Upon returning home from lunch, Bill and Nancy Eubank found a note on the kitchen counter saying that Melinda had retired to her room for a quick nap and that she would eat when she got up. When Nancy entered the master bedroom she came up on the opened and empty shotgun case on the bed. A kitchen fork lay nearby, upside down, on the carpet. What the fork was doing on the carpet is not clear.

The horrifying realization hit Nancy hard and she yelled to Bill to start looking for Melinda. Nancy was the one who went into Melinda's old bedroom in their Lady Lake home and discovered her lifeless body in the closet. She is haunted with nightmares of that discovery to this day.

Melinda Duckett

Shortly after Bill picked up the phone to dial 911, a federal agent, who had been working with Melinda regarding her missing son, arrived. "The agent," Bill noted, "used to just 'drop by' unannounced." He did so again that day and when Bill handed him the phone, the agent told the operator he would "take it from there."

The elder Eubanks were escorted from their home as various law enforcement and emergency personnel began to arrive and secure the scene. Having confiscated the keys to their car, all they could do was to wait. Their pastor from their local church came to aid the grieving grandparents and took them to his home.