The above are crime scene photos taken by FDLE. When I spoke with Detective Andy Crogan of the Lady Lake police department, he told me this FIRST SHOT was probably a FIRST ATTEMPT and the gun slipped.
Melinda had taken her grandfather's shotgun from its hiding place in the master bedroom closet. She placed the gun in its case on the master bedroom bed and left the empty case on the bed. She would have then had to go to the nightstand and remove the magazine (clip) from the TOP DRAWER. There was a fork on the floor next to the nightstand. Apparently she put the magazine in backwards. It was our theory that she got the fork to unjam the magazine and put it back in so it would operate.
However.....
The three birdshot shells in the magazine could NOT be expelled, because they were in backwards. Therefore, Melinda would have had to get the shotgun shells from the BOTTOM drawer of the nightstand. The box of #6 birdshot was STILL in the bottom drawer. There were 6 shells missing from the box of 25.
Then Melinda would have had to load ONE birdshot in the pump action gun and fire the shot. The FIRST SHOT went into the wall. She would then have had to load a SECOND shell into the chamber.
Detective Crogan also stated that they believed she shot the gun while standing up and using her toe. The trigger would have come up to her knee, she would have had to balance herself and then there's the "recoil".
The 12 Gauge Shotgun...
Also in my conversation with Detective Crogan, he stated that they thought Melinda wanted to commit suicide in her car, but that the gun was too big and she would not have been able to do it.
Among the items taken for review was Melinda's digital camera. On that camera she had pictures of a pet cemetery.
So the questions remain the same.
Why would Melinda pay her car insurance a couple days before she died?
Why would Melinda decide to commit suicide using her grandfather's 50 year old gun that had not been shot in over 20 years, using #6 birdshot that had not been taken out of the box in over 20 years?
Why didn't she use her brand new 20 gauge shotgun that was already in her car loaded, along with her suicide notes already written and drive her car to the peaceful pet cemetery?
Where were Melinda's friends when she needed them?
21 comments:
The PD is completely inept or corrupt (or both). Do they really expect the public to believe that they did not find the "suicide note" plainly in view until two weeks after they searched the car??? Do they really expect the public to accept the fact that officers neglected to examine the contents of the console or that those papers stayed in place???
Also, it is evident that Ms. Duckett knew how to load a shotgun: She owned one and would have known how to use it and it appears to me that she had duly prepared to defend herself in an emergency. Josh and his mother reek of dishonesty, evil, and stupidity. I would question their ability to use a shotgun before I was duped into believing that Melinda would take her life. It doesn't make sense: She is the upright and hard-working mother with everything to live for (fighting on to save and find Trenton) while there is much evidence that Josh is a spoiled fool as well as the fact that his shady & creepy mother has framed other people in the past: she repeated her own previous actions with the "toy in the dumpster" trick. Unfortunately, the PD is letting people get away with kidnapping, abuse, stalking, and murder!!!
My question, because I have seen pictures of the WHOLE crimescene -
where's all the blood? Trenton's clothes, the wall, the door, ???
the rug where the agent is kneeling with the shotgun?
Melinda was 4'10" and upright the gun was taller than her. If the trigger came up to her knee and in order for Melinda shoot herself she would have had to raise her foot up and be leaning against the wall , because of the recoil.
Not to mention she would have gone deaf from the sound of the the gun being fired. Because the first blast from the shotgun would busted Melinda's eardrums , her balance would have been off (lack of equilibrium). She wouldn't have been able to stand against the wall and raise her foot to the trigger. This theory is cancelled out because suicide would have been physically impossible.
I reiterate; If laypeople like us could figure this out what's stopping LE?
There was no wall for Melinda to lean against. The wall where the first shot entered was facing her. The wall behind her was wire rack shelves (where the Bible was stored) along with plastic containers for momentoes and toys. The back wall had containers (laundry basket type) on the floor and there were shopping bags along the base of the first shot wall. Clothes hung all the way across the first shot wall. Only the raincoat at the end of the clothes rack had any blood on it.
Melinda's feet were on top of the shopping bags. There was no blood on the front of her clothes. The butt of the shotgun was angled underneath her left leg and protruded below her left foot about 5 inches, which was UNDER the shopping bag. The barrel of the gun laid across her midriff and her right hand was cradling the barrell end of the gun,over her right shoulder and her left hand laid across her midriff with the elbow bent. Her head was turned to the right over her right shoulder and the entry wound was under her left jawbone.
She laid "neatly" between the shopping bags and the plastic containers - a perfect fit. Like she had been placed in that position. She wasn't slumped over, on top of anything, just as if she were sleeping. There was no notable amounts of blood, small spatters on the back of the closet, all had pooled under her head in the corner of the back closet.
I am trying to relay this without any emotion, because it just leaves me with two questions. Why is there no blood on the ceiling if she in fact shot herself standing up? How did she angle that huge gun to enter her left side of her jawbone when she is right handed?
