August 27, 2006...The Getaway

Windemere Apartments

View of driveway between apartment and gas station

Another view of driveway from gas station to apartment

Situation for an easy getaway.

Now take a look and you decide WHO the primary suspect should be. Do you still think it's Melinda?

Josh Duckett lived with Melinda at the Windemere Apartments #48 in Leesburg until they separated Oct 30, 2005.

He knew her habits of cracking the windows; that she put Trenton to bed around 8 PM. He knew which room Trenton slept in and the position of his bed.

On the evening of July 3, 2006 a car was parked next to Melinda's apartment and hidden by the firewall (there are no windows) on that side of the apartment. They sat there undetected, in the dark of the evening and the overhead large trees. They had their laptop with them and found the wireless IP of Melinda. They sent the threatening email from Josh's Fuckface account to Melinda's myspace at 8:15 PM.

To check to see if the IP address would show up, they then sent a myspace post from Josh's Fuckface account (they would have had to been logged in to his account) to Cierra Bacon's myspace account 11 minutes later at 8:26 PM.

Cierra was Josh Duckett's friend NOT Melinda's. (She is still a friend on Josh's and Carla's facebook accounts as well as appeared on the television show Vanished with Josh Duckett.) Here is a post she made to Josh's myspace account on August 15 (after Josh visited his dad in prison on the 12th and Melinda was scared and trying to get her hands on $5,000 to protect her and Trenton)

On Friday, July 14, 2006  Trenton's room had the windows cracked. Someone, removed the screen or made a slight cut in the screen undetected, and handed Trenton two pictures of Josh Duckett on his bike. There was an injunction in place and Carla was furious about the injunction because it prevented her from seeing Trenton. And Carla always seemed to have some sort of retalliation in place when it came to Melnda Duckett.

To me, it was a "dry run" of the abduction to come:

They were able to park outside Melinda's apartment on Monday night July 3, 2006 and pick up her wireless IP as they sat in their car with their laptop. It was 8:15 PM so it was dark enough that they wouldn't be detected. They wanted her to press charges against Josh so that they could show that the IP address was hers and then have her arrested for perjury. They posted a comment minutes later on Cierra Bacon's myspace account to test that it went through with Melinda's IP address.

Why? Melinda was awarded sole custody of Trenton. Josh only had visitation rights.

Question: Why would Josh Duckett catch up his child support payment so as not to be in contempt of court in July and then make no attempt to keep current. He was past due for July and August when Trenton went missing?

Josh was court ordered to pay $403 per month in child support until Trenton attained the age of 18. The morning/afternoon of July 3, 2006 - after several previous attempts - Carla Massero accepted service of the divorce papers and the non payment of child support notice. A certain MOTIVE to send the threatening email from Josh's myspace account that very evening.

Included in those papers was a request for alimony to be paid until such time as the child support was brought current. Josh was behind 3 months which was $1,209. Because of the restraining order placed, Josh HAD to bring his child support current. He paid 2 months totaling $806. Around this same time, Trenton's daycare was broken into and cash was taken in the amount of $800. Josh knew where the cash was kept. The front door was kicked in.

(an aside) Melinda Duckett's estate lawyer suing CNN - Kara Skarupa's office in Palm Beach - was broken into during the time that Josh Duckett was in Boca Raton (he was there around 2 months time according to the mother of his second son. He went there whileshe was pregnant between February 2007 and November 2007. Kara's office had the front door kicked in and their laptops were stolen. This occurred in August 2007.

Melinda had a two hour trial set up for her divorce scheduled September 13.

She also had a paternity settlement agreement regarding Trenton where Josh stated he would never try to get custody of Trenton again, which was recorded in Sumter County.

They had the motive. They already knew they could park outside Melinda's apartment and not be detected. They could see into her apartment and know that she was busy watching movies. They could have followed her myspace and knew her plans. They could see her car parked near her apartment to verify she was there and then look in the back sliding doors. (Chris Pearce moved the car to the front parking lot).

They took Trenton and hid him and had the plan to have witnesses state that Josh was seen the whole day, even with a receipt at walmart. But where was Jason Fort? Where was Carla?

They never poly'd them, only Josh.

Why would Carla close her business her only means of income and have absolutely no income?

I called the business now operating in the former place of the flower shop owned by Carla. It is a Mexican grocery store called El Norteno opened in 2008.

Carla Massero owned a maroon red dodge caravan but she no longer has that vehicle and now has a Ford Explorer.This particular van appeared in a google earth shot in front of her new flower shop formerly known as Tompkins Flower Shop in Bushnell.

