Joseph Malcolm Freeman of Lakeland was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head inside a Dodge Dakota pickup Sunday afternoon. The truck was reported stolen hours earlier from the Auburndale Nature Trail.
Freeman entered the STAR program, operated by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, in September and would have graduated this month.
On Monday, sheriff's officials said Freeman was a model cadet with a 3.7 grade-point average who talked about becoming an engineer and was recently baptized at an area church.
"For this to have occurred is shocking to all of us," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "Every indicator we had . . . shows that he was progressing well and was on track to graduate from our program."
Freeman was sentenced to STAR by the Department of Juvenile Justice and went into Polk's program in Bartow. The STAR program was created after the Martin Lee Anderson Act, named for a teen who died after being beaten by guards, abolished youth boot camps last year.
Other than Judd, each of Florida's sheriffs who operated a boot camp closed their programs and did not re-open under STAR, which emphasizes education, community service and vocational training.
STAR counselor Eric Holm said he spent a lot of time with Freeman, who appeared to be "very happy."
Holm said fellow cadets who were notified about the suicide Monday shared the same sentiment.
"There was no indication by anyone that he would have done something like this," Holm said.
Freeman's mother, Penny Culver, said she is waiting to see if her son --"Jay" -- was on drugs because she doesn't think he would have killed himself with a clear mind.
"He was in great spirits Saturday. He was happy. He was helping his grandfather rebuild his mobile home because it caught on fire last November," she said. "He worked tremendously hard Saturday."
Sheriff's officials on Monday released the copy of a note reportedly written by Freeman in his home-visit journal.
In it, Freeman wrote to his family: "I'm sorry things aren't working out for the best right now but I cannot go through with this. Things are crazy and I cannot adapt. . . . I'm leaving now and I don't know when I'll be back or even if I'm coming back. Please forgive me."
He signed the letter and ended with a P.S.: "We will all meet agin (sic) soon."
Sheriff's officials said Freeman was signed out of the STAR program Saturday morning by his mother and taken to his uncle's home in Lakeland.
The uncle told deputies he last saw Freeman about 1 a.m. Sunday. When he awoke about 7:30 a.m., the teen was missing.
When Culver called the Sheriff's Office to report her son missing, deputies and K-9s were dispatched to search for the teen, Judd said. Deputies also checked Freeman's friends' houses.
Meanwhile, Polk County resident Franklin Woessner reported his 1998 Dodge Dakota pickup stolen about 8:40 a.m. from the Auburndale Nature Trail. Several hours later, Woessner's relatives spotted the stolen truck near Saddle Creek Road and began to follow it, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Woessner's relatives told detectives Freeman rammed the vehicle on Hickory Road, and then he drove the truck through a barbed-wire fence and crashed into a tree. After the crash, the relatives, who were on the telephone with Polk County dispatchers, waited inside their vehicle until law-enforcement arrived.
Deputies found Freeman locked inside the truck, the music playing loudly. The preliminary investigation indicates Freeman shot himself with a .45-caliber handgun Woessner said he stored in the center console.
Sheriff's Office records show Freeman has been arrested on multiple criminal charges, including grand-theft auto, battery on an education employee, marijuana possession and the use or display of a weapon during a felony.
Culver said the state's juvenile-justice system repeatedly failed her son when she tried to get him help, but she had nothing but praise for Polk County's program.
Now, Culver said, she wants state officials to issue monitoring bracelets to track cadets in the STAR program while they are on home visits.
"I couldn't save my son like I wanted to. He's dead now. But if I can save another child . . . then his life is not going to be in vain," said Culver.
A 14-year-old on a weekend home visit from Florida's only STAR program -- the state's replacement for the controversial youth boot camps -- apparently killed himself after stealing a truck in Polk County, according to sheriff's officials.
The Police State 
