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Nancy Grace

New Details Emerge in Case of Trenton Duckett`s Abduction

Aired September 29, 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 parent`s worst nightmare, a 2-year-old tucked into his crib, mom in the next room with a video. Then she claims the window screen is slashed, the baby gone. Almost immediately, police name her the prime suspect. Tonight, police release a new timeline of events before and after 2-year-old Trenton Duckett goes missing. The report reveals Melinda Duckett threatened baby Trenton and was accused of neglect. Why didn`t family and children`s services save baby Trenton?
And tonight, live to the Bahamas, breaking news on the mysterious death of cover girl Anna Nicole Smith`s 20-year-old son, Daniel, just hours after she gives birth to a baby girl. Will pathology reveal a deadly combination of methadone -- that`s hard to get -- and two anti-depressants? Did they kill the son of Anna Nicole Smith?

But first, the search by land and water for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have not found Trenton. Our focus is still to find Trenton. We continue to follow leads that we`ve been getting.

JOSH DUCKETT, TRENTON`S FATHER: And my focus is still on my son 110 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. tonight. The search for Trenton Duckett goes on. And we will remain unrelenting in helping in that search. Then to the Bahamas and the death of the son of Anna Nicole Smith, cover girl.

But now to Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent. Jean, the DFCS, department of family and children`s services, reveals multiple times taking the child away from the mom -- three times. Why was that child still with the mom until he totally vanishes?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, for one thing, the child was given custody -- the father was given custody of the child, Josh was. But then Josh and Melinda got married, so that, in a sense, reunited the child with Melinda. And one thing led to another, and finally, Melinda got that custody again. And months later, Trenton went missing.

GRACE: Well, Jean, what were the allegations regarding her on the three times custody was taken away? One time he stayed almost a week in foster care.

CASAREZ: Yes, a lot of threats of harm to Trenton Duckett, a lot of threats. One time she said that she was just going to end it all, and that`s when she was Baker (ph) Acted, which means she was involuntarily confined in a psychological facility. Another time, she allegedly took a knife to the leg of Trenton, and that is when Trenton was taken away, put in foster care for four days. But ultimately, she was the one that got the custody of child just because through all the loops and all the red tape, she was able to regain that custody, especially when they separated.

GRACE: Tonight, the reward has climbed to $10,000 for information on baby Trenton. The 1-800 number, 1-800-423-TIPS.

Joining us here in the studio tonight, the father of Trenton Duckett. Thank you, Josh for being with us. Josh, here we`ve got a simulation of the apartment from which baby Trenton was taken. What can you tell us? What can we learn from this?

J. DUCKETT: Basically, Trenton`s room was on the front of the apartment, and the window...

GRACE: So the street was up there.

J. DUCKETT: There was -- this was a parking lot out in front...

GRACE: OK.

J. DUCKETT: ... with the dumpster that all the stuff was thrown into.

GRACE: Right.

J. DUCKETT: There was a sidewalk that led from the front door around and down by the dumpster, and a street lamp right out from the sidewalk that lit up the whole front of the apartment.

GRACE: Now, I see -- when I interviewed Melinda Duckett, she told me the bed was directly under Trenton`s window. That`s not the way it looks.

J. DUCKETT: No. I was told the same thing through the interview.

GRACE: But when you saw the pictures inside, what did you learn?

J. DUCKETT: I saw the pictures, and it shows the bed in the corner, maybe about a foot away from the window.

GRACE: Well, that changes everything because, according to her, the intruder theory -- through this 10-inch slash in the screen, someone reached in and got the baby, and the bed was directly under the window. Could someone have reached through that window and over to the bed?

J. DUCKETT: No. In my eyes, not even if the bed was directly underneath the window because the window is about four-and-a-half feet off the ground. So I mean, it would take somebody eight foot tall to reach in and reach down to a low bed to pick the child up.

GRACE: I`m convinced -- as I recall -- and Elizabeth, let`s see if we can pull that up -- I`m sure that Melinda Duckett told me the bed was directly under the window. That is not the case?

J. DUCKETT: No.

GRACE: What about the view from the living room of Trenton`s room?

J. DUCKETT: Pretty much. I mean, Trenton`s room is, like, a direct view from -- all of the seating in the apartment was on the side away from his room, and the TV was on this wall that separates Melinda`s room from the living room. And from anywhere in this area, you can see directly to Trenton`s bedroom.

GRACE: Now, I see the dining room has a -- a dotted line. Does that -- is there a wall there?

