Records illustrate detectives' suspicions

LEESBURG -- Police released new documents Wednesday showing investigators became suspicious of Trenton Duckett's mother the night the 2-year-old was reported missing.

A sworn statement from Leesburg Senior Detective Ian Thornton shows Melinda Duckett "was clearing out the apartment, emptying the refrigerator as if moving from the residence."

Police also sifted through trash dumped that night by one of two men who had been watching a video with Duckett and found "numerous articles relative to caring for a child," according to the statement, which was used to secure a search warrant for the woman's apartment.

Those items included dry baby food, candy, cookies and other children's snacks.

Leesburg police Capt. Steve Rockefeller confirmed Wednesday that the trash included toys and photographs of Trenton, including his sonogram, an image of a child in the mother's womb.

Police refused to characterize the findings as "smoking-gun" evidence against Duckett, 21, who committed suicide Sept. 8 at her grandparents' home in The Villages.

Her family blamed her death on stress and intense media scrutiny.

But Joshua Duckett, Melinda's estranged husband and the boy's father, said Wednesday he was stunned to learn that she had thrown out the toddler's keepsake pictures.

"It strikes me as very odd. I mean, I've still got all of my photos of him and all of my sonogram pictures from when she was pregnant," he said. "I've had my suspicions from the start. [But] they're just suspicions."

The toddler was reported missing from his bed Aug. 27. Investigators have asked anyone with information about the child to step forward. They have searched in Leesburg, Ocala National Forest and other locations.

Also Wednesday, authorities ended a five-day search of Farles Lake in Ocala National Forest, where divers were aided by sonar in their probe of the murky water.

"Nothing of evidentiary value" was recovered, Leesburg police Capt. Ginny Padgett said.

Although the boy has been missing for nearly a month and many tips have led to dead ends, Leesburg police remain hopeful they will find him alive.

"We're going to continue with this investigation. We're going to do what needs to be done. We're going to get the evidence and results back from the lab, and we're going to continue following up leads," Padgett said. "We're not planning on scaling back -- not until we have to."

She also said the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement remain actively involved in the investigation. They are "considering all theories" about what happened to Trenton, she said.

The documents released Wednesday included parts of two search warrants -- one obtained Aug. 28 by Leesburg police and one obtained Sept. 8 by FDLE after Duckett killed herself.

The documents say police responded about 9:20 p.m. to the mother's home in Windemere Villas, an apartment complex on Griffin Road near U.S. Highway 27 on the city's north side.

Duckett, who was watching videos with two male friends, told police she discovered her son missing from his bed when she peeked in to check on him between movies.

She told police the window screen in his bedroom was cut. And she said her estranged husband might be involved.

Police alerted Sumter County deputy sheriffs, who searched Joshua Duckett's home in Webster. He said he had not had contact with the boy since June, because of a court order. Melinda and Joshua Duckett were involved in a bitter divorce.

The search-warrant affidavit notes that police found a broken picture frame on the bedroom floor and a locked metal cabinet in the mother's bedroom closet. The cabinet was not searched.

Also, screws going into a ceiling access panel appeared to have been freshly painted.

An employee for Windemere Villas told police the panel was for "maintenance purposes only and there should not be screws in the panel." Those facts raised police suspicions.

Padgett said police did not conduct a complete search of the mother's apartment, including the ceiling area, until they obtained the warrant the next day from Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary.

Late Wednesday, Marion County Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. James Pogue issued a news release about his agency's involvement in the search. The statement said records show Duckett used an ATM machine in Leesburg on Aug. 27 at 10:49 a.m. and used her cell phone within five miles of the Paddock Mall in Ocala about 12:30 p.m.

Police, still wanting to complete a timeline for her activities, hope the information will spark the memory of anyone who may have seen Duckett or Trenton that day. Deputies want businesses in the area to review their surveillance tapes.