Missing child's mom commits suicide after being interviewed by Nancy Grace

[Proud2BAmurkin]

21 year old mom of a missing kid committed suicide.

Court TV showed Nancy Grace haranguing the woman on last night's show, not knowing the woman committed suicide hours before after the intervew taping.

http://www.local6.com/news/9815793/detail.html

Two days before she died, Melinda Duckett told Local 6 News that she was frustrated that the media and police were scrutinizing her whereabouts before her son vanished.

And in a taped interview that aired hours after Melinda Duckett's suicide, CNN news anchor Nancy Grace grilled the woman about her alibi on national television.

"Where were you?" Grace asked Melinda Duckett. "Why aren't you telling us where you were that day? You were the last person to be seen with him."

"We were just shopping, going around…" Duckett said.

"Shopping where?" Grace asked.

"Well, we didn't go any where specific," Duckett said.

"If you went shopping, you had to go into a store -- what store did you go into?" Grace said.

[MercutioATC]

1. I saw that last night. Nancy was brutal...

...but rightfully so.

The mother wouldn't even tell police where she'd been that day. She was exhibiting VERY odd behavior for a mother who's 2-year-old had been kidnapped.

[madmusic]

2. How do you know she didn't tell the police?

She didn't?

DisGrace was still a bitch. Who does she think she is? She got kicked out of law enforcement and it's not her job.

EDIT: And now DisGrace will say this proves the woman was guilty.

EDIT 2: So everyone "exhibiting VERY odd behavior" deserves to die?

[MercutioATC]

8. ...because the police spokesperson said so...

Did you watch it?

I didn't say anything about "deserving to die". The fact, however, is that this woman reported her 2-year-old son missing and withheld information from police.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

14. She said she told the FBI who told her not to talk to local police

said she was told by the FBI only to work with them and not the local police

[MercutioATC]

24. I didn't hear ANY confirmation of that from ANYBODY.

What I heard was a woman who wouldn't answer anybody's questions (what parent of a missing child DOES that???) making unverified claims.

BIG holes in that claim:

1) If the FBI had actually told her that, why wasn't her answer to the "where were you earlier that day" questions "The FBI has instructed me not to answer that question" instead of "just shopping......"?

2) If her son was actually kidnapped and there were no suspects, do you really believe the FBI would actively stop her from talking to the media? Don't you think they'd be using the media themselves?

...it's only my opinion, but I didn't believe a word of what she said.

[madmusic]

50. Her lawyer advised her....

Not to take a polygraph test, and for all we know, advised her on other details.

Why would she say the "FBI instructed" her? Who knows? People are strange.

The point is, disGrace was kicked out of law enforcement and it wasn't her job. At best, she aided in severely compromising the investigation. At worst, she helped sabotage the solving of this crime, if there was a crime and this mother was at all responsible.

I know very little about this case, but do know disGrace is a disgrace to the legal system and the Bill of Rights.

[MercutioATC]

52. As a member of the media, it WAS her job...

You can disagree with her questions. You can disagree with the way she asked them. You can disagree with the entire concept of mass media.

However, as things exist, it was Grace's job to do exactly what she did.


I also feel it's self-serving to blame Grace for the suicide...

If the mother was innocent, she had the guilt and sorrow associated with losing a child, and she had become a suspect perhaps, in part, due to her umwillingness to me honest with law enforcement.

If she was guilty, she had all of this plus the knowledge that she was guilty.

Nancy Grace may have been the last major interview she gave, but there was a whole lot more going on than Grace's interview.

[madmusic]

59. Trying to understand.

Are you saying I can disagree with her questions, the way she asked them and even the concept of mass media but can't disagree with Grace doing her job?

How do you figure that? What gives her the authority? If you want to argue that the "public has the right to know," that would be one thing. I don't think the public "has the right to know" what Grace thinks and can dismiss her rants all they want. On the contrary, it is indeed spelled out in the Bill of Rights that a person does not have to speak. That too is part of the 1st Amendment - in addition to the right not to incriminate one's self, and invoking that right does not legally imply guilt. What makes Grace's 1st Amendment rights more valuable than the mother's? I wouldn't take a polygraph test, either, for any reason. They are notoriously unreliable. The guilty can look innocent and the innocent can look guilty. They are not allowed in court as evidence for good reason and can really throw a curve in any investigation. Her lawyer was right in advising she shouldn't take one.

