Florida murder victim's sister says 'all of us have been robbed in a great way' following death row execution
James Duckett, a former Mascotte police officer, was executed on July 28 for the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee.
But for decades, he was also considered the prime suspect in a separate, unsolved murder of 14-year-old Jeanifer Shyan Weldon.
Following Duckett's execution last night, Jeanifer's sister has spoken out about being robbed of a 'great injustice' due to him never being formally charged with her killing.
Duckett was put to death at 1:19 pm at Florida State Prison near Starke after the US Supreme Court declined his final appeal.
Advert
Duckett’s lawyers had asked for additional DNA testing on semen that was found on Teresa’s clothing, in a last ditch attempt to stop his execution. However, this was to little avail.
'All of us have been robbed in a great way'
Following the execution, Hope Limsansah, Jeanifer's sister, spoke out during a media briefing.
She said: "I am the younger sister of Jeanifer Shyan Weldon, I was born two years after she was murdered. I've gone my entire life not knowing my sister, and having to imagine what it would've been like to know her, to know her love, to know who she was a person.
"I feel that all of us have been robbed in a great way."
Who else was James Duckett suspected of killing?
Duckett lost his job with the Mascotte police department shortly before he was charged with Teresa's murder, and went on to work at a phosphate mine in southern Polk County.
It was that same September when Jeanifer vanished on her walk home along U.S. 98 North in Lakeland.
She had reportedly been carrying a stuffed toy from a fair earlier that day. A fisherman later found her body on October 2, near a mining pit not far from where Duckett was employed.
Investigators revisiting the case in 2005 pointed out that Duckett's route to work that night would have taken him along the same stretch of road Weldon disappeared from, and that he'd shown up two hours late for his shift looking disheveled.
His wife later told police he'd arrived home carrying a bag containing a stuffed toy, an item she remembered because their two sons had fought over it before she threw it out.
Was anybody charged with Jeanifer's murder?
No one has ever been charged over her murder, though Duckett was long treated as the sole suspect.
A sheriff's major told the Ledger in 2003 that Duckett had been 'the one and only suspect' for years, and the office said at the time it was close to bringing charges against him. However, those charges never materialised.
Duckett denied he was the murderer.
He was executed on July 28, alongside Dominick Occhicone, 80, both of whom died via lethal injection.
This was a rare historical event, as Florida last had a double-execution in 1967, the first since the modern introduction of the death penalty.
Topics: True crime, Florida
Thomas Bamford