No child expects to bury a parent so soon.
But for Hope Yates-MacDonald, the painful loss of her mother has meant diving into murky Florida waters in search of her missing remains.
The Kentucky resident, 32, has spent more than $15,000, and even taught herself to scuba dive, in a heartbreaking quest to recover her murdered mom’s bones.
Jamie Lin Donovan MacDonald, 62, was found dead in a drainage ditch near her home in Homosassa, Florida on June 14, 2024, six weeks after she was reported missing.
But not all of her body was found.
Now Hope has made it her mission to bring her mother fully home.
‘The last year and a half of my life has revolved around recovering my mom,’ the radiology student from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, told the Daily Mail.
‘I’ve learned underwater recovery, worked with forensic experts – everything.
Hope Yates-MacDonald has trained in underwater recovery techniques and has even enlisted the help of a rescue otter named Splash to detect bones in the murky Florida creek
Jamie Lin Donovan MacDonald, 62, was found dead six weeks after she was reported missing in May 2024
‘Right now, I’m still looking for her. I’m still busy. Once I find the rest of her, I think I’ll be able to accept that she’s gone.’
Jamie, a beloved foster carer had struggled with prescription drug dependency after suffering a serious back injury in a car accident six years earlier. Her daughter believes that vulnerability led her into dangerous company.
‘She hurt her back real bad, so the doctor prescribed her an unnecessary amount of pain medicine,’ Hope said.
‘I don’t want that to be a memory of my mom, her addiction, but it kind of just spiraled for her and led her to mixing up with the wrong people.’
Two people – Luequita Sclesky, 32, and her husband, 38-year-old Duane David Sclesky – have been charged with her murder, as well as the killing of 68-year-old Kenneth Zickendrath.
Detectives allege the couple then used stolen personal information to access the victims’ bank accounts.
The two were arrested and charged with two first-degree murder, with Luequita facing 75 counts of misuse of personal identification of a deceased person, fraudulent use of a credit card and unlawful use of two-way communication device.
Duane was also charged with trafficking in fentanyl and possession of paraphernalia/various narcotics.
Hope has spent more than $15,000 searching for her mother’s missing bones after she was murdered and dumped in a drainage ditch in Florida
Luequita Sclesky, 32, and Duane David Sclesky, 38, have been charged with Jamie’s murder – as well as the death of a second person – and are awaiting trial
The Scleskys are accused of stealing personal information to access the victims’ bank accounts
Both are awaiting trial but a date is yet to be set.
Jamie was reported missing to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office on May 12 after her family hadn’t heard from her and became concerned.
‘There wasn’t a day without contact, so when we couldn’t get hold of her, we immediately knew something was wrong,’ Hope said.
Police arrested the Scleskys on June 14, 2024 after investigations led them to find two bodies – one belonging to Jamie.
For Hope, the arrests brought mixed emotions.
‘It was a relief that she wasn’t missing anymore, but then I learned how violently she had been killed,’ she said.
‘They thought my mom wouldn’t have anyone looking for her. They didn’t realize we would never stop.’
When she visited the site where her mom’s body was found to leave flowers, she made a shocking discovery.
The 32-year-old radiology student taught herself scuba diving to continue the search and has shared footage of her dives
‘I saw bones at the bottom, in the middle of the water. I accidentally discovered the first missing bone of my mother’s – we didn’t even know she was missing them.’
Medical teams returned to the scene, but Hope says she struggled to get clear answers about whether all of her mom’s remains had been recovered.
‘I even called an attorney,’ she said. ‘There were rumors of more victims and so I needed to know – were these my mom’s bones? They confirmed they were.’
Jamie had been decomposed from the wrists down, and some bones had been lost in the moving water.
‘I couldn’t leave her there, I didn’t want to lose parts of her in that drainage ditch,’ Hope said.
When authorities said they could not allocate further resources to recovery, Hope took matters into her own hands.
She began learning underwater recovery techniques. She took up scuba diving and trained herself in search methods suitable for low-visibility water.
‘When you step into that creek, you lose vision immediately. I’ve used stretchers, floats – I’ve even searched with my hands,’ Hope explained.
Jamie’s body were discovered in this drainage ditch near her home in Homosassa, Florida on June 14, 2024
Hope has turned to every available resource in her mission to find all of her mother’s remains
She has worked with dogs trained to locate human remains and even befriended a rescue otter named Splash – trained to detect bones underwater.
Since June, Hope has recovered 15 bones. She believes 10 to 12 are still missing, including finger bones (phalanges), wrist bones (carpals), and a metacarpal.
Hope reached out to forensic anthropologists across the world, including in the UK, to determine exactly which bones were still unaccounted for.
‘I gathered everything we had, and they helped identify what was missing,’ she said.
‘The most recent bones were found in October with the help from non-profit organizations.’
The search, however, has come at a great personal cost.
In order to fund her recovery effort, Hope has sold her home and moved into an apartment. So far, she has spent at least $10,000 to $15,000 – a figure she expects to climb.
She created a GoFundMe page to support the recovery efforts but has not widely promoted it.
Foster carer Jamie, pictured with a young Hope, is remembered by her daughter as ‘gentle and kind’
Hope’s visit to the site where her mother was found was when she first spotted bones in the water
She has also started specialized trauma therapy to cope with her grief.
‘The grief hits at different speeds. It’s crippling and overwhelming,’ she said. ‘My birthday was recently and there was only one person I wanted to speak to. My mom.’
‘I can’t leave her abandoned.’
Hope believes finding every remaining bone will allow her to fully grieve.
She is also preparing to face her mom’s accused killers in court.
‘I want them to know who she was. She was the sun, and that’s what they took.’
Hope added: ‘She was gentle and kind. When I think of my mom, I think of empathy. She cared for everything – people, animals, even bugs. She was the sun.
‘If I could tell them something, I would tell them this – you took something that is not replaceable. What you did will not go unnoticed, and I will not stop until I bring my mom home.’