Why didn't the mother say, "My lawyer advised me not to take a polygraph test"? Then her lawyer could say publicly, as she later did, "At no time did the mother indicate any guilt at all. I'm advising her not to take a polygraph test solely as a matter of law." That would settle that, but the mother didn't even explain that? Why not? She danced around questions when she didn't have to. That sounds to me more like mental instability than guilt.

Grace may have the right to try and convict people in the media, but that doesn't mean the public has to praise her. You have much more faith in the media and in Grace in particular than I do. Maybe the mother was guilty, maybe not, but that's what investigations and jury trials are all about.

You're right about one thing, the Bill of Rights are self-serving, thank God and thanks our Founders, and a special thanks to the British for being such assholes before the Revolution.

[H2O Man]

36. That sounds unlikely.

I am not claiming that I know, one way or the other. But the chances that the FBI told her that seem extremely remote. If she claimed the FBI told her not to cooperate with the local police, it would seem to raise more questions about her.

[gratuitous]

3. Well then, I guess she should have killed herself

After all, if there was an accident, or there was some negligent act by a young mother who delivered as a teen-ager, there's no more fitting end for her than to die by her own hand after being badgered on national television by the flaming nostrils of Nancy Grace Justice.

Glad we have that settled.

[MercutioATC]

11. I didn't say that she deserved to die...

...I said that she deserved the grilling she got.

[gratuitous]

43. Really?

And who deputized Nancy Grace to do the police's work? The police at least have rules and laws they're supposed to abide by, and the rights of the people they're interviewing they're supposed to respect. The police also have interrogators trained in human and criminal psychology who are supposed to know when they've pushed a subject too far. They're under heavy discipline when they fuck up and a suspect or a person of interest kills herself.

Other than herself and her fat paycheck, who is Nancy Grace responsible to? What discipline is she subject to for pushing this woman over the edge? And who put her in charge of "grilling" a person of interest in a police investigation?

[MercutioATC]

53. What do you not understand about a reporter's work?

Ideally, they ask tough questions. Ideally, they take deceptive subjects to task.

I realize that Grace isn't a DU favorite, but if the situation were different...if it was a DU darling grilling a reticent crooked CEO who later committed suicide, 90% of DU would hail the reporter and claim that the suicide was proof of guilt.


Unless one is prepared to apply equal standards to buth friend and foe, one has no credibility.

[gratuitous]

57. Don't count me in your hypothetical 90%

Because you don't know me at all. This distasteful woman, who apparently drove this emotionally fragile mother to suicide, will suffer no repercussions from her irresponsible behavior. Her job as a journalist doesn't entitle her to do a job she has neither the training nor the temperament to pursue, and a 21-year-old woman is dead. I don't know where "credibility" fits in when someone is dead, but for you to seek to score political points over the death of a very troubled woman is simply disgusting and shameful.

As for your hypothetical 90% nonsense, you should check in on a thread when someone dies or receives a terminal diagnosis, because there is nowhere near 90% who "hail" that unhappy result, whether it was Ken Lay or this poor woman.

[Horse with no Name]

