything. And it was ridiculous because people were getting their facts wrong, they were misinterpreting things and they weren`t getting the information across correctly. That was their fault.
GRACE: Did you also get that same lecture, Josh Duckett, to only deal with one entity?
JOSH DUCKETT: No, not at all.
GRACE: Have you been working with local police, as well?
JOSH DUCKETT: I`ve been working with local police, FDLE and the FBI.
GRACE: So Melinda, do you feel that you are being given different instructions than your husband?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well obviously that is the case, but I mean, I`m all hands in the pot with this whole deal. I`m not sitting down either crying my eyes out in my house not doing anything or gluing myself to the police department door. I`m actually physically doing things.
GRACE: Tell me what you`re doing?
MELINDA DUCKETT: In addition to all the flyers and everything, we`ve done -- we`ve dealt with the media many, many, many times, with the FBI on this case, with obviously the chain letters that are going through across the internet and everything trying to spread it out as far as we possible can. Not only that, but with our local churches, there`s prayer groups and everything like that. Also, one other thing, as far as the lawyers go, we have been ongoing for two years with this. Joshua does have a lawyer and I also have one.
GRACE: For your divorce?
MELINDA DUCKETT: No, for the entire thing. For the custody and everything and for the injunction.
GRACE: Ok. Josh, it`s my understanding you guys have had a very, very bitter split but I`m talking about lawyers as they relate to the disappearance of your son. You don`t have a lawyer for that, right, Josh?
JOSH DUCKETT: No. I don`t have a lawyer for anything to do with the disappearance of my son.
GRACE: Let`s go out to Nicole Deborde. Nicole you and David and myself have all seen more kidnapping and assaults on children cases than any of us want to remember. What`s your take on the facts?
NICOLE DEBORDE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know this is a very confusing case. For the same reason that the guests on your show have already pointed out. I think a show like yours Nancy does a huge service in finding a child in a circumstance like this because you put the spotlight on the case. That`s exactly what this circumstance needs. His picture needs to get out there. The facts need to be turned over and over and people need to think back to that day. What do they remember? What did they see? Did they see a strange car outside? Did they see a parent taking the child away? Did they see the child go willingly with someone or did they see the child in another location? And your show provides a huge service by focusing on those things. It`s going to be really hard for facts that don`t line up like -- kind of like we`re hearing in this case to not be spotlighted. And when we can focus in on those things they just might give us a clue to where this little boy is.
GRACE: To Angeline Hartmann, "America`s Most Wanted" reporter. Have they taken a look at all of these sex offenders in the area? What do we know about that?
HARTMANN: Investigators say there`s a long list, Nancy. We`ve heard the number dozens, we`ve heard more than 50 and so they are taking a look at that. So far nothing has come up but they are still investigating that portion of this.
GRACE: Out to Lillian Glass, psychologist. Dr. Glass, you have taken a hard look at the facts in this case. What`s your opinion?
LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, one of the things that the father said that was very powerful. He said it cook a cold hearted person to do this, to take this boy from his home. And in child development the first five years are so important and this child will suffer the rest of his life for this.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELINDA DUCKETT: He`s very loving, he was sweet. I couldn`t see anybody wanting to harm him. You know he`s precious, just like the picture (INAUDIBLE).
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. Tonight won`t you help us find a 2- year-old missing boy out of Florida. Trenton Duckett, reportedly taken from his own home as he lay in his crib. His mom in the next room watching a movie. With us on the phone, his mom, Melinda Duckett. Melinda, tell us about the baby. Tell us about him. You say he`s friendly and he would have gone with someone?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Extremely. He`s great with any kind of people, old, young, even little kids. He`s very playful and very, very intelligent. He learns on the drop of a dime.
GRACE: You stated you`ve been putting up fliers, where?
MELINDA DUCKETT: We`ve been putting up flyers in restaurants and stores. We recently went down to discount and they`re doing a television ad throughout the nation on their commercials like that. Where I used to work we have trucks that go out and they`re putting flyers on the back of the trucks laminating them, different things like that. And even at church we`re putting fliers in the bulletins.
GRACE: Melinda, where had you been with him that day?
MELINDA DUCKETT: All we had basically been out is driving around. There is something about a convenience store. I don`t know where that came into play because whenever I go out somewhere, you know, I always have gas. I`m not shorthanded with anything. And I`m always prepared for it all.
GRACE: So where had you been that day?
MELINDA DUCKETT: We had been all through Lake county and up into Orange.
GRACE: Doing what?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Basically just shopping, going around driving.
GRACE: Shopping where?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Well we didn`t go anywhere specific.
GRACE: Well I mean if you went shopping you had to go into a store. What store did you go into on Sunday?
MELINDA DUCKETT: We went throughout the county.
GRACE: Any store? I`m thinking of video cameras Melinda. I mean maybe they have a picture of someone watching you, following you back out to your car. I mean what store did you go to, Wal-Mart, JCPenney`s, what?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I`m not going to get in any specifics.
GRACE: Why?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not dealing with media very well.
GRACE: Well can you remember where you were that day?
MELINDA DUCKETT: I can remember perfectly well where I went that day. Just like I have spoken to the FBI with it. But as far as anything else goes we haven`t had very good dealings with any of them.
GRACE: Well don`t you think it would be a great idea, for instance if you were at a local JCPenney`s or Sears Roebuck to tell the viewers right now this is where we were. Did you see anything? Did you notice anything? Here`s your child`s picture? Here`s my picture. Help me. Where were you? Why aren`t you telling us where you were that day, you were the last person to be seen with him?