An afterthought. Could she have been killed with something else first and then shot to look like she had taken her own life with the shotgun? Would that explain the lack of blood?
I've thought of that too. Perhaps Melinda really died of asphyxiation. While she was pinned down the killer could have suffocated Melinda with his foot then shot her to destroy the evidence.
The autopsy report, IIRC , stated that there was no evidence of strangling but in "autopsy" terms. However, I wonder, because of the extent of the head injury, if they were able to test about affixiation or any other type of small caliber bullet wound.
The other thing that one report said was that the last time Melinda was seen alive was 1:30 and that the last time she was KNOWN alive was 2 PM. She was found around 3 PM. What did they mean by "Known" alive?
"KNOWN" alive? Huh? Does this mean someone on the force KNEW Melinda was going to die that day? The examiner's surname was Roberts , which just happens to be Carla's maiden name.
This is getting extremely bizarre....
I don't know what "known alive" means here, unless they could pinpoint the time of death to the exact minute. If it was someone watching, they would have said last seen alive. So known alive needs some kind of explanation.
A couple of discrepancies with your photo/drawing and the officer's theory.
The angle of your blue line is off quite a bit. My calculation is estimated based on photos, but the calculation would result in the butt of the gun to be about 8 inches from the wall at the base of the floor.
Exit outside at 102" with an estimated wall thickness of 4" with entry point at 68" equals an 83 degree angle. 83 degree angle at base of 68" is 8".
The first fact of discrepancy with the officer's theory is that a meticulously clean and organized female killed herself with a shotgun in that location, with no thought of others finding her. This NEVER happens.
The second fact which also conflicts with the officer's theory and not really addressed in the photo is the debris field. Blood splatter is downward, with minimum rebound splatter towards the back of the closet.
Also, a point blank shot gun even with bird blast would have exit pellets. Where were the pellets? No second holes were found in the walls or ceiling, so we can estimate that the pellets were probably mixed in with all of the blood in the boxes, bags, clothes, and carpet on the floor.
The last conflicting evidence to the officer's theory is that if the gun slipped to the right side of her head for the first attempt, then she would be deaf in her right ear, which is not found in her autopsy.
The part that does support the officer's theory is the final position of her body and the gun. If she did kill herself, she would have had to shoot upward with the butt end of the gun on the floor, otherwise the gun would have recoiled away from her body and that did not happen.
So what does the evidence suggest?
The evidence more suggests that she was cornered or chased to the closet, where she fell backward or was pushed backwards onto the bags. The gun went off as she fell from her right hand position (since she was right handed), which would explain why she was not deafened by the first shot and the angle of the first shot.
Based on the debris field, she was then shot by a second shot while on the bags in a downward direction. Since she would not be able to accurately lift the butt end of the gun upward and pull the trigger of the gun with her toe with no recoil of the gun (based on the final position of the gun), it is only possible that the second shot came from another person standing over her.
What is not clear and more information is needed is how was the second shell was obtained by the shooter, loaded, and shot while she remained on the bags (unless a second gun was used first, followed by a shot from her own gun, or she had dropped a second shell on the floor near the shooter where he saw it and used it).
"Known Alive" term means some form of physical evidence providing an estimated time that the indivdual made an action themselves or a secondary tool or eye witness validates an account/interaction prior to the individual's death.
i.e. Phone called made, text made, email/facebook sign in, someone saw the individual or the individual was video taped, etc
So, last month another birthday came and went along with the anniversary of Trenton's disappearance. I didn't see anything here regarding what the Suebanks did to honor Trenton's birthday or anything regarding how long he has been missing. Apparently there is no effort being made to find Trenton. So all your spewing is nothing but meaningless drivel. Par for the course.
Anon from Melbourne,
The Eubanks in NY work for a living. They don't live off donations. How come Josh didn't call the media to let them know about his son Ryder, when he was born almost 3 years ago? Or anytime since then? Oh yeah the donations. Don't want those to diminish. It's hard working for a living, or even finding a job. What's the longest that Josh held a job? His friends the Voglers hired him at their electric company Dun Rite, how come he didn't keep that job? Being close friends and all?
And what has Leesburg Police done to find Trenton? Going through all the public records they did a lot -South Korea, Walmarts, Gainesville, Daytona, every lead that POINTED TO MELINDA. No wonder they haven't found Trenton. They exhausted all their funds they had to ask for more financial help from the State of Florida. Too bad they eliminated Josh so quickly. I am still waiting for the rest of the public records. I will be surprised if Josh is even mentioned. I mean he and his mom were the ones with the motive, but whoever heard of investigating someone who had a MOTIVE. The good ole boys just pick a suspect and build their case around it and discard anything that doesn't point to their handpicked suspect.