J. DUCKETT: No, there`s no wall here. This is actually a tiled area. It`s got tile in it, so there`s a...

GRACE: OK. So there`s no wall, it`s all together.

J. DUCKETT: ... there`s a bar that separates. It`s all one (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: So nothing obstructs from the living room to Trenton`s room.

J. DUCKETT: No, not at all.

GRACE: OK, where is the TV in the living room?

J. DUCKETT: The TV is on this wall right here.

GRACE: And where is the sofa?

J. DUCKETT: The couch was on this wall.

GRACE: I want to go out to Mike Brooks, joining us, former D.C. police and FBI task force. That`s a big discrepancy. I know it`s small. It sounds small, but it`s not. The fact that I am learning now the bed -- Trenton`s bed was not directly under that window, that changes everything!

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: That sheds a lot of light on the lies, Nancy, I`m telling you. Unless that guy had arms like Gumby. And keep in mind, a 10-inch slash is not that big at all. To go through, reach around, go all the way over to that other wall, pick the baby up, turn him around and slide him back out of that 10- inch slash? Come on! Impossible. Impossible.

GRACE: Take a listen to what Melinda Duckett told us about the positioning of the baby`s bed. This is very critical to the intruder theory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Melinda, thank you for being with us. Melinda, where was the bed in relation to the window?

MELINDA DUCKETT, TRENTON`S MOTHER: The bed is underneath the window. Gosh...

GRACE: What?

M. DUCKETT: No, I`m sorry. I was just listening to everything.

GRACE: Question. I want to talk to you about that screen. When you first went in the room, was the window still open?

M. 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.

M. 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?

M. DUCKETT: He`s in a toddler bed right now, he`s not in a crib.

GRACE: What is that? What`s a toddler bed?

M. DUCKETT: I beg your pardon?

GRACE: What`s a toddler bed.

M. DUCKETT: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Back to you, Josh. What else can you tell me about the apartment?

J. DUCKETT: I mean, there`s really only one way to get in, and that would be on that side of the apartment because that`s where all of the entrance to the whole apartment complex is. There`s an eight-foot chain- link fence on this side and a gas station that`s over here. And there`s houses that line along here, with, like, an empty path.

GRACE: What can you tell me about the lighting outside that window?

J. DUCKETT: The lighting -- I mean, the lamp comes on a little bit before dark. So I mean, and the lamp is your typical street lamp. I mean, it lights up the majority of that area, and it`s almost directly out from Trenton`s bedroom window.

GRACE: So outside the window, light or dark?

J. DUCKETT: Light.

GRACE: What about Melinda`s room? Is there any way that Trenton could have left his room and gone to another room and come out another window somehow?

J. DUCKETT: Not at all, I mean, because they would have seen him come out of that door. The door was supposedly closed, from what I understand. And they would have seen that door open from anywhere in the living room. And Melinda`s room`s on the total opposite end of the house. So I mean, even then, he couldn`t have gotten out of the window.

GRACE: Do you know who the two guys were that were there watching the video?

J. DUCKETT: I know one from school, or from friends at school. And then the other one, I don`t -- I`ve never met.

GRACE: Have you talked to either one of them?

J. DUCKETT: No.

GRACE: What have you learned about what they said? What was her demeanor that night while they were there?

J. DUCKETT: They said that, from what I`ve heard, she was acting perfectly normal. I mean, they`ve cooperated and they`ve both said that they never seen Trenton that night, which in my eyes is kind of odd.

GRACE: Did anybody go back to peek in on the baby? Did she check on the baby while they were watching the video?

J. DUCKETT: Not to my knowledge. She said that she had checked on him before they got there...

GRACE: Right.

J. DUCKETT: ... before they arrived.

GRACE: Another question is, which one did she ask to take the trash out, including the baby photos, the sonogram, toys and all that?

J. DUCKETT: To my knowledge, I`m not sure who done that.

GRACE: OK.

J. DUCKETT: They didn`t say.

GRACE: Let`s go out to Court TV`s Jean Casarez. What can you tell us about the two people there watching the video with her? And how did one of them end up taking out her trash after the baby is reported missing?

CASAREZ: Right. Well, we know that they were two friends or acquaintances of hers, one she had asked to watch the movie, "Lock Stock Over Two Barrels (ph)" was the movie, by the way, that night. Another one we believe she asked him to come maybe a little bit before that, or he was a replacement, that somebody else was asked and they couldn`t attend. So they were acquaintances, not close. Obviously, by the 911 call, they didn`t know Trenton.

