Duckett leaves trail of tears, bodies

James Duckett is dead, executed a few days ago for the rape and slaying of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987 while serving as a rookie police officer in Mascotte, Lake County, Fla.

Now, Sheriff Grady Judd in neighboring Polk County says Duckett also killed 14-year-old Jeanifer Weldon that same year in his county.

I covered the Lake County case from the beginning, first as an editor, then as a reporter for years covering his appeals. I wrote about the case in my book, Vampires, Gators and Wackos, A Florida Newspaperman’s Life.

Judd called him a “psychopathic, child-raping murderer, pure evil in the flesh,” which he was.

Judd said all evidence, circumstantial that it was, exclusively pointed to Duckett in Weldon’s rape and murder.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Duckett’s 2-year-old grandson was reported missing and presumed dead years later in a case that made national headlines.