Tags: MySpace, pop cultureWhat would take to rock your world? To knock you so far off your feet you'd never get up again? To push you off the edge forever? What or who would have to disappear from your life that would make you murder another or take your own life? (Some argue that suicide IS murder.)
A murder and a suicide. Ten or Twenty years ago there would be a news article, maybe some follow-up in Time or Newsweek, and of course the National Enquirer, but it would pretty much end right there. I personally KNEW a murder victim, and I also knew a suicide victim. You don't hear much about either one of them today, and as a matter of fact, one of them fails to show up in any searches I've done on Yahoo or Google. It was in the year or two just before the internet burst on the scene, and it's as if it never happened! Today we have MySpace, FaceBook, blogs, personal websites, chatrooms and forums. The dead sometimes seem as if they are still alive--- many seem to "come to life" after they're gone.
The lives of each of us, whether we dare admit it or no, are intricate tapestries of relationships and situations, one counterbalancing another. For some us the delicate balance is more easily disturbed than for others.
A murder and a suicide. Two people who never knew each other. Two who lived and died, and live on in Cyberspace.
The Suicide: Dead Florida Mom Grew Up In Lockport
Two weeks after telling police that her son was snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett found herself reeling in an interview with TV's famously prosecutorial Nancy Grace. Before it was over, Ms. Grace was pounding her desk and loudly demanding to know: "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"A day after the taping, Duckett, 21, shot herself to death, deepening the mystery of what happened to the boy. But let's go back in time: Duckett happens to be a western New York native. Melinda Eubank was her name when she attended Lockport High.
Melinda (Eubank) Duckett's two year old son, Trenton, was reported missing from his crib by his mother last month. She grew up on Sunset drive. Neighbors say she didn't come outside often, but they recall her as a very smart girl.
The Lockport High school principal says the school is saddened by Melinda's death. She was a "great student to have, it was a shock," said Frank Movalli, principal. He says Melinda left the school after her sophomore year to live with her grandparents in Florida.
The family of the missing Florida boy says CNN's Nancy Grace and others in the media helped push Melinda over the edge. Investigators say Melinda Duckett shot herself to death Friday, the day after she was grilled by Grace in a telephone interview, and hours before the interview aired.
This page from WESH-TV in Daytona is LOADED with Video.
The Melinda and Trenton Duckett StoryMelinda Duckett filed for divorce from Joshua Duckett on June 14, and the two were fighting for custody of Trenton. Two days before Trenton Duckett was reported missing, his mother bought a shotgun at a local pawn shop, authorities said Monday.
Although it was not the gun that Melinda Duckett used to kill herself last week (she used her Grandad's shotgun), it may be another puzzle piece for investigators as they try to link the events that led up to 2-year-old Trenton's disappearance Aug. 27 -- and his mother's suicide almost two weeks later.
SacredScoop is blogging about Melinda's funeral:
Melinda Duckett was laid to rest on Friday, as the search for Trenton Duckett in the Ocala National Forest was suspended briefly. A large search party has resumed the quest to find Trenton Duckett today however.
Melinda Duckett was reported to be spotted in the Ocala National forest by a tipster, and police have focused their attention on that part of the state. Whether the tipster is credible or not remains to be seen.
According to websleuths,
Joshua is on parole and living in Palm Beach county. And here is a link for the Grandfather who is on death row:
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInmates/detail.asp?Bookmark=3&From=list&SessionID=632160642Keep in mind some bloggers have noted that the abovementioned Joshua is not the same man as the father of the missing toddler. I'll leave that for
you to sort out!
Melinda Duckett: the MySpace angleTV host backed by husband of suicide mom--- here's his MySpace page:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=92022224
Grace grilling precedes a mom's suicideA reader on one of the many forums that have sprung up following Melinda's death asks "Why doesn't the mother appear anywhere on the myspace profile?
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=98473990Something tells me we've just scratched the surface in the Melinda Duckett Mystery!
Murdered?
CrimeBlog.US has the story titled "
A Life Worth Living: Avnita Ghuman" about a young Indian beauty who allegedly died as a result of dabbling in drugs. If you read her MySpace pages and other links you'll find Avnita was a very smart, savvy, cultured, intelligent human being. Drugs know no boundaries when it comes to race, caste or class!
Avnita's death has been difficult for her roomate "Jonathan." This is from a blog entry he recently posted:
(link) -
Avnita and I have known each other (and lived together) basically the whole time I've lived in Georgia (about two years). We grew incredibly close... to say the least. Most people who didn't know us thought we were married because we did EVERYTHING together. And not out of obligation, but because our days were truly brightened by each other. We always used to joke about how our "relationship" was meant-to-be from the get-go, because we met not in Georgia, but on the plane as we were both coming from Los Angeles. As soon as we moved into together (with Beth) in Sandy Springs, we immediately bonded. We told each other things that we dared not tell anyone else because we felt that close of a bond. As our first holiday season rolled around, we discovered a mutual love to be overly-festive and would buy out whole sections at Wal-Mart to decorate our townhome for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We introduced each other to our own family traditions and formed new ones together.
We were inseparable. Even through all the faults we confessed to each other our love did not waver.
We were each other's strengths. Each other's hope that we could eventually be a better person...
Imagine, meeting someone so wonderful, mystical, and having such a bond! The kind of friendship or comradery many of us find just once in a lifetime, if at all. Avnita is not the first person to die as a result of an association with the drug culture. Not the first, and not the last.
These are difficult times we live in. they always have been, and always will be. We do our best to live like there's "no day but today," but sometimes that's just not enough. If you are a religious person you may want to remember these two departed souls in your next prayer session. If you are not, read more about them and try to focus on their good qualities.
What could either Melinda or Avnita done to change their respective situations for the better? What advice might you have given one or both of them had you had the chance to do so?
KSU Student Dead in Trunk of Car
The last thing the Republicans needed was a sex scandal five weeks from the midterm election. 
Now, THIS is cool! Anousheh Ansari, AKA "the first space tourist," "the American cosmonaut of Iranian extraction" is BLOGGGING from the starfields!
The last weekend saw 
