Madelyn Clifton was eight years old when she disappeared from her home in Jacksonville, Florida on November 3, 1998. Her body would be found a week later underneath a waterbed in the home of her teenage neighbor, Josh Phillips (14).
This case garnered a lot of media attention due to the ages of both Madelyn and Josh.
We are going to start with background on those involved in the case.
Madelyn “Maddie” Rae Clifton was born on June 17, 1990 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her parents are Steve and Sheila Clifton. Maddie has an older sister named Jessie.
Maddie’s family have been described as being close-knit and their home was said to be a place of love and laughter. Maddie loved music and playing the piano. She also loved playing basketball, football and she was a talented dancer.
Maddie was a joy to those who knew her and she was brimming with life, energy and enthusiasm.
Joshua ‘Josh’ Phillips was born on March 17, 1984 to Steve and Melissa ‘Missy’ Phillips. From what we can ascertain, Steve had at least two children from previous relationship/s – Daniel and Benjie. Steve was said to struggle with drug and alcohol addiction and was violent towards both his wife and his son.
Steve was said to be very strict with Josh. Missy gave some interviews in later years where she spoke about the family dynamics.
“I think if he hadn’t been so intimidating and sometimes overbearing — and he could be frightening. He could be loud and he could be unpredictable. Josh and I walked on eggshells,” Missy said.
Missy said her husband didn’t like neighborhood children to be in the house when no adults were home and he didn’t want Josh playing with girls younger than him.
“I remember he didn’t have a fondness of little girls. I remember when I was pregnant, thinking, ‘Please let it be a boy, please let it be a boy.’ I wasn’t sure what it would be like if I’d had a girl, and that’s something that I haven’t really said to many people,” Missy said.
Steve moved Missy and Josh from Pennsylvania to Florida, which meant that Josh was separated from his half brothers.
By November 1998, Josh and his parents were living in Jacksonville. Josh was described by neighbors as being ‘quiet and friendly.’ A school teacher said that Josh was fun and silly and did nothing negative that caused him to stand out from the rest of the students. He had a C average in school.
Josh and Madelyn were friends and often played together.
Maddie’s mother Sheila has confirmed that they were friends, as has Steve, Josh’s father. Sheila said there was no cause for concern in terms of the friendship. Jessie, Maddie’s sister, also used to play with Josh and said he was ‘a pretty decent kid.’
Josh would give his version of events about what happened on Tuesday November 3, 1998.
He said that he was home alone when Maddie came over and asked him to play baseball at around 5pm. Josh said that he agreed, even though Steve was strict about him not having any friends over when his parents were not home.
Josh said that he was playing baseball with Maddie when he accidentally hit the ball into her eye. He said that she began to scream and was crying and bleeding.
Josh said that he knew Steve would be home soon and he began to panic because he was worried about how his father would react.
Josh said that he dragged Maddie into the house, alleging that the clothing on her lower body came off as he did so (??)
He then said that he beat Maddie with a baseball bat to stop her from screaming before hiding her under the base of his bed.
Around this time, Steve returned home from work. Josh went and spoke to his father before going back to his room.
Josh said that when he discovered Maddie was alive and moaning under the bed, he got a knife from his Leatherman tool and stabbed her multiple times in the chest, as well as cutting her throat.
Maddie was reported missing by her family at around 6.30pm. Sheila realised that something was wrong when she called Maddie and Jessie in for dinner. Jessie went home and told her mother that she had not been with Maddie and that she did not know where her sister was.
“It was like she shut the door and just, poof, vanished off the face of the earth,” said her father Steve.
The Cliftons and their neighbors began searching the neighborhood with flashlights. Josh and his parents were among the volunteers who tried to find Maddie.
The search grew, and over the next few days, thousands of people looked for the little girl.
Josh said of his thought process at the time “I was putting myself in a fantasy world that nothing had happened. That was my defense mechanism for everything when I was a kid. I never made the decision … to ignore it. I just did.”
On the morning of Tuesday November 10, 1998, Missy went into Josh’s room and she noticed a wet spot on the floor.
