By Amy L. Edwards
The Ledger
amy.edwards@theledger.com

LAKELAND
The black and gold marker is in the last row of graves at Glen Abbey Memorial Gardens in Auburndale. Flowers, a musical symbol and a softball glove are inscribed on the metal plate along with the message: "SISTERS ARE FOREVER."

The grave belongs to Jeanifer Shyan Weldon, who was murdered just days before her 15th birthday in 1987.

A 10th-grader at Lake Gibson High School, she disappeared as she walked to her North Lakeland home from a friend's house.

About two weeks later, on Oct. 2, 1987, her body was found off a remote dirt road south of Fort Meade.

Now, nearly 16 years later, Polk sheriff's officials say they are close to charging former police Officer James Duckett -- who is already on death row for killing an 11year-old girl in Lake County -- with Jeanifer's murder.

Duckett, 45, is appealing his conviction, and Polk officials, fearing that his appeal might be successful, are pushing to charge him with the killing.

"He's been considered a suspect for a very long time . . . the one and only suspect," said Polk County sheriff's Maj. W.J. Martin.

AN EMPTY ACHE

For Alice Walters, her daughter's death was so devastating that she still can't talk about it publicly.

"There is an empty ache inside of me that never seems to go away," Walters wrote in a letter to a Ledger reporter. "I have learned how to live with the grief. But there are other emotions that I have not been able to deal with."

Amy Weldon says even if she finds out who killed her older sister she will still face the sadness that has consumed her for years.

"I thought my sister would be the first one to have kids," said Weldon, 30, who is 11 months younger than Jeanifer. "I thought I'd be going to her wedding first."

Life didn't turn out as the little sister had hoped.

"There's not a holiday, no matter how happy everyone seems, that you don't think in the back of your mind that (Jeanifer) is not here," she said.

Finding her sister's killer would help.

"The closure of wondering who did it every day will ease my mind," Weldon said. "The guilt and the hurt -- no."

Weldon said she remembers the last time she saw her sister -- Sept. 19, 1987. Their last conversation was an argument.

Amy was at home across the street from Lake Gibson High School when Jeanifer called and said she was at a friend's house.

Jeanifer wasn't supposed to be there because she was grounded.

"She asked if I would meet her and come get her," Weldon said.

The sisters quarreled, and, Weldon said, "I told her no."

Then she hung up the phone.

However, shortly after, Weldon said she called back and told Jeanifer's best friend to call her when Jeanifer left -- so she could meet her halfway.

The night went on seemingly normal until Weldon said she got a call a few hours later, about 8:30 p.m.

It was Jeanifer's friend calling to see if she had made it home yet.

"That's when I freaked because she was supposed to call me," Weldon said.

Not even taking time to get her German shepherd's leash, Weldon said, she took a belt, tied it around the dog, and went searching for her sister.

"I ran from our house to the path where I thought she'd be coming from," Weldon said.

The friend last saw Jeanifer crossing U.S. 98 North near Daughtery Road, several miles from the Weldon home on North Socrum Loop Road.

Amy Weldon left a note at home for her mother, who later joined the search, but they found no trace of Jeanifer.

As the hours and days passed, they put up fliers in stores and shopping centers all over the Lakeland area.

The fliers described Jeanifer as "pretty for a 15-year-old; she looks older than 15," according to a story in The Ledger.

With Jeanifer missing and the fliers posted, Weldon said, painful rumors began about her sister.

"People were saying she ran away . . . got married," Weldon said. "There were so many rumors at the time."

Walters, the girls' mother, wrote in her letter of the fear she felt.

"The sheer panic when I could not find her," she wrote. "The empty ache that began to grow inside of me as we searched and prayed."

And she clearly remembers the day Jeanifer's body was found.

"The horrible shock when we found her violated and murdered in an isolated area," Walters wrote. "An agony so great, I could feel her terror and her pain."

Jeanifer had been sexually assaulted and was probably strangled, although her body was too decomposed to know for certain.

"She could have been strangled, stabbed or died of gunshot wounds," the medical examiner told The Ledger.

She was initially identified by her clothes that were found near her body.

MASCOTTE CASE

Detectives see similarities in Jeanifer's murder and the 1987 killing of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee of Mascotte, a small town in Lake County where James Duckett worked as a police officer.

Duckett was accused of picking up the girl at a convenience store while cruising in his patrol car.

McAbee's body was found in a lake one day after she disappeared. The medical examiner said she had been raped and strangled.

Fingerprints from Duckett and McAbee were found "commingled" on the hood of his patrol car.

A suspect in McAbee's death but not yet arrested, Duckett was fired from the Mascotte Police Department and got a mining job in Polk County near Bartow.

Duckett, who was living in Lake County at the time, would have been driving to work on U.S. 98 North when Jeanifer Weldon was walking home, Martin said.

Duckett was two hours late for work the day Jeanifer disappeared, Martin said.

Polk investigators also learned that for seven years Duckett had lived two miles from where Jeanifer's body was found off Old Bowling Green Road.

Martin said Duckett fished and hunted in the area, which is more than 20 miles south of where Jeanifer disappeared in North Lakeland.

At the time of Jeanifer's disappearance, Duckett's wife said he brought home a lime-green bag that had a stuffed animal in it.