As far as the trash, investigators saw when they were there that one of these two was starting to take out this trash to the dumpster. And in that trash is where they found the baby food, the baby candies (ph) and cookies.

GRACE: Joining us tonight a very special guest, Lisa Pinto, former prosecutor, current journalist. Lisa, when you hear all these conflicting statements specifically about the bed being in a different place, how does that strike you? I mean, even the smallest details matter in a case like this.

LISA PINTO, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Nancy, this whole thing is so tragic. And thanks for having me back on the show. My kids are back in school. I can go on the air now. The whole thing is so sad. This was a depressed girl who -- to me, it`s clear she killed the child. I don`t know what the issue about her lying is. God, may she rest in peace. She was disturbed. She was a cutter. She had hurt the child in the past. She was much too young to have a baby and she clearly was overwhelmed. And that`s where the little boy is, somewhere in the ground, so...

GRACE: Out to the lawyers, Renee Rockwell and Penny Douglas Furr, also joining us in addition to Lisa Pinto. You know, even the smallest detail can make a difference in a case. To you, Renee Rockwell. The fact that this window she first told me was directly under the bed, making the intruder theory possible,, that someone could get in through the 10-inch slit, reach down and get the baby and pull it out -- but now that the dad is here on the set and has drawn this and shown us the bed was not near the window, there`s no way that could happen without someone going in through the window, their body, their full body, and getting the baby out, this is casting a doubt on the whole thing.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And Nancy -- well, first of all let me disagree with Ms. Pinto because I don`t think the baby`s dead. I think she gave the baby to somebody because she didn`t want Josh to have the baby. But whether the baby is here or there, Nancy, 10 inches is smaller than this piece of paper. Nobody went in through that window. Didn`t Josh say that the baby was a very light sleeper, and she said the baby was a heavy sleeper? Nobody went in through that window. I don`t buy the intruder theory at all.

GRACE: You know, something was mentioned by Lisa Pinto, Josh, regarding Melinda -- God rest her soul -- self-mutilating. What do you know about that? And if that`s true, why would the baby be kept in her custody? Why was DFCS continuing to give the child back.

J. DUCKETT: I knew for a fact that she was a cutter and -- as her family did. I mean, they had told me...

GRACE: What do you mean by cutter?

J. DUCKETT: Self-mutilating with razor blades, any sharp object she could use to cut herself with, but she done that in places where not everyone could see.

GRACE: Like?

J. DUCKETT: Her hips, like, underneath her shorts or underneath her shirt, where no one else could see. Her grandparents for a fact told me about the hundreds of razor blades that they had taken out of her room. So I mean, they knew. Her parents in New York knew.

GRACE: How did you put your head to the pillow at night knowing Trenton was there?

J. DUCKETT: It was difficult. I mean, I didn`t really sleep that much at night. I mean, I tended to Trenton when he woke up throughout the night and...

GRACE: Actually -- oh, I`m sorry. Go ahead.

J. DUCKETT: And I mean, I mostly slept during the day.

GRACE: Out to Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst. What is -- what does that mean? What does that signify, the self-mutilation?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, people, and especially women, cut for many reasons, but I understand she was diagnosed with obsessive- compulsive disorder, which suggests to me that there was a compulsive element to the cutting. Also, I think she had borderline personality disorder, where there`s tremendous rage in the face of real or perceived abandonment.

So I think that every time she felt that someone was not there for her in a very perfect kind of way, she felt enraged towards the other person, and then she turned the rage back against the self in the form of cutting. And that`s what really made her dangerous as a mother because that rage also went back towards her son.

I also think that what happened is because she used her son as a pawn in the marriage to control closeness and distance, that`s what led to her suicide and...

GRACE: Back to Penny Douglas Furr, custody law specialist. You have reviewed the record. Did you see anything in the records regarding anger management or obsessive-compulsive?

PENNY DOUGLAS FURR, ATTORNEY: Nancy, there are red flags everywhere in this record. This child was consistently -- he was taken away three times. When that magistrate court judge came in and gave custody to the mother, the family child services investigator expressed concern that this child was with the mother, but the judge gave it to the mother anyway. And this mother was Baker Acted. When a law enforcement official found that she was a danger to herself or others, she was placed in a mental institution. There were red flags everywhere here, Nancy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still want the picture of Trenton in the news. We still want to narrow down the timeline of Melinda and Trenton in that 27 hours or so before his reported abduction. And it`s very important that we keep his picture out there, we keep her picture out there, because she`s not here to tell us and he`s not here to tell us, and we`ve got to know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. The search for Trenton Duckett goes on. Joining us now, Steph Watts there in Leesburg, Florida. Steph, what have you learned?

