Polk County authorities announced that executed former police officer James Duckett was the sole suspect in the 1987 abduction, rape, and murder of 14-year-old Jeanifer Weldon. Duckett was put to death on Tuesday for the separate 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Tereasa McAbee in neighboring Lake County.
Cold Case Investigation
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd detailed the cold case investigation during a news conference at the Sheriff’s Operations Center. Weldon vanished on Saturday, Sept. 19, 1987, after spending the day in Tampa with friends and purchasing a stuffed kitten for her collection. Her body was discovered 13 days later, on Oct. 2, 1987, after a phosphate mine employee driving down a dirt road in Fort Meade noticed shoes sticking out near the tree line and smelled a decomposing body.
Investigators accumulated tens of thousands of hours reviewing circumstantial evidence pointing to Duckett. On the night Weldon went missing, Duckett left for his shift at a phosphate mine five hours early, drove along Weldon’s walking route, and arrived at work two hours late—hot, sweaty, agitated, and with dirty hands.
Family Reaction
Weldon’s younger sister, Amy Weldon, noted that the execution occurred on her late mother’s birthday and expressed confidence in the outcome. “I’m confident the right person was executed,” Amy Weldon said. “I don’t like how long it took, but I am confident, 100 percent the right person died.”
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