4. Funny thing about guilt

In 1988, a work colleague of my husband's came up murdered. (Harker Heights, TX).
She and her husband had ideal jobs, ideal home, and were (from the outside) living THE American Dream.
He was the director of the Parks and Recreation Department. Very well liked and she was in advertising sales.
As the investigation went on, suspicion started looking at him. Apparently, his story was that she came home from work, got dressed and was supposed to meet him at the gymnasium for a volleyball game. She was found murdered in her workout clothes, which seemed to corroborate his story. However, forensics showed that her tennis shoes were tied by someone else. Apparently, they can tell at what angle shoes are tied from by the position of the bow. AND since the clothes she wore to work were in a heap at her bedside. The shoes were put on in the house. There wasn't any struggle noted in the house. He was scheduled for another polygraph and he shot and killed himself before he had to do it.
One of my former colleages in Palestine, TX, was the wife of a preacher. Seemed to be a perfect family. She worked 3-11 and every night he brought their 2-year old son up to say gnite to his Mommy.
Apparently when he was off at a preacher conference, someone broke into their house and didn't steal anything and shot her. Susan wasn't the type of person who had enemies. She was simply a mother and at the time of the murder, she had graduated from college and was a school teacher. Very beloved, very gentle. No secret life, etc. When the investigation finally centered on him, he drove to Dallas (which was a couple of hours away) and jumped off a bridge at 6:30 in the morning. Killed himself.
I don't know the details of the case of which you speak, but in both instances of people that I was acquainted with that came up murdered, both times the person who murdered them was the person who was closest to them and both times they killed themselves.
I think that speaks pretty strongly that this happens when the person finds out that they simply cannot live with themselves after committing the unthinkable.
As despicable as Nancy Grace is, I don't think she caused this woman to kill herself. Other forces were driving it, but possibly she felt that her story is unravelling and her secret is about to be revealed and doesn't want to face the other people she loves when it is.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. Yikes.

Charles Stuart in Boston did that too, when he knew the jig was up. So he didn't have to face the music.

And look at all the racial crap he stirred up before he did. Unbelievable.

I hadn't heard about the story, so don't know the facts, but I still hate Grace. God, what a piece of work she is.

[Horse with no Name]

10. I can't stand her

She and Rita Cosby are the evil twins.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

47. There's also the possibility she thought she was going to be deemed guilty

but wasn't.

We the common people are not the courts, but you know, it'd be nice if we, too, used that "presumption of innocence" principle.

[Horse with no Name]

48. that is true

All I could comment on was what I was familiar with and the reasons they committed suicide.
Regardless, it is very tragic for the entire family.
But I always have to wonder WHY people agree to go on these types of shows?
They know how she is.
Going on Nancy Grace with a missing child and not expecting to be guilty is like going on Maury and expecting not to be DNA tested for some kid that might be yours.

[warrens]

61. Nancy never met an innocent person

She's scum. Even scum can be right once in a while, but I refuse to even look at that nasty, mean-minded, gutter-crawling piece of shit.

[Rex]

5. Way to go Nancy Idiot.

You're not a fucking lawyer anymore, you're a paid TV whore. Who, looks like caused a women to kill herself. Hope you can live with that bitch.

[Dinger]

7. I Hope She Can't . .

live with it, if you know what i mean. This really should end her tenure on CNN.

[Rex]

9. That woman sickens me.

And then I see Glenn Beck and wonder why CNN turned into Foxnews.

[MercutioATC]

12. Sorry, but I think she was completely within bounds.

...and I'd bet if a DU sweetheart "TV whore" grilled the parent of a mising child who was evasive with police and that parent later killed themself, there'd be plenty of "see, the parent was guilty" claims made here.

This woman lost her child. She refused to answer basic questions about what had happened earlier in the day. The questions asked of her were reasonable and justified.

[Rex]

13. I doubt that.

I think she should not be allowed to talk to unstable people. Seems she can't be trusted not to push them too far, IMO.

[MercutioATC]

17. I thought she was great, actually.

Perhaps a little over the top, but when dealing with a parent of a missing kid who's refusing to cooperate with the investigation, I don't have a problem with that.

Keep in mind that the mother had been interviewed by police numerous times and her grandmother said that the local press had "not been nice" to her either. I doubt that any single interview caused her to kill herself.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

15. Even if the mom is guilty now they might never find the kid

if it's still alive

[MercutioATC]

18. True, I just don't think that Nancy Grace is to blame.

[aquaman]

22. "It"?? what are we talking about here?.....nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. And since when is it Nancy Grace's responsibility to grill her?

She is not a cop, she is an entertainer on TV.

[MercutioATC]

25. Since people started asking other people questions...?

Your position is untenable for two basic reasons:

1) The questions Nancy Grace asked (and the manner in which she asked them) are consistent with what most reasonable parents would ask, and

2) Nancy Grace (however some choose to label her) works for the media. It's the media's "responsibility" to ask questions.


:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I didn't say anything about asking questions

I said "grill".

