The father of a missing Central Florida boy is criticizing how Marion County Sheriff's investigators are handling the search, saying too much emphasis has been placed on a possible sighting at a Wendy's restaurant that he believes never happened, according to a Local 6 News report.

Trenton Duckett was last seen in late August after his mother, Melinda, reported him missing from their apartment in Leesburg, Fla.

Melinda Duckett then committed suicide days later.

Last year, an employee at a Wendy's restaurant in Belleview, Fla., said she spotted Duckett and her son on the day the boy vanished.

The employee, who passed a lie detector test, claimed the woman returned to the restaurant 20 minutes after her first visit without Trenton.

The alleged sighting prompted Marion County investigators to announce that the boy's mother may have handed off her son.

On Tuesday, for the first time, Josh Duckett spoke out about the sighting and the way the Marion County Sheriff's Office handled it.

"You don't believe Trenton and his mother were ever at Wendy's?" Local 6's Mike DeForest said.

"No," Duckett said. "I think by them doing that, it kind of took the focus off where it may have needed to be."

Also, Trenton's family now doubts the fast-food worker ever saw the toddler because the same employee claims to have witnessed Melinda Duckett in the restaurant a third time on the same day, the report said. The worker said Duckett was at the business at 4 p.m. when cell phone records proved Duckett was not near the Wendy's.

New Details On Woman's Friend

Meanwhile, new details have emerged about Melinda Duckett's friend, Chai-Wen Chen.

Chen, who failed a lie detector test, worked at a Rent-A-Center across the street from the Wendy's and spoke to Melinda Duckett by phone around the same time she was allegedly spotted at the restaurant, police said.

"Now, detectives confirm to Local 6 that Chen was nowhere near the restaurant when he took Melinda's call," DeForest said. "In fact, he wasn't even in the county."

Yet, Marion County investigators still consider Chen a person of interest.

Leesburg police, the lead agency in the case, has never considered Chen a person of interest and they have never considered the Wendy's sighting as a part of their official timeline.

However, the Marion County Sheriff's Office stands behind the Wendy's employee sighting, DeForest said.

"They are convinced Trenton may still be alive somewhere out there," DeForest said.

Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Trenton is urged to call Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.