Martin said Jeanifer bought the stuffed animal when she was at the mall the day she disappeared.

Duckett's wife told investigators she was upset that Duckett had brought home only one toy because the couple had two children. Martin said after Duckett was sentenced, a relative helping his wife clean out their house recalled seeing the stuffed animal in the bag and threw it away.

Martin said when Duckett was arrested in Lake County, Polk detectives tried to question him.

However, Duckett refused to be interviewed, saying his lawyer told him not to speak to Polk investigators, Martin said.

Nonetheless, Martin said he is confident that the ex-cop is the killer.

"When you look at all the facts, even though it's circumstantial, it's overwhelming," Martin said.

After Duckett was convicted for the Lake County slaying, Martin said the State Attorney's Office in Polk County decided there was not enough evidence to press charges against him in Jeanifer's murder.

Martin it was a "borderline case" and Duckett was already given a death sentence.

"You've already got the guy on death row," Martin said.

However, Duckett's recent appeal has caused investigators to re-evaluate their case.

"The appeal kind of calls some of the stuff to resurface," Martin said. "It's important that we do charge him."

Martin said that the Sheriff's Office has not yet handed over its investigation to the State Attorney's Office, but it hopes to soon.

"We are adding circumstantial evidence we weren't aware of at the time," Martin said. "It's certainly good evidence."

And even though 16 years have passed, Martin said, he does not think time will be a problem in convicting Duckett.

"The State Attorney's Office will have to make the decision," Martin said, "but from my perspective, I don't see it being a big issue."

There is no statute of limitations on murder cases, said Chip Thullbery, administrative assistant state attorney.

Thullbery, who could not comment on the Duckett case, said it is not uncommon to bring criminal charges many years after a crime was committed.

"Certainly, many cases are solved years after they occurred," Thullbery said. "In general, we will always pursue first-degree murder cases."

Walters, Jeanifer Weldon's mother, wrote that she recalled McAbee's death.

"I remember hearing about an 11-year-old little girl that had been murdered in Lake County, and that a police officer was a suspect. It brings to mind the words spoken by one of Jeanifer's friends, that Jeanifer would not have gotten in the car with anyone other than someone she knew or a police officer," she wrote.

Duckett's attorney says the former police officer is not guilty.

"My client didn't commit it," said Elizabeth Wells, an Atlanta-based attorney with the Federal Defender Program.

Wells said Duckett didn't commit the Lake County murder either.

A FEAR

Amy Weldon recalls the day her mother picked her up from basketball practice and told her they found Jeanifer's body.

"I remember being in a daze looking out the car window," she said. "I wanted proof it was her.

"I went through the period of, `it didn't happen.' "

Jeanifer played softball on the same team as her sister, but she was a girl's girl who liked wearing makeup and shopping, her sister said.

"She was just a teen who liked to hang out with her friends," Amy Weldon said. "She was a typical teen who wouldn't have harmed anyone deliberately."

Weldon, then in the ninth grade, said she went back to school "sooner than they wanted me to," and immersed herself in sports to take her mind off Jeanifer's death.

But she would go to school late so she wouldn't have to talk to other students about it before class.

"I was trying not to think about it," Weldon said.

She felt a fear that she didn't know before.

"People think, `That will never happen to me.' Well, that was me. Then you wake up one day and realize that happened to me."

Weldon said she was afraid to walk alone at night. "I wouldn't go to the end of the driveway by myself."

In a matter of weeks, Weldon and her mother had moved in with a relative.

"We couldn't stay in the house," Weldon said.

She said her father was not living with them at the time and they do not have a close relationship.

Weldon said that several years ago she stopped by the house, not knowing who lived there, and spoke with a teen who opened the front door.

She explained who she was and what happened to her sister when they lived there and asked if she could look around.

Weldon said the teen gave her a strange look, but let her in.

She walked around for 10 minutes.

"To me, that person will never know how it felt," Weldon said. "I said `Thank you, I really appreciate it.' "

Weldon is married and lives in Polk County. Her mother moved away and did not want The Ledger to publish where she currently lives.

OVERLY PROTECTIVE

Weldon, the mother of a 7-month-old boy and pregnant with her second child, said she now understands Jeanifer's loss not just as a sister, but also as a mother.

"I'm very protective over him (her son)," Weldon said. "My mom tells me I will lighten up with him some day, but I don't think I will.

"I'll be driving in my car and see kids, 10, 11, 12 years old who walk alone," she said. "It makes you want to stop and say `Hey, do you know what can happen?' "

"I tell people, `You know my sister got picked up, and she'll never be back to tell you about it.' "

Since becoming a mother, Weldon said, she's learned to keep pictures and keepsakes of her son, partly because she doesn't have much from Jeanifer.

"There are pictures that my mom and I split up, but there's not a lot of stuff," she said.

She regrets not doing more with her sister.

"I thought of everything I didn't do with her," she said. "There's not a day I don't think I wish I could have done this with my sister. It makes me feel bad."

Today, Weldon said, she surrounds herself with family and friends and makes sure that they know they are loved.

"I live my life around the people who I love the most," she said.

Amy L. Edwards can be reached at amy.edwards@theledger.com or 863-802-7550.