MELINDA DUCKETT: And we have already gone out and distributed the fliers and spoken to --
GRACE: Right, why aren`t you telling us and giving us a clear picture of where you were before your son was kidnapped?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not going to put those kind of details out?
GRACE: Why?
MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I was told not to.
GRACE: Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day 12.
MELINDA DUCKETT: (INAUDIBLE) with all media. It`s not just there, just all media. Period.
GRACE: Let`s go to Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist. Weak spots?
GLASS: This doesn`t make any sense to me. And the fact that she`s skirting around the issue and can`t get to the point concerns me a lot. Her reaction is not the typical reaction of a mother who has a missing child, whose child was taken from the bed when she says I don`t cry my eyes out. Most people would be emotional about it and the fact that she`s been skirting the issue through this entire interview concerns me.
GRACE: Rosie, do we still have Ms. Duckett with us? Joining us shortly will be her mother, Nancy Eubank, who says that she saw little Trenton the day before. Ellie wasn`t it on Saturday that she saw him? Rosie let me know when we get hooked up with her mom. I want to go back out right now to Marc Klaas? Marc, thoughts?
KLAAS: Well yeah, you know Nancy, there is some really petty stuff going on here right now and I think --
GRACE: I don`t think it`s petty. I`m sure I understand what you`re referring to, but not giving details about the disappearance of your child that could help find him if I may add, if he is still alive, I have a big problem with that.
KLAAS: Nancy, in these kinds of cases the media is never the problem. The media is always a friend, it`s about sharing information. It`s about transparency, it`s about working with the authorities. It`s about working with the media and it`s about getting over that hump that people are looking at you. And quite frankly, Melinda is not doing that very well at all.
GRACE: Marc, let`s just get real. And I don`t want to bring up any painful memories for you or Mark Lunsford. Ok, you know that, I would never do that to you. But the reality is, this is day 12. The reality is this child statistically is very well dead. And for that mother not to cooperate and not to give a timeline doesn`t make sense to me.
KLAAS: It`s devastating to the entire case. I think the only bright light might be that if the mother is implicated in some way in the child`s disappearance it`s very likely that he is alive. Let`s hope so. But let`s not forget Susan Smith.
GRACE: And I`d like to point out that according to police, there is no person of interest. There is no formal suspect tonight. We understand that. Police have told our producers that they know where both of the friends are that were with Melinda Duckett the night her child, her 2-year- old boy, went missing. Police have confirmed in contrast to what Melinda has just told us that they know where both of the friends are. Let`s get some illumination. Let`s go out to Nancy Eubank, this is the grandmother. Ms. Eubank, thank you for being with us. Why won`t your daughter give us details about what happened that day?
NANCY EUBANK, GREAT-GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING TRENTON: She`s my granddaughter, Melinda is my granddaughter, Trenton is my great grandson. And I can tell you why she probably isn`t and I don`t have her thinking but the media, local media has not been very nice to her. And maybe I understand why because he did go missing from her apartment but Melinda is grieving deeply and then when all of this comes in your lap, she`s 21 years old, it`s just about more than she can handle right now. And I can tell you where Trenton was on Saturday from about 9:30 a.m. until probably 4:00 both Trenton and his mother was right here in this house.
GRACE: So until 4:00 Saturday we know that Trenton was alive and well, right?
EUBANK: They were in this house and she was doing laundry. He was playing with us. They took a long nice nap in the afternoon, had lunch, etc. In this house. Melinda has not hurt this baby. I heard immediately from a couple of detectives someone told me that they think she hid him to hide him because of this injunction against the father. We were the only people that babysat for Melinda. She would not leave him with anyone else because she never trusted anybody else and I don`t have him. I love him dearly and I would love to bring him home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and more important, the people who touched all of our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The family attorney of six year old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey`s confessed killer John Mark Karr who claims Karr poses no danger to children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first 37 years of his life he never harmed a child, never threatened a child and has never being accused of hurting a child.
GRACE: Other than the 13-year-old and 16-year-old he married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn`t hurt her. It`s not unusual for -- in the rural south for girls to get married at 14 years old.
GRACE: I beg your pardon, I`m from the rural south and I have never seen anybody get married at age 14.
O.J. Simpson back in court, at stake the NFL hall of famer turned murder suspect`s multimillion dollar empire. The legal battle over full ownership of Simpson`s celebrity publicity rights.
UNDIENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) around his neck and it`s taking away his ego. His celebrity. That`s what set him free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this renders him some pain that`s great.
GRACE: A mother`s worst nightmare. She tucks her 2-year-old into his crib, settled onto the sofa in the very next room for a video, now the bedroom screen is found slashed we think from the outside and the baby is gone.
JOSH DUCKETT: It would have to be somebody that`s cold hearted, I mean, to take somebody`s little kid away from them.
GRACE: Breaking developments in a case that sent shockwaves through the U.S. real estate business, the stabbing death of a Texas beauty, a realtor found dead inside a model home she was showing to sell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through forensic evidence, through witness statements, through dogged detective determination, we were able to put together a complete picture that led us into only one direction in this case. Unequivocally we believe that we have the killer in jail.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight we stop to remember Marine Staff Sergeant Benjamin Williams, just 30, Orange, Texas, third tour of duty. He loved the military signing up straight from high school receiving multiple service medals. He leaves behind a large and loving family. He phoned and emailed all of the time from Iraq. Benjamin Williams, American hero. Thank you to all of our guests especially to Josh Duckett, Trenton`s father. Thank you to you for being with us, inviting us into your home. Nancy Grace signing off again for tonight. See you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp eastern. And until then, goodnight friend.
END