STEPH WATTS, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, I had a chance to retrace Melinda Duckett`s steps and Melinda Duckett`s life from her apartment, where she lived. We had a chance to shoot into the dumpster. We examined her car. We visited the day care center. And we even traveled on the highway that she drove her last drive as she went out to her grandparents` house to kill herself.

And you know, it`s sad, Nancy, because this woman had a great life. She had a beautiful home, a beautiful car, a beautiful baby, and it`s just so tragic.

GRACE: Taking a look at that car, Josh, what can you tell us about the car?

J. DUCKETT: It was brought to my attention that on the car, she had decals in front of the rear tires on the fender well, and just prior to her committing suicide, she -- she had taken all of the decals off.

GRACE: How many decals were on there?

J. DUCKETT: There was probably four or five decals.

GRACE: Of what?

J. DUCKETT: Fox racing decals on both sides.

GRACE: Fox racing? What`s that?

J. DUCKETT: It`s a clothing company, and like, motorcycle apparel and stuff.

GRACE: So there were five decals on the front of the car. She detailed this car all the time, right?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: I see the tinted windows.

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: Now, how is it that someone could identify her in this car with the tinted windows?

J. DUCKETT: It`s very difficult, but she rode around a lot of times with the windows down, so...

GRACE: Back out to Steph Watts, joining us there in Leesburg. Steph, what did you notice about the apartment? How far away was the dumpster? What can we learn?

WATTS: Well, Nancy, you`re going to be surprised by this, but I actually -- it reminded me a little bit of the Peterson house, in the sense that there was easy access to remove something from that house, as in the Scott Peterson case. And I noticed that you could drive very, very close to the front of the house, and it is an end unit, and Josh is right, it`s well lit at night. But to remove something or somebody from that house would be very easy to do.

GRACE: Back out to Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent. Regarding the dumpster being so close to the apartment, the fact that we`ve learned she threw away full box of trash bags, missing two -- my question is, how close is the nearest landfill? And what about that local incinerator?

CASAREZ: Well, we do know that there is a landfill where all the dumpsters go. Now, we have not heard, though, that there has been a search of that area. And I`m sure media locally there in Leesburg would know it if something was going on. But the fact is, that dumpster and the contents and other dumpsters` contents went somewhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

M. DUCKETT: Hello?

911 OPERATOR: Hi. What is Trenton wearing, honey?

M. DUCKETT: I don`t know. He was ready for bed.

911 OPERATOR: You don`t know what you dressed him in before he went to bed?

M. DUCKETT: He might have had his shoes off and his shirt off -- no shoes. I know who friggin` did it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The search by land and water for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett goes on, 18 law enforcement agencies joined together, along with the FBI, to find this little boy. Does that indicate they believe Trenton Duckett could still be alive? After the suicide of his own mom, she was named a chief suspect in his disappearance. The search continues.

Here in the studio with me, his dad, Josh Duckett. Josh, did you know that she had had -- she had been forced to go to anger management classes?

J. DUCKETT: Yes, I knew. It was in DCF case records that she needed to go. A case plan is what it`s called down there. It`s just assignments of tasks that you have to complete in order to...

GRACE: Did she complete it?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: And why was she told to go to anger management?

J. DUCKETT: Because of her outrages. I mean, she would fly off the handle over the littlest thing. I mean, anything in the world would just make her...

GRACE: I know, at one juncture, right before you two got married, you agreed to drop any charges against her, and you two got married and you had the baby. Why did you drop the charges?

J. DUCKETT: Basically, I was -- I was young, I was trying to make a family, or I was trying to keep my family from being separated. So I went back to her and really tried to work things out, went to her attorney and asked how we could resolve things with all the legal stuff that was going on, and her attorney said that the only way would be to sign this document recanting.

GRACE: So her attorney convinced you to drop the charges against her?

J. DUCKETT: Yes. And I signed the recantment statement, and shortly after I signed the recantment statement, they tried to put perjury charges on me for recanting statements.

GRACE: And what happened to that?

J. DUCKETT: Basically, they were -- basically, they couldn`t do anything with it because it was considered conflict of interest because it was Melinda`s attorney.

GRACE: I understand. Let me see your arm. Trenton, when did you get that?

J. DUCKETT: I`ve had it for about a year-and-a-half.

GRACE: The other night, when the FBI called you and told you that they had found -- they thought they had Trenton, what did you imagine? What went through your head?

