HMS Prof. Says TV Host Influenced Suicide

In a recent filing of a wrongful-death civil suit to a district court in Florida, Harvard Medical School Psychiatry Professor Harold J. Bursztajn stated that CNN reporter Nancy Grace may have contributed to the suicide of Melinda Duckett, the mother of a 2-year-old who went missing in 2006.

Grace interviewed Duckett for her CNN television program, “Nancy Grace,” on Sept. 7, 2006. The interview aired the next day, after Duckett had shot herself.

In the opinion he provided to the U.S. District Court in Ocala, Fla., Bursztajn referred to Grace’s interview with Duckett at the time as “apparently unanticipated public humiliation... contributing to the cause of her suicide.”

According to the court filing, Bursztajn said that “the timing [of Duckett’s suicide] is consistent with an increased sense of despair following the interview and a fear of the effects of its broadcast.” He wrote that this led him to the preliminary conclusion that Grace may have contributed to the cause of Duckett’s suicide.

“She struck a highly accusatory tone in interviewing Melinda Duckett,” he wrote in the statement.

According to the transcript of the interview, Trenton Duckett, Duckett’s 2 year-old son, suddenly went missing one night after Duckett put him in bed and attended to company at her home. The toddler has not yet been found.

Grace questioned Duckett, asking about whether or not the FBI offered her a polygraph, and pressed for details that Duckett said she could not provide.

Towards the end of the transcript, Grace said, “Why aren’t you telling us and giving us a clear picture of where you were before your son was kidnapped?”

Ducket replied, “Because I’m not going to put those kind of details out?”

When Grace asked, “Why?” again, Ducket said, “Because I was told not to.”

Grace then continued, “Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day 12.”

According to The Orlando Sentinel, Grace has denied in court records that she mentally abused Duckett during the interview.

Bursztajn told The Crimson in an e-mailed statement that he was not able to comment because the case is still in litigation.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.