Carla's van has panel doors on both sides of the van. I suspect that she parked the van (made a u-turn in the drive next to Melinda's apartment) and waited with the motor running and the panel door open for Jason to hop the fence and cut the screen with one of her "floral knives" reach in and take Trenton (after peering between the window blinds (which were bent).

Trenton's bedroom window with window raised for access.

Blinds tampered with and blanket crumpled.

He grabbed Trenton and handed him to Carla waiting on the other side of the fence and then hopped into the back of the van, slamming the panel door. That is the sound that Melinda, Danny and Chris mentioned in their statements to police. They heard that sound during the "middle of the 2 hour movie which would put it at 8:00 PM".

They drove Trenton to the flower shop - which they never reopened. They would have arrived at the flower shop at approximately 8:38 PM or sooner if they were driving fast. Then Carla would have left Trenton with Jason at the shop or someone else was there if in fact Jason was seen at the house by police that night. Then Carla would have arrived at her house 15 minutes later (only nine miles from shop) which would have brought her home before 9.

Melinda did not discover Trenton missing until 9:10 PM. So Carla and Josh had time to put their jammies on by the time police arrived at their house in Webster.

Then we have the report that14 year old Kristiey Cabbage saw Trenton with Josh at the swimming hole in Croomacoochee park which was within walking distance from Carla's house the next day in the late afternoon.

Maybe Josh wanted to spend time with Trenton before they moved him to another location, most likely with family or friends, maybe even in another state? Whoever had/has him probably thinks they were doing a noble thing keeping Trenton away from his mother Melinda, because they were told she was a danger to him and Josh. Then when too much time passed, they didn’t want to implicate themselves in a kidnapping, or rat on a family member they were trying to protect.

The police chose NOT to believe Melinda Duckett, nor the Wendy's witness, nor Kristen Cabbage. Melnda believed that it was Jason Fort (under the guidance of Carla Massero) and since Melinda believed  Josh Duckett was spineless, it had to have been Jason Fort who took her son Trenton Duckett.

Instead, the investigators decided for whatever reason to believe only Josh Duckett.



I believe Melinda Duckett.  Who do you believe?



One Day...August 27, 2006

Sunday Afternoon

After Melinda's trek to Orlando and back she was seen by a witness named Wahanina Leggett who lived in the same apartment complex. Here is her sworn statement to Denise Nevers of the FDLE

Let's examine this statement from Wahanina Leggett:

The statement was given one week after Leggett saw Melinda.
Leggett said she saw Melinda while Leggett was walking (from the parking lot) toward her own apartment, so Leggett was facing the fence.  If Melinda said hello to Legget, Melinda must have been coming FROM her own apartment TOWARD her car which was parked in that area.

Here is a google shot of the Windemere apartments with their apartment numbers and showing the parking lots.

Also, Leggett stated that Melinda wore a "coat", blue jeans and a hat. Here is the weather report for Sunday August 27, 2006. At the time frame  (3:30 - 4:30PM) that Leggett stated she saw Melinda it was 90 degrees. Why would Melinda wear a "coat"? However, at 6:14 PM there was a light rain.

Leggett also stated that she did not see Trenton with Melinda. There are possible explanations for this. Melinda could have arrived earlier than Leggett and taken Trenton to the apartment and fed him and put him in for the night. Then run out to the car to get her laptop or whatever and threw on her jacket  because it was raining and saw Leggett and said "hello".  That would fit the timeline for the weather and explain why Trenton was not with her.

Melinda stated that she carried Trenton from the car to the apartment in her own statement to police. So if Leggett said she (Leggett) was walking TOWARD her apartment and facing the fence and saw Melinda walking along the fence line, Melinda's BACK would have been toward Leggett and Melinda would not even had seen Leggett nor have a reason to say hello.

Here is Melinda's statement to Rich Giles of the Leesburg PD:

Melinda talks about driving into her apartment complex and seeing the confrontational neighbor Melissa Inglis who lived with her children in apartment 55 which was near the roundabout. That is the reason she parked in the other parking lot as pictured above.

Her statement continued.

So Melinda states that she arrived home around 5:30. Not between 3:30 and 4:30 like Leggett stated to police.  But  the cell phone pings indicated that Melinda was in the vacinity of her apartment around 5:00 PM.

Here is the police timeline for Sunday:

Here is the myspace timeline:

Melinda myspaced RYBEAR Ryan Misener at 6:40 PM. Here is Ryan's facebook message to me about Sunday.

Here is the Sunday time line in excel format:



There is a gap in time between 5:14 and 6:40 PM. This could have been when Melinda was feeding Trenton then placing him in bed. This is also when she could have run out to her car for whatever reason (without Trenton) and saw Wahanina Leggett. 

Here are some more shots of Melnda's apartment to get a better understanding of the layout.

To be continued...