[MercutioATC]

28. Are you a parent?

Don't you believe that most parents would have asked those questions in the same way?

I know I would have.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Nancy goes too far

[onenote]

41. everyone knows that..so why would the woman go on her show?

[proud2BlibKansan]

51. Too late to ask her now

[MercutioATC]

54. If it were a DU darling grilling a crooked CEO, you'd feel differently...

...wouldn't you?

[Libby2]

37. Since the person is dumb enough to go on her show.

[madmusic]

45. False

Child porn suspects set to be cleared in evidence ‘shambles’

From Sunday Times (Sunday, July 03, 2005)
DOZENS of men accused of downloading child pornography from the internet may have been wrongly prosecuted, according to expert prosecution and defence witnesses. New evidence suggests that Operation Ore, Britain’s biggest child pornography investigation, may have prosecuted innocent men on the basis of discredited American police testimony and questionable forensic methods .....The nationwide police investigation was launched three years ago after a list of 7,200 British suspects was supplied to British police by American authorities. The men on the list stand accused of having used their credit cards to pay for child porn through Landslide, a sex website that operated in Texas from 1996-9. The accusations have led to 33 suicides, most recently that of Commodore David White, the commander of British forces in Gibraltar. He was found dead in his swimming pool on January 8. Bates believes records of credit card transactions on the site are unreliable and therefore the names of alleged subscribers cannot be used as evidence. Thomas Reedy, the man who set up the website, was investigated by the FBI in the 1990s for credit card fraud. “I am convinced that a massive fraud has been perpetrated at Landslide and an unknown number of subscriptions are fake,” said Bates....In a case that legal experts believe may prove a landmark judgment, Judge David Bentley threw out the prosecution argument. In his judgment, Bentley dismissed some police evidence as “utter nonsense”...One police officer, Peter Johnston, became so disillusioned at what he described as the Ore “witch-hunt” that he resigned from his job with Merseyside police. In a letter to The Sunday Times, Johnston said: “I began to doubt the validity of the evidence surrounding the circumstances of the initial investigation in America . . . I found it difficult to rationalise how offenders had been identified solely on a credit card number.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1678810_1,00.html

[MercutioATC]

55. What does that have to do with my statement?

:shrug:

[sandrakae]

16. Nancy Grace is not to blame for this woman's suicide.

Why did she agree to the interview in the first place. A mother should move heaven and earth to find their missing child and should cooperate with everyone trying to find her child. If a TV interview is going to cause you to kill yourself, then you got something to hide. Elizabeth Smart's parents were grilled and grilled about that stupid cut screen. They didn't kill themselves. They didn't have anything to be guilty about. I don't for sure if this woman did something to her kid or not, but come on, she killed herself after being humilated in a TV interview. Doesn't she think her child is going to need a mother when he is found.

[Rex]

19. Maybe she can adopt the boy, if found alive

as penance.

[Malikshah]

20. Nancy bears some responsibility- the case is irretrievably altered

by her antics.

The vile harpy is by no means the instigator, but she was part of the process and her methodology was over the top.

She should not be excused.

[haele]

23. Remember Danielle Van Damm?

I just read the article about the Dukettes.
The boy was last seen in his room. His mom only noticed him gone at 9pm at night.

Same as with Danielle Van Damme, a local case where a neighbor snatched a 7 year old girl while her parents were out "partying" in separate locations.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/westerfield/070802_ctv.html
"Two more witnesses for David Westerfield testified Monday morning that Danielle van Dam's mother was in a bar propositioning strangers the night the 7-year-old vanished from her home just outside San Diego. "

We don't know - nor might it have been any importance to this child's disappearance - where they went the day before.
We don't know if perhaps mom might not have wanted her husband to know where she was. Or want the rest of her family or neighbors to know where she was, because what she was doing was her business.
Or she might just have felt it was too much. Her boy missing, she not knowing what was going on, the overwhelming attention, feeling everyone was blaming her - Heck, I know many young women with depression or low self-esteem that would quickly just want to get it over with and kill themselves because it is too much. Whether or not she or anywhere she went the day before had anything to do with the boy's disappearance.