‘I noticed the wet spot on the floor; that’s what started me looking at the bed. I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.”
After Missy discovered Maddie’s body, she left the house and went looking for a policeman as many of them were still in the neighborhood.
She said she remembers looking at the Cliftons’ house and thinking that they still had hope but that in a minute they would know their daughter was dead.
Law enforcement went to Josh’s school and he was arrested. He confessed to the murder within hours.
Sheriff Nat Glover explained how an officer found Maddie’s body. When the officer went into the room, they could see her feet hanging out from under Josh’s mattress.
Police said as they removed Maddie’s body her hand was found clutching the frame of Josh’s bed. They said she was still alive when he pushed her under.
Josh had taped the bedframe so that Maddie’s body would remain hidden. He had hidden the baseball bat behind his dresser. Air fresheners were found on his nightstand and authorities could tell incense had recently been burned. A missing person poster for Maddie was also found in his room.
An autopsy would discover that Maddie had suffered three blows to the head. It also confirmed Josh’s story that he had cut her throat with a knife and that she had been stabbed seven times in the chest.
Josh’s tennis shoes were found to have blood all over them.
Maddie was not wearing the shorts and underwear that she had been seen in when she left her home. They were found near her body. Jessie told authorities that Josh had spoken about sex with both her and Maddie. An autopsy found that there were no signs of sexual abuse or assault. The lack of sand and dirt on Maddie’s body did not support Josh’s story about her clothing having come off when he dragged her inside.
No blood was found in the backyard or on the baseball that Josh said struck Maddie in the head so this lack of evidence also led to questions about his version of events.
It was also discovered that after Maddie had been killed, Josh watched pornography in his room.
Patrol Sergeant Tom Hackney would later speak about Josh being arrested and called the interaction “chilling.”
“He was cool as a cucumber. He was absolutely not shocked. Our engagement with him was actually in the bedroom where she was recovered, and he sat on the bed, petting his dog, and just was as unemotional, unaffected by law enforcement being in his house. It’s chilling, thinking about it now,” he said.
Maddie’s mother spoke after her daughter’s body was found.
“Josh said, What’s going on? Well, I’ll come out and look for her.? All the time he knew exactly where she was, acted as if nothing had ever happened.” She said.
He said, My mom thought maybe you could use this picnic table.So, I met him in the street and carried it over and said, Thanks Josh. I appreciate it. It’s just ironic that he went to bed that night with Maddie right under him and went to sleep just like any other night.” said Maddie’s father.
Missy said that Josh had been very quiet in the week after Maddie disappeared. “I attributed it to the fact that he was scared. Someone he knew, someone in the neighborhood disappeared.” Missy said.
Missy also spoke about the scrutiny that her family suffered after Josh was arrested. “So many times I’d hear people remark, ‘What’s wrong with that family? Why didn’t they see this, and why didn’t they notice that?? Because there wasn’t anything there out of the ordinary for me to notice. I came home from work that night; there was nothing wrong with my house.” She said.
Missy also said that her husband became angry at the Cliftons after Josh was arrested. “He was angry at the Cliftons, and I didn’t understand why. He would say some things and I’d say, ‘How can you say that? How can you be this way?’ It’s like he almost — I don’t want to say that he blamed them, but he had misdirected anger and grief.”
Josh was tried as an adult. His trial was moved from Duval County to Polk County in an effort to ensure that he got a fair trial due to all the local publicity.
Josh’s lawyer was Richard Nichols and he employed the risky tactic of not calling a single witness for the defense. The attorney based much of the argument on his claim that Maddie’s death was “an act that began as an accident and deteriorated through panic that bordered on madness”.
Josh would later say that the attorney never questioned him about the murder and that they played chess together when he visited the jail prior to the trial.
The trial began on July 6, 199 9 and only lasted for two days – this was due to the defense’s tactic of not calling any witnesses.