J. DUCKETT: I mean, there was just a world of emotions. I mean, I was thrilled to death, and I mean, I rushed to try and get to the Atlanta airport. And just before I got there, I mean, they basically called me and told me that it wasn`t him. So I mean, it kind of knocks you down to a sense, but it also gives you that much more hope because it shows how many people are actually out there and are actually keeping their eye out and keeping their ears open for him.

GRACE: Josh, when you heard that they thought, the FBI thought they had the baby, did you envision what you were going to do the moment you saw him?

J. DUCKETT: To an extent, yes. I mean, my main thing was just to get there to get him. I mean, he`s my pride and joy. So I mean, obviously, I was -- just had a world of emotions goings through me. So I mean, yes, I mean, I was just trying to get over there as fast as I could with all the hope that I had that it was him, and then it kind of knocked it down, but it gave us another sense of hope in that aspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELINDA DUCKETT, LATE MOTHER OF TRENTON DUCKETT: Hello?

DISPATCHER: Hi, what is Trenton wearing, honey?

M. DUCKETT: I don`t know -- he was ready for bed.

DISPATCHER: You don`t know what you dressed him in before he went to bed?

M. DUCKETT: He might have had his shoes off and or his shirt off, no shoes -- I know who friggin` did it.

DISPATCHER: 911, do you need police, fire or ambulance?

BILL EUBANK: My granddaughter just killed herself. My wife and I just came in from -- e went to lunch and brought her some lunch back. And when I came in, she was in the closet. She shot herself.

DISPATCHER: And you`re at (INAUDIBLE)

EUBANKS: There`s no need to rush. She`s in the closet. We`re going to leave everything as is, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: After implicating her husband in the disappearance of her baby boy, Melinda Duckett committed suicide. Quickly thereafter, police naming her the prime suspect.

Here on the set with us tonight, Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett.

When you think back on when you first met Melinda, you told me the other night you still have feelings for her, you still love her. What made you stay with her, through all of these outbursts, and anger management, and self-mutilation, the problems with Trenton? Why?

J. DUCKETT: I guess just the hope of trying to make a family and not having to have a family split up. I mean, because she`s still the mother of my child, regardless of the bad blood and everything that`s happened. I mean...

GRACE: Did you guys plan to have Trenton?

J. DUCKETT: No, not at all. I mean...

GRACE: So he was a surprise?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: How long had you known each other before you got married?

J. DUCKETT: Almost a year or two years.

GRACE: Do you the first time you ever saw Melinda Duckett?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: What was it?

J. DUCKETT: I seen her out in public just walking around. And then I didn`t really -- I didn`t talk to her at all that night. And a couple of my friends ended up running into her the next day, and they introduced me to her, so it kind of went from there. I mean, we talked one night and then were together ever since then.

GRACE: Did she want to have the baby?

J. DUCKETT: I guess, to an extent, she did, but then to an extent she didn`t.

GRACE: Why?

J. DUCKETT: She told me later, after she had already had him and everything, that she had gotten pregnant on purpose because we were having trouble, and we were on again and off again. And she told me she got pregnant on purpose as a way -- she knew my beliefs, as far as not leaving her if she was pregnant. And so that was a way to kind of trap me.

GRACE: Well, regardless of how you guys got together and stayed together, when you first realized Trenton was gone, did police tell you that she pointed to you as the perpetrator?

J. DUCKETT: I got that right off the bat. I mean...

GRACE: Why?

J. DUCKETT: As soon as they came to my house and they said they had to search my house and search all of my stuff, I mean, that kind of told me right there. And then I found out later that she had pointed the finger at me. And, I mean, to an extent it didn`t surprise me at all.

GRACE: Why?

J. DUCKETT: Because of all the setup before, I mean, the e-mail. I knew I didn`t do it. I knew she was tied into it.

GRACE: You mean, the e-mail where she hacked into your e-mail and sent herself and Trenton a threat?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: I want to ask you, did you have any idea she had had a will written shortly before her suicide?

J. DUCKETT: No, I had no idea until I was contacted by the funeral home and told that they had a copy of a will requesting that she be cremated.

GRACE: Out to Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, what does that suggest to you? Shortly before Trenton`s disappearance and her suicide, this young girl, 21 years old, writes a will?

MARSHALL: Everything in her life was a manipulation. I mean, she had the baby to hold onto Josh. She used the baby abusively to never be separated from him and to control him. And I think, in a sense, the will was a manipulation, as well, because she was headed towards her death, and she wanted to control things from the grave, which she has successfully done in the media and many different places.