What Nancy Grace did - harassing for ratings - is despicable. Anyone with even a high school journalism class knows there are many different ways to bring up controversy when doing an interview, especially when dealing with someone who might be on the edge.

Would it have killed her ratings that much to be more neutral and less accusatory in her interview? No, of course not - it's far more fun and profitable to finish off the "suspect" on national TV...

Haele

[sproutster]

29. ... Oh no you didn't ...

Large amounts of blood were found in the Van Dams house
Drag marks from garbage that was taken away was outside the Van Dams house
Unidentified blood and fingerprints were on the stairwell
The father testified that everyone in his home that night were in his daughters room at one time
(one was a man who had only visited that night)
You had a dog who didn't alert (until his master read about westerfields arrest)
You had child porn ONLY FOUND on westerfields sons computer and on loose media.
Lost laundry *found* under different names.
Two cops visiting areas where everything was found previously to their being found.
Nothing on the childs body connected to Westerfield.
Nothing where the child was taken connected to Westerfield.
FBI and Sherrifs were in both of those areas when the SDLE were looking for evidence.
Where evidence was found, was under LE control, with no outside agencies.

...

I hope there is a good appeal, and if not, I will be there when they murder Westerfield

...

I am not a kook, but I followed this trial and feel there was a grave injustice -- a man will die because of hentai and kp found on his sons computer and on loose media.

[sandrakae]

38. HER BLOODY HAND PRINT WAS FOUND IN HIS MOTOR HOME.

[haele]

62. My point concerns pre-judging guilt.

And that someone may not want something to get out in public that has nothing to do with the case.

Whether or not you feel someone is guilty, if you don't have access to the evidence or enough evidence to have a good suspicion that they had something to do with the case, there is no point in "badgering the witness" to make him or her confess.

Haele

[mentalsolstice]

27. Two Sides

1. The interview was totally voluntary, so Mom should have known that NG was going to ask some tough questions.
2. Nancy Grace, clearly knowing this mother is a suspect, among others, should have been responsible in her questioning so as to not compromise the investigation, as there is still a little boy missing. I've watched NG enough to know that she comes across like a bull in a china shop (hence the flaring nostrils) and she has none of the finesse of a seasoned prosecutor.

[MercutioATC]

30. I will allow you that...

She's a hell of a lot more like a prosecuting attorney in court than an investigator.

I still don't have a problem with how she asked the questions.

[fighttheevilempire]

31. Nancy Grace is enough to make almost anyone want to off themselves...

and I'm not even the one being interviewed.

People like her are among the most irritating to me. Did you find the girl in Aruba yet?

Nancy Grace shouldnt be allowed to watch television, much less be on one. She'd do well on Faux.

[StrictlyRockers]

32. That woman is EVIL! I hate her. She is unbearable. I'd rather die.

than have to talk to her.

[Beelzebud]

33. Nancy Grace and her ilk represent everything wrong with the media.

[Berry Cool]

35. Agreed, but in this case it just so happened that she was on to something.

At least that's how it appears.

I mean, we can all joke about how being talked to by Nancy or hearing Rita Cosby's voice is enough to make you start hunting for the razor blades...but come on.

[malaise]

39. If only Nancy Grace would

commit suicide. She is a despicable bitch.

[JitterbugPerfume]

40. that was "trial by Television"

seems like the TV decides what is truth and justice in politics, morals and now , the court of justice

I vaguely remember "innocent until proven guilty" in the good old days

[Rosemary2205]

42. To the board in general -- suicide is not an admission of guilt

Mom may or may not have done something to her child but her suicide is not proof of guilt. It's only proof of her mental pain.


A good 20 yrs ago a neighbor of mine had her husband and child turn up dead one morning and she said she slept through it. The police right away focused on her as the culprit. She had trouble answering questions and was generally uncooperative. Her inlaws were calling for her to get the death penalty in the media and the reporters were camped out at her house for weeks. Even her own siblings and parents seemed to believe she did it.

