LEESBURG - Crimeline rarely rings anymore for Trenton Duckett, the Leesburg toddler who was reported missing from his bed two years ago today.
Police have fielded more than 1,400 tips since Trenton first disappeared, but only 40 in the past year, as national and local media have focused on other missing kids, including Caylee Anthony of Orange County.
The tips are vaguer now, too.
"We look into all kinds [of leads], but psychics and 'I-think-I-might-have-seen-him-here-or-on-TV,' that's the type we've been getting for about the last year or so," Leesburg police Maj. Steve Rockefeller said.
As family and friends of the boy prepare to mark the anniversary with a candlelight vigil tonight at Leesburg City Hall, Trenton's father, Joshua Duckett, 23, remains hopeful that his son, who would now be 4 years old, will come home safely.
"You have to prepare yourself for the worst but hope for the best," Duckett said. "Staying positive, staying busy helps."
Duckett, who is not presently employed, recently has distributed fliers on behalf of the Anthony family, using the opportunity to remind the public of his son, too. He will attend a state program for missing and endangered children in Tallahassee next month. Duckett also monitors his own Web site, helpfindtrenton.com, for clues.
Police say the boy's mother, Melinda Duckett -- 21 when she killed herself Sept. 8, 2006, at her grandparents' home -- remains the lone suspect in the case. Many answers died with her.
Friends say the Duckett family rejects the notion that the boy is dead, too.
"It's hard [for them] to even admit it could be a possibility," said Laurie Konnerth, 52, of Eustis, who helped organize the vigil.
Rockefeller said investigators are "open" to a variety of theories, but have gathered no evidence to support an abduction or the suggestion that Melinda "handed him off" to someone else to keep the boy from Joshua, her estranged husband.
Police also have no evidence that the boy is dead, Rockefeller said.
"But as more time goes by, the likelihood of a safe recovery becomes more remote," he said.
Lawyers for Melinda Duckett's parents recently won a legal victory over cable news personality Nancy Grace, who wanted a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit accusing her and CNN of pushing the young mother to suicide with an aggressive interview.
Grace, an employee of CNN, and the cable giant filed an answer in federal court last week in which they denied "intentional infliction of emotional distress." Their lawyers denied all allegations, pointing out that Melinda Duckett had accepted an "invitation to participate in the taping of an episode of Nancy Grace and that the episode was designed to provide the public with news on the investigation into the disappearance of Trenton Duckett."
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