“Richard would say certain things, that he’d do this or do that, and in the 11th hour he wouldn’t do them. I would be angry about it, ‘I thought you’d do this, and that’s not helping Josh,’ and then Steve would tell me, ‘He’s the professional. He’s the lawyer, so just stay out of it,'” Missy said.
The jury took only two hours to convict Josh on the charge of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was not eligible for the death penalty because he was under 16 years of age.
After he entered prison, Josh completed his General Education Development (GED). He joined a prison band and plays guitar, he participates in Christian religious services and yoga. He was called a model prisoner by the prosecution.
In June 2000, Josh’s father was killed in a car accident.
Police said Phillips, 50, was driving his van on County Road 267 when the vehicle veered off the right shoulder. Phillips apparently overcorrected and the van went back across the road to the opposite shoulder and overturned.
Phillips was thrown out and died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.
In 2002, an appeal was undertaken on Josh’s behalf. The Florida Second District Court of Appeal upheld his conviction at that time.
In December 2004, Missy began to seek a new trial for her son. In November 2005, the Supreme Court of Florida set a hearing date for the following month to decide if Josh should receive a new trial.
In 2008, Josh wrote a letter of apology to Maddie’s family. He asked if they would meet him in person so that he could apologise as they would not be able to see his sincerity in a letter. Maddie’s mother said she had no interest in speaking to Josh.
Also in 2008, two of the officials most responsible for Josh’s life sentence, Harry Shorstein and Sheriff Nat Glover, admitted having second thoughts about giving a life sentence without the possibility of parole to a child. Shorstein said he regretted not offering Josh a second-degree murder plea, which would have given the judge more discretion in sentencing, and has voiced his support for eventual clemency or parole for Josh.
“I know some people thought [the original] sentence was appropriate, but that was a tough sentence for someone that young. I never got the feeling that it was a malicious, mean-spirited, calculated murder. It was kind of an impulsive act that, given a different set of circumstances, would never have happened.” said Sheriff Nat Glover.
In 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States case of Miller v. Alabama ruled that sentencing juveniles to mandatory life in prison without parole is unconstitutional and Josh’s attorneys would use this to file another appeal in later years.
Josh’s brother Daniel spoke to the media in 2017.
“I wish [Joshua] had never left Pennsylvania,” Daniel told First Coast News, “but I could say that a million times and that’s not going to change anything.”
“[Our father] took [Joshua] away from me,” Daniel, 11 years Joshua’s senior said, declaring unequivocally that the separation and ensuing isolation Joshua experienced led to the tragedy.
“He would have had me; he would have had [third brother] Benjie,” Daniel surmised. “He would have been an uncle to my kids and he would have assimilated in to my life here.”
“But when they went down there he had nobody, and that was my father’s choice,” Daniel lamented. “It didn’t matter, you know, how much we begged him not – my father did what he was going to do and nobody would have had anything to do with it.”
“When all three of my kids would turn eight [Maddie Clifton’s age when she died], it made it tougher for me,” Daniel said. “I would get angry and I wouldn’t write to him, and I wouldn’t kind of be involved with him.”
“I’ve been back and forth because I’m human, and I’m a father and I’m a parent,” he said. “But I’m also a brother,” he added, revealing part of his own conflict.
As earlier mentioned, Josh’s case and sentence was relooked at by the court in 2017.
This info is from Jacksonville.com:
In 1999 he was sentenced to be locked up for life. At the time, his sentence was automatic. But much has changed since then between evolving science on the development of the adolescent brain and a series of U.S. and Florida Supreme Court decisions. Bottom line now is that it is unlawful to blanketly sentence youthful offenders to life behind bars. A life sentence should be rare.
Friday morning Judge Waddell Wallace spoke for a little more than 30 minutes about the sea change in society when it comes to youthful offenders and said it saddened him to sentence Phillips to life.
“This is an extraordinary case,” the judge said.
Wallace urged Phillips to stay on the path of being a problem-free prisoner and said he hoped he’d find a meaningful purpose incarcerated. The judge also remarked on the sheer coldness of the crime.