So many times witnesses mentioned Josh and the conversation was pooh=poohed and changed direction. Apparently the Leesburg Police "don't want to go there".
Carla was never poy'd but Billy Eubank was?
Here's something to think about and pass along to the "F-ucketts."
I enjoyed my visit with James Duckett. Hopefully the information I came across and passed to his attorney will exhonorate him. Wouldn't that be a "kicker" for Carla.
And I am looking into Josh Duckett's "impromptu" visit with James on August 12, 2006. I think that had a lot to do with Trenton being abducted on August 27. James told him that the threatening email could be lots of jail time.
Melinda's myspace stated that "Not only is Josh shooting, he's shooting me in the back". And the next comment was from a friend Jason, apparently, you have a very mad crowd at you over there in the sumter county area. is there anything i can help you out with? i'll forward anything i can to you and we'll go from there. That was written to Melinda on August 23rd.
So things were kicking up AGAIN, the usual Duckett retaliation.
Let me see if I can do an inventory of the crimes committed in this case;
1. Perjury? Check.
2. Fraud? Check.
3. Witness tampering? Check.
4. Harassment? Check.
5. Kidnapping? Check.
6. Murder? Check.
7. Conspiracy to commit murder? Check.
8. Solicitation of murder? Check.
9. Obstruction of justice? Check.
Mind you these are the crimes committed by the Ducketts that we know about. The witness tampering refers to the nasty email , and Carla and Jason coming to your home and threatening you MTP.
Obstruction of justice refers to quashing volunteers efforts to search for Trenton. What on Earth does hawking t-shirts have to do with finding Trenton?
Princess,
Right on. Hawking T-shirts equal donations. The account to accept these donations is at SunTrust Bank and the name on the account is the Trenton Duckett FAMILY Trust Fund.
It is NOT reward money to be paid to anyone who may lead them to Trenton. It is NOT money to help the police investigation expenses. It is NOT money to hire a private investigator. It is NOT money to set up Team Trenton headquarters (that was donated by Mouseffects). So WHAT are donations for? According to Laurie Konnerth, the lone signatory of the trust fund, the donations are for Josh and Carla's LIVING expenses.
One volunteer who'd met Josh said he was just as aloof in person as he was on TV. It was the same thing we've been saying here. She didn't feel any urgency from Josh. She'd also said that when Tim Miller offered his services Josh informed her the FBI declined.
Josh then told her "If the FBI didn't want Equusearch involved then he didn't want them involved" Huh? He also claimed the FBI wouldn't give him Tim Miller's number. When I read that my hinky meter started going off.
Equusearch has excellent track record , but Team Trenton chose the help of Kid Finders Network who has NEVER found a child IIRC.
Something else odd was on the helpfindtrenton site they said that Trenton disappeared 11 days after his 2nd birthday. Wait , what? If that were the case then that means Trenton was abducted on the 21st of August not the 27th.
This seems irrelevant , but how could any parent of a missing child get the date of their child's disappearance wrong?
Why did the Leesburg police overlook these things?
I also know someone who offered their help in the very beginning and went to Team Trenton Offices. They said they had enough searchers, but that this person could donate money. The same hinky meter went off. This person and others went to visit the grandparents and that's when they decided that something smells in Duckett-mark.
WOW! MTP, you said:
"An afterthought. Could she have been killed with something else first and then shot to look like she had taken her own life with the shotgun? Would that explain the lack of blood?"
I have a friend who has dreams and visions. She had a very intense one and believes Melinda was poisoned before being shot. Isn't there some poisons that won't show in an autopsy?
Something just came to me that hit me like a ton of bricks!!The theory that she used her toe to pull the trigger.I was reading bgmustangs comments about the officers theory when it hit me.Melinda was right handed.That has been established.So if she was going to kill herself she would have used her right foot to shoot herself on the right side of her head!!Not possible do shoot yourself on the left side!!Also,if she did use her toe she would have some kind of marks on her toe whether it was the right foot or the left!!Reading the coronors report it said there were no other marks on her!!!The feet or rather left foot had blood on it not marks!!
Also,being right handed,why would she have changed her mind about using her right toe instead of her right toe again??If she botched it up using her right foot the first time why would she change to her left foot and hand that she would have been more awkward with??People who try to commit suicide do not try,try again!!They either do it right the first time or it leaves them totally screwed up one way or another for the rest of their life!Seems to me too that if the first attempt was a botched attempt that the right side of her hair would have powder residue along with her face ear and neck!!NONE ANYWHERE!!!Other than under her chin there were no marks found on her showing any burns or residue of any kind!!There is a reason a shotgun barrel is the lenght they are and that is to protect you from the blast that comes from dicharging it!!!If the gun went off in front of her the shot would have left residue of some sort on her!We all know that melinda knew how to use the gun and anybody that has used a shotgun or any other powerful weapon knows you grip the weapon tightly!!
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