GRACE: Out to Mike Brooks, Mike, at this juncture, a private search may take place. Police, 18 law enforcement still on the case, but what can they do now?

BROOKS: Well, there`s still a lot of investigative loose ends that need to be tied up, Nancy. For instance, final computer analysis, the screen from the apartment, the forensics haven`t come back on that. Forensics from the dumpster, we still haven`t found out exactly if they got anything at all from the fingerprints, trace evidence, anything at all from the dumpster.

The fingerprint on the window sill, who does that belong to? All the cell phone records still haven`t been gone through, and the results of surveillance tape that the Leesburg police and FDLE looked at before any of the records came back. We don`t know what the results of that are, if they gleaned any good information from that. So there`s still a lot of leads to be followed up on.

GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Beyond Missing, when you hear Josh talking about police showing up at his place, demanding to search the apartment, demanding to search his car, you`ve been there.

MARC KLAAS, FOUNDER OF BEYOND MISSING: Well, not only was I there, but exactly the same thing happened to me. And Polly`s mother did not point any fingers at me. And that will happen in an awful lot of cases.

If you`re in a split situation and a child goes missing, I think they immediately look towards the custody situation and they will go to the non- custodial parent or the joint custodial parent that doesn`t have the child and almost immediately go in and, to the best of their ability, search the premises and try to make a judgment.

GRACE: And to Lisa Pinto, former prosecutor, there`s not always a smoking gun. There`s not always a fingerprint or DNA evidence. Behavioral evidence, human evidence may be what cracks this case.

PINTO: I mean, we have five pages of court records, Nancy, showing the tumultuous relationship this woman had with her child. The fact that the child was taken from the home, that she stuck a knife to him, that she was clearly unfit to be a mother. The guardian ad litem of the child says this kid cannot go back to the mom. It`s not safe for him. And, you know, if anyone`s to be blamed, let`s point the finger at the county.

GRACE: Here on the set with me, Josh Duckett, Trenton`s father. Do you dream about the moment that you`re going to see Trenton again?

J. DUCKETT: Yes, I mean, I think every parent does when they`re in this situation. I mean...

GRACE: And what is that dream? What do you see playing out?

J. DUCKETT: Just him coming home safely, and being back with me and my family, and being able to move on with our life, and basically...

GRACE: What would be the very first thing you do when you see him?

J. DUCKETT: Just hold him. I mean, that`s basically what I`m moving forward to do, and that`s why I`m pulling 110 percent in. I mean, I want him back. He`s my pride and joy. And I`m not going to stop until I get the answers that I want.

GRACE: It really touched my heart when I learned that, to raise the reward money, you were out washing cars by hand. And you got the reward up to $10,000 tonight. That reward, 1-800-423-TIPS.

You are so convinced in your mind that this child is still alive for a lot of different reasons. That means somebody has him. So tonight, if you could speak to that somebody, right into that camera, what would you say to them?

J. DUCKETT: Basically, if you have him, I mean, we`re not looking to put anybody in jail at this point. We want Trenton back; that`s our whole goal. And eventually, we`ll get the answers that we want, and we will find him. That`s our goal, and we`re not going to stop until we do.

GRACE: Who, in your thinking, in your analysis, may have the baby? Where did the $900 come from she left to her grandparents, and why leave it to her grandparents and not for Trenton?

J. DUCKETT: I mean, I`m as clueless as everybody else. I mean, I had no contact with her or her family for eight months. I never talked to them. Even through all this, I still haven`t been able to talk to them.

GRACE: Have you tried to?

J. DUCKETT: I`ve tried reaching out to them numerous times. I mean, I`ve done it by local media in Florida. I gave them t-shirts to try and get them to join up with us, as far as seeing Trenton. And, I mean, basically no response whatsoever.

GRACE: Why?

J. DUCKETT: I`m not sure why. They`re holding a grudge against me because of things that Melinda had told them. I mean, I guess, in their eyes, they don`t want to believe that she done...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Is her side of the family trying to find the baby?

J. DUCKETT: I`m not sure what they`re doing. To my knowledge, I was told they`re not cooperating with media, they`re not talking to media that much. They`re not really doing too much with law enforcement.

GRACE: But, of course, they are grieving. They`re grieving sorely right now.

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: Suffering the loss by suicide of Melinda Duckett. We have joined with Josh and are not giving up. We want very much to bring this baby home and hope that you will help us.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: It was examination of the organs, and the tissues, and the body as a whole, just as you would do if it were the first autopsy. Well, I`m looking for everything. You know, I think it`s been unfortunate...