She committed suicide with the same sleeping pills she had taken that night and left a note saying she didn't do it. Was overwhelmed by the loss and just could not live with the pressure of being under suspicion any longer. 7 years later a cold case detective was able to get the DNA evidence and it matched someone in jail for other murders. When detectives interviewed him in jail he admitted the murders and the details he gave both completely confirmed his guilt and my neighbor's innocence. In the end, it turned out hubby was into some ugly stuff and paid a price.

Just because people don't react the way we think we would in a certain situation doesn't mean they are guilty of anything. And I really hope and pray to God none of us ever has to find out how we would personally react.

[GoldenOldie]

44. Nancy Grace simply trying to keep her actual court room experience updated

These blowhard lawyers who apparently were ineffective real-life procecutors, get to play-act the role for entertainment. They critique attorneys, jurors, judges on individual cases....it's so easy, cause they don't have that nasty judge, opposing attorney, or actually give a crap what the jurors think.

Nancy Grace gave up real law to become the latest circus act in the circuit.......she gets her very own hairdresser, makeup artist, dresser....she gets to act and the pay and benies are a whole lot better than that peon job as prosecutor.

[madmusic]

49. Quit it!

No one wants to hear anything that contradicts the black v. white, good v. evil mindset. We might have to THINK.

:sarcasm:

So much easier to let disGrace and her ilk do the thinking for us.

The other day while surfing channels I stopped at CourtTV for a few minutes and disGrace was hosting an hour on a murder trial. Even though I'd only seen about 2 minutes of it, I could go to CourtTV.com and vote on guilt or innocence. Even those who watch the entire trial never see all the evidence because of commercial interruptions and host spin interrupting it.

Is it any wonder the Bill of Rights are a farce or at best lost in the shuffle?

It is amazing that so many Americans not only condone this, but support it.

[MercutioATC]

56. And it's a lot easier to blame a reporter we don't like...

...rather than admitting that:

1) Nancy Grace did her job.

2) So did at least a couple of other media entities, because the great-grandmother of the child said the the media had not "been nice" to the mother.

3) The mother, for whatever reason, refused to cooperate with police.

4) The mother, whether guilty or innocent, obviously had a lot of other issues she was dealing with...not just Grace's interview.



...but it's a lot more fun to just blame a reporter we don't like for causing a suicide, isn't it?

:eyes:

[Rex]

58. Nancy Grace is a reporter?

:rofl: Thanks for that laugh!

[madmusic]

60. The place to answer is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2095535&mesg_id=2108419

It's not that I don't like her because she's a reporter, it's because she is not. And she lies:

Because of what happened in Georgia, Ms. Grace has said over and over, she knows firsthand how the system favors hardened criminals over victims. It is the foundation of her judicial philosophy, her motivation in life, her casus belli.

And much of it isn’t true.

http://www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=12455&ic=NYTV

And she was a criminal or near criminal as a prosecutor:

11th Circuit: Nancy Grace 'Played Fast and Loose' With Ethics
Federal appeals court raps former prosecutor

Jonathan Ringel
Fulton County Daily Report
05-04-2005


Nancy Grace, the host of a self-titled legal show on CNN Headline News, "played fast and loose" with her ethical duties as a Fulton County, Ga., prosecutor in 1990, a federal appeals panel has declared.

This is the third time Grace's conduct as a prosecutor has been criticized by an appellate court.

In 1997, the Georgia Supreme Court skewered Grace for her actions in prosecuting Weldon Wayne Carr for allegedly setting fire to his house and murdering his wife. Carr later was freed when Fulton prosecutors waited too long to bring him up for a retrial. While the court reversed Carr's 1994 conviction for other reasons, the justices said Grace withheld evidence entitled to the defense and made improper opening statements and closing arguments.

"We conclude that the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable," wrote then Chief Justice Robert Benham. Carr v. State, 267 Ga. 701 (1997).

http://www.law.com/article.jsp.htm

She is justifying her crimes and trying to make them legal. Projection, anyone? Her solution? Dump the jury and allow "emotional" evidence. In short, make a system she can work in without getting busted.

Bleh.

[spanone]

46. If I see more than 2 seconds of ms. grace, I want to kick my dog.

And I love my dog.

Someone said 'Nancy Grace has never met a defendant that wasn't guilty'. How true.
Shameless exploitation television.