Phillips’ detachment at the time gave Wallace great concern, said the judge, who noticeably avoided looking at him as he read his ruling. He said he was not convinced society would be safe if Phillips were set free.
“It is appropriate to impose a life sentence in a case that’s a truly unusual case. … Irredeemable depravity or the worst of the worse or circumstances that are truly unique and different from the ordinary,” Wallace said. “I believe this is one of the most rare and unusual crimes that warrants life in prison.”
“I have a lot of emotions right now but I am happy. I think this is justice for Maddie and for my family,” Jessica Clifton said.
“I think today is a wonderful day,” Maddie’s sister said. “I thank God and the criminal justice system. I’m just very happy with the way things turned out.”
Josh’s life sentence was again upheld in December 2019. The Florida First District Court of Appeal said that his sentence could be reviewed again and possibly modified in 2023. As far as we can tell, nothing happened in 2023.
On May 6, 2026, Josh (now in his early 40s), voluntarily withdrew his application for a sentence review. He said he wanted to better address rehabilitation concerns that had been raised by a state expert before he returned to court.
“Upon filing my application for sentence review and returning to Duval County for these proceedings, my family and I were excited as well as nervous,” he wrote. “I was quite confident, and still am, that upon release I would live a productive and meaningful life absolutely free of any fears of a return to incarceration.”
However, Josh said his confidence shifted after reviewing a report written by the state’s expert witness, Dr. Gregory Prichard.
“This became more clear to me after interviews with various experts since returning to Jacksonville, most especially so after reading the report written by the state’s expert witness, Dr. Gregory Prichard,” he wrote.
According to Josh, Dr Prichard’s report identified several areas of concern related to his rehabilitation, including a lack of professional counseling regarding the crime and his childhood, early exposure to pornography, general identity issues, sexual identity, and drug addiction that developed after his incarceration.
Josh acknowledged that he had attempted to enroll in Department of Corrections programs to address some of those issues but said he was turned away.
“I did attempt to do some of the Department of Corrections’ programs for some of these issues but was refused due to my status as a ‘lifer,’” he wrote. “I was told in very clear terms that it was not allowed.”
He said he instead pursued self-directed study on those subjects.
“However, after reading Dr. Prichard’s report it became clear to me that although self-educating on the topics mentioned above is laudable, it is not a substitute to true professional counseling and therapy,” Josh said.
Josh stated his intent to resubmit his application after addressing the concerns outlined in Dr Prichard’s report. Per the filing, the sentencing court retains original jurisdiction for the duration of his sentence for the purpose of a future sentence review hearing.
“Armed with the information now at my disposal I have no doubts that after this withdrawal of my application and subsequent return to prison that I will be able to address and assuage every concern mentioned by Dr. Prichard in his report,” he wrote.
Josh also gave another apology to Maddie’s family.
“As always I wish to convey my deepest apologies to Maddie’s Family for the reopening of wounds that any legal action in my case surely causes,” he wrote.
“Maddie didn’t get a second chance. She didn’t get to grow up, graduate, fall in love, or have a family of her own. Maddie’s sentence was final. Her killer’s should be, too,” Jessie said.
Jessie said she would testify at Josh’s sentence review and would read a victim impact statement.
“This time, I’m really going to sit down and I’m going to take my time and I’m going to write something that’s, that’s going to hopefully make him feel… I mean, I guess that’s not the goal, really, to make him feel bad. That’s not my intention. But I want him to see how bad I’m hurting and that I don’t really care that he’s hurting or wants to get out of jail. So, my hurt is forever. His should be also,” Jessie said.
“He knew how badly she was hurt, and he could have gotten help twice, and she was still alive. And that to me, I just, I can’t see past child brain, adult brain, alien brain. I don’t, I don’t care. I truly do not. I think you know right from wrong,” she said.
SOURCE LIST –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Phillips_(murderer)
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-district-court-of-appeal/1276072.html
https://www.jacksonville.com/picture-gallery/news/2018/11/03/a-look-back-the-disappearance/814597007
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6991895/madelyn_rae-clifton
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/chilling-case-joshua-phillips-how-12023530