WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a press conference on the cold case of a missing 14-year-old girl from 1987.
Sheriff Judd said they believe James Duckett to be the suspect in the abduction and murder of Jeanifer Weldon, a 14-year-old girl who went missing after leaving her friend's house in Lakeland in September 1987. Her body was found on Oct. 2, 1987, in Fort Meade.
“Only 1.8 miles from where the suspect James Duckett once lived before he was a Moscotte police officer, ” Judd said.
WATCH: Sheriff Grady Judd identifies suspect in cold case of missing girl from 1987
According to PCSO, they believe executed Florida State prisoner James Duckett is the suspect because of circumstantial evidence collected over the years and similar details involved in another case. Duckett was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Tereasa McAbee in 1987. He had been suspected in murders including Weldon's.
Weldon's body was found near the mines where Duckett had previously worked. He arrived to work late that day and said he had car trouble.
"We never had one iota of evidence that anyone other than James Duckett committed this murder. Never," Sheriff Judd said during the press conference.
Watch press conference with Sheriff Grady Judd
Sheriff Judd said there was no DNA evidence or substantial evidence to prove Duckett committed this crime, because of a lack of technology at the time. However, all circumstantial evidence pointed in that direction, and there was never any other evidence that pointed in any other direction.
“Today we would’ve had DNA and the ability to do much, much more than we could ever do then,” Judd said.
PCSO detectives interviewed Duckett multiple times over the year but he would never speak without a lawyer present.
With only circumstantial evidence, PCSO decided to move forward on charges only tied to the McAbee case where Duckett was sentenced to death. They hoped as DNA technology progressed they could tie him to the Weldon case as well.
PCSO is working with the state attorney's office to present the case for one final review before the case is "exceptionally cleared" because the suspect is now deceased.
Weldon’s sister said the announcement brings closure after waiting decades for justice.
“I’ve never stopped wondering what it could’ve been like to have my sister in my life. What we might have in common, what we might fight about as sisters. All the things that I could never know because I never had a chance because we were robbed,” said Hope Limansah.
Duckett was executed on July 28. Judd said detectives gave Duckett one final opportunity to confess before his execution, but he refused to speak.
“It’s heart wrenching for us that he wouldn’t even say he was sorry,” said Weldon’s best friend, Mindy Oakley.
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