(CROSSTALK)

WECHT: ... conjectured upon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Breaking news tonight regarding the mysterious death of the 20-year-old son of cover girl Anna Nicole Smith. Did a deadly combination of methadone and two antidepressants kill this young man? Joining us, Art Harris, investigative journalist. Art, what`s the latest?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Nancy, I talked to Dr. Wecht, and he told me he believes that these two antidepressants may have had an interesting or bizarre and tragic effect, when combined with the methadone, that they stopped it from metabolizing so it was much stronger in the dose that was detected and was probably deadly.

GRACE: Well, I don`t understand, Art, how you get your mitts on methadone.

HARRIS: Well, in this case, no one knows why he was on the methadone. It`s usually, you know, to use to wean addicts off heroin, but it`s also been recently used as a powerful painkiller, Nancy. And, you know, the lawyer, Howard K. Smith, says that the son had severe back pain. It has been prescribed for that in the past. We don`t know why he was using methadone. And that is one thing that Dr. Wecht wants to find out.

GRACE: To Jonathan Arden, medical examiner, what does the combination, of not one but two antidepressants, plus methadone, do to your system?

JONATHAN ARDEN, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Nancy, I`m much more concerned about the methadone itself, not so much the antidepressants. Of course, there could be some interaction among those different drugs put together, but methadone itself is the big worry here.

If he were not tolerant to or adapted to strong opiates like methadone or heroin or morphine, then a small dose of methadone could be lethal to an ordinary person who is not accustomed to that, whose body hasn`t reacted to it. And there is a real physiologic phenomenon of this opiate tolerance that addicts have, that chronic pain patients have.

And if he got this through some other channel, even a small dose -- and what looks like a low concentration on a test result -- could easily be lethal to a person like him who may not have any prior experience with it. So the issue with the antidepressants is very interesting, but I`m much more concerned about the methadone by itself being the real culprit here.

GRACE: To Dr. Holly Phillips, internist, why would a doctor, presumably a shrink -- a psychiatrist, I assume -- prescribe this combination of drugs to a young boy?

DR. HOLLY PHILLIPS, M.D., INTERNIST: Well, certainly the antidepressants make sense. They`re both very commonly used antidepressants in a class called SSRIs. Prozac is also in that group.

Now, methadone seems like a peculiar choice. If a doctor actually prescribed this combination, it would have to be that the doctor felt that the benefits outweighed the risks in his case, although we have to consider, although methadone is a controlled substance, sometimes people can get it through other means. So he may not have actually been prescribed this medication.

GRACE: And on the heels of the death of her son, just 20 years old, who was actually lying there in the hospital bed with her at the time he died, according to Alex Goen, she has a baby girl and -- today, according to sources -- announces a marriage.

What about it, Dan Wakeford? Dan joining us, he is the executive editor of "InTouch weekly."

DAN WAKEFORD, EXEC. EDITOR, "INTOUCH WEEKLY":" Hey there. She actually didn`t get married. It was only a ceremony. Howard and her decided to declare their love together at this time so they can get through these difficult problems and be there for each other.

GRACE: So you`re saying no wedding?

WAKEFORD: No wedding so far. They do want to get married. However, at the moment, it`s just a ceremony on a boat to show that they love each other and are there for each other.

GRACE: Well, it sounds like a wedding to me, a ceremony on a boat in the Bahamas to show your love and your fidelity to each other. Hey, you say tomato, I say "tomato."

To Alex Goen, CEO of TrimSpa, remember, Anna Nicole, the cover girl for the diet aid TrimSpa. Alex, was it a wedding? Was it not a wedding? Did they intend it to be a wedding? And also, is it true they`re basically trapped in their own home there in the Bahamas?

ALEX GOEN, TRIMSPA CEO: It`s very true. She`s been trying to get out all her friends and relatives have been suggesting she needs to get out of the house. She`s a prisoner in the house. And it`s been horrible for them.

And they`ve been trying to get out for the last couple of days. It`s not healthy being locked up in the house. And they had this plan. They woke up 2:00 in the morning, left about 3:00 in the morning, to simply get out and spend a little time together, a lot of the liberties that we all enjoy and we take for granted.

And they wanted to show each other that they`re going to be there for each other through this very, very difficult time, because they really get strength from each other.

GRACE: Well, I say, if you can do it in Las Vegas 24 hours a day, you can do it on a boat in the Bahamas. So was it a wedding or not a wedding, Alex?

