James Aren Duckett - Introduction

James Duckett was born James Hunter on September 4, 1957 to Louise Jordan and James Hunter. When James was 3 years old his mother married James Duckett. When young James Hunter turned 12 years old he signed his own adoption papers and he became James Aren Duckett. He met Carla Roberts when she was 13 years old and he was 15. They married July 11, 1977 when he was almost 20 and Carla almost 18. They had two sons, Justin Samuel born November 13, 1982 and Joshua Ryan born May 15, 1985. To support his family, James enrolled at the police academy in Eustis, Florida. Mascotte Police Chief Mike Brady hired James Duckett before he graduated in November 1986.

While James was on duty as a Mascotte policeman, working the 7pm till 7am shift Monday May 11, 1987 (the day after Mother's Day) a little girl, named Teresa Mae Mcabee, was reported missing by her mother Dorothy Mcabee a little after 11pm. Teresa's body was found on the edge of Knight Lake just a few hundred yards from her home at 9am the next morning. At that time, James was off duty and called to the crime scene. When he shook hands with an investigating officer from the Lake County Sheriff's office, his fate was sealed. That handshake made James the prime suspect, regardless of any facts in the case. Like the Melinda Duckett case, this case was built upon picking a suspect, then building a case, even when the evidence proved otherwise.

Melinda Duckett did not know that James Duckett was Josh's father. When she met Josh he went by the name of Josh Boggs, his mother's second husband. When James' case came up for appeal in Lake County Florida in 2003, Josh told Melinda that his name was not Boggs but Joshua Duckett. Melinda became interested in James' case and wrote him letters. She also acquired a  book written by Jeanne Bragg called "The Truth Shall Set Him Free". Jeanne believed in James' innocence and spent over 10 years researching his case. Melinda also believed James innocent and told him she wanted to help him. She also wanted to reconcile Josh and James as Josh hadn't seen him since James was incarcerated. Melinda and Josh went to visit James in 2005 then Melinda went to see him in May 2006.  Unbeknown to Melinda, Josh Duckett visited James on August 12, 2006. He was  very angry when he found out that James was siding with Melinda regarding the threatening email and also sending child support for Trenton. That same night Melinda was frantically calling friends to get her hands on $5,000 cash because she needed to protect herself and Trenton from Josh.  She was scheduled to visit James again on Sunday August 27, 2006, but James cancelled the visit.That fateful day, Trenton Duckett was abducted.