GOEN: It was a commitment in front of God to one another; it was not a wedding that would be...

GRACE: Legally binding.

GOEN: ... sanctioned by the government. There`s no paperwork. It`s not really a recorded wedding, but in the eyes of God, as far as they`re concerned, they he made a lifelong commitment to each other.

GRACE: Let`s go out to the lawyers joining us, Renee Rockwell and Lisa Pinto. We also know that Howard Stern, her long-time attorney, has announced that he believes he is the father of the new little girl.

Aside from the dispute over the death of her young son, we know there`s going to be some contention here from another guy that claims to be the dad -- what`s his name, Alex Birkhead, Larry Birkhead? Is that his name?

GOEN: Larry Birkhead, yes.

GRACE: Larry -- Renee, how do you go about just announcing to the world, "No, it`s my baby, I want a DNA test"? That`s not right.

ROCKWELL: I don`t know. It must be because he may have been with her at some point. And, Nancy, that is not going to be hard to prove at all. You`ve done it before with your little swabs, telling everybody how easy it is. You just swab the baby, swab the...

GRACE: No, no, I`m not saying how do you get a mouth swab? I understand that.

To you, Lisa Pinto, what stops some guy out on the street from announcing, "Hey, that`s my baby, I want a DNA test"? Where do you get the legal right to spout off like that?

PINTO: Well, I mean, I`m putting two and two together, but I think they might have spend the night together, Nancy. Maybe I`m too middle- class for all this. Your child dies, you sell the photos, you have a baby, you get married? I mean, who are these people?

GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Small, tiny correction -- and, boy, I don`t want to get into it with Pinto, because she`s a fighter, people -- but I did find out that the photos were -- and, Dusty, let`s take a look at that photo -- the photos were actually sold before Daniel passed away. They were to be the first baby photos, and then that had been in the works for a long time.

What I`m looking at and what Dr. Phillips and Dr. Arden, I want them to look at, is the dilation of the eyes in this photo. It`s something I noticed immediately but didn`t think through. What is the dilation indicative of, Dr. Phillips?

PHILLIPS: It can certainly be indicative of some of the medications that he was on. It could have been indicative of the methadone, and it can also be indicative of other controlled substances.

GRACE: And to Art Harris, I assume the investigation is going on with Dr. Wecht?

HARRIS: He`s waiting for other toxicology reports, Nancy, but he has ruled it`s a tragic, accidental combination of these drugs. He believes that the Bahamas` pathologist will agree with him. They have spoken, and he is waiting to perhaps collaborate on a report.

(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 VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Just 39 miles from the Columbine School massacre, a gunman puts four schools in lock down, claiming to be armed with a bomb inside Platte Canyon High School.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He literally shot right at the SWAT team as they entered, turned and shot the female hostage, and then shot himself.

GRACE: The U.S. Supreme Court declares it`s OK to seizure your home so the local government can build expensive condos on your land. P.S., the condos are not for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s like stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. I don`t understand it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The governments are supposed to protect our homes, not take our homes. This is America.

GRACE: John Mark Karr -- remember him? -- he confesses to the murder of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, now under child porn charges. Guess what? He`s set to walk free. Why? The sheriffs lost the evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have no evidence. Not one person has produced one child that they say has ever been molested by John Mark Karr.

GRACE: A parents` worst nightmare: a 2-year-old tucked into his crib, mom in the very next room with a video. Next, Baby Trenton`s bedroom screen found slashed. The mom commits suicide, and Florida police then declare her the prime suspect.

MELINDA DUCKETT, LATE MOTHER OF TRENTON DUCKETT: Hello?

DISPATCHER: Hi, what is Trenton wearing, honey?

M. DUCKETT: I don`t know -- he was ready for bed.

GRACE: What went through your mind when you first heard on the phone Trenton`s gone?

J. DUCKETT: It feels like somebody stuck a dagger in my stomach. I mean, because he`s my pride and joy. He`s what I lived for. And, I mean, to know that he`s gone and nobody knows where he`s at, I mean, it`s just a feeling I would never wish on anybody in my life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Tonight, we stop to remember Army Private First Class William E. Thorne, 26, Iowa, killed, Iraq. Thorne, deeply religious, loved fishing, pool, spicy food. Favorite: Dairy Queen blizzards. He leaves behind a loving wife, Corey, also in Iraq. William Thorne, American hero.

That reward for Baby Trenton now up to $12,000. Thank you to our guests. But our biggest thank you, to you, for inviting all of us into your home tonight and all week. NANCY GRACE signing off. See you here tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END