Part 1: Who Killed Makeva Jenkins After Her Inspiring Final Post?
50m 3s
Makiva Jenkins, a 33-year-old mother of three and successful entrepreneur from Lake Worth, Florida, was fatally shot in her home on June 28, 2017, just hours after posting a heartfelt Facebook message about her journey from homelessness to financial independence. Her final post, which praised her resilience and success, had drawn widespread admiration, highlighting her journey from poverty to multi-six-figure earnings. The night of the incident, a masked man entered the home, held her brother, husband, and friend at gunpoint, and demanded money before shooting Makiva in the head. Despite the family’s apparent stability and wealth, the crime scene showed no signs of a robbery—no stolen items, no forced entry, and no cash. Investigators found no physical evidence linking the killer to a known criminal, and the home remained unransacked. A key suspicion arose from a mistaken identity: the gunman may have confused Makiva with her mother, Mark Quest, who had a criminal record and similarities in appearance and build. Additionally, a motive of jealousy and revenge emerged from Tiffany Webb, Yuri’s former partner, who had a prior pregnancy with Yuri and openly mocked Makiva online. Though Yuri admitted to the past affair, he denied any current involvement. The case remains unsolved, with investigators focusing on motive, identity, and the possibility of a tragic mix of personal conflict and mistaken recognition. The incident shocked the community, raising concerns about safety and the dangers of public financial transparency in personal lives.
The search is on for a gunman who killed the mother of three and boyton beach the victim a wife and a mother And just two hours before her death Jenkins and posted on Facebook that she was proud of herself for working her way From homelessness to financial success in just two years Relatives fear that her post may have had somebody to do with her death on the night of June 28th 2017 a 33-year-old pregnant mother of three living in Lake Worth, Florida sat down and wrote her very last Facebook post She didn't know it would be her last and it was about how far she had come from homelessness to six figures to multi six figures about how anyone could do it if they just stayed consistent stayed determined and kept going no matter what the road looked like People were commenting they were sharing it they were saving it and then just hours later She was dead and here's the thing that's going to make your stomach drop by the end of this She never saw it coming Hi everyone welcome back to my channel and if you have never been here before Hi, I'm Kimberlya. It's nice to finally meet you Now I want to take you right back to Lake Worth, Florida on June 29th of 2017 23-year-old McEva Jenkins house. It's two 17 in the morning when her brother Quay calls 911 He's not okay. He can barely get words out. He's screaming. He's crying and at one point You hear him yelling. Oh God over and over again because what else can you say When you walk into a room and you see your sister not moving covered in blood The dispatcher is trying to keep him calm But he's somewhere between grief and the reality that this is happening He manages to give them his address. He manages to say she's still breathing And he stays on the line deputies and paramedics get there within minutes and they find McEva in her bedroom upstairs in her bed Unresponsive and there is a wound to her head They start working on her immediately. They get her out of the house into an ambulance and they are moving quickly But sadly she would not make it She was only 33 years old. She was a mother of three and she was pregnant with her fourth child Her name's dead at the hospital and now everyone needs to figure out what on earth happened inside that home Especially with her family inside with her To understand that night we've got to go way back Because McEva didn't just appear in Lake Worth, Florida in this home in this beautiful place where she was raising her family She worked her way there So let's talk about who she actually was McEva Sakenya Harold Jenkins was born on August 8th of 1983 in Belgrade, Florida And if you don't know about Belgrade It is a small agricultural town sitting on the southern edge of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County, Florida And I mean small It's sometimes called the muck because of the rich dark soil around Lake Okeechobee And that is that agricultural industry. It's what it was built on But here's the reality of what this place actually looks like for people who live there It unfortunately has one of the highest poverty rates in all of the state of Florida And the same families have been there for generations And the options available to them are pretty much the same That was available to their grandparents and their parents before them Sadly poverty wasn't the exception It was the norm Where hard work didn't always translate into something better Where a lot of people spend their whole lives Just trying to stay afloat and never quite getting where they wanted to be But interestingly, I found out that Belgrade produced almost impossible numbers of NFL players for a town at size Glade Central specifically has documented by the New York Times in 2001 As having produced more active NFL players than any other high school in the country at the time So there's a lot of incredible resilience and talent that comes out of this place It's a town that creates fighters People who are hungry to get out there and make something of themselves And Makiva fits perfectly into that story I'm telling you this because Makiva came into that world with something different about her from the beginning Her aunt Sabrina felt it immediately She said she was special from day one Makiva had something about her where you could just tell She was going to do something with her life But her home life at the time it was complicated from the start Her mother Marquesta was raising Makiva and her younger brother Marquavius Who they called Kway and she was doing it on her own As a single mom working hard trying to hold it all together and she loved her kids But unfortunately Marquesta's choices pulled her towards the wrong people and the wrong situations And the consequences of those choices had a way of spilling into everyone else's lives around her Makiva's little brother described their mother as a hurricane Which honestly tells you everything she was intense She was loving but she was also destructive all at once So their grandmother Gloria Herald stepped in Gloria became the steady motherly figure in their lives The structure, the person that made sure that everyone felt safe And that things were more predictable And there was someone you could always count on And aunt grandma was the best that way Their wise and they step in and I'm so sad that mine are now both gone But from Makiva especially Gloria wasn't just a grandma She was the foundation that everything else was built upon Growing up, Makiva was the kind of kid who got strong grades She was popular and she moved easily between different groups of friends She wasn't confined to one click or one identity And by the time she got to Glade Central High School She was elected homecoming queen She graduated the near top of her class But here's what's important to understand about Makiva The success in school wasn't just about being smart It was completely intentional She was watching what was happening all around her She was watching her neighbors, her friends getting stuck in the cycles That felt inherited rather than chosen And she was watching her own mother struggle And she made a decision early on that she was not going to be one of those people She was going to get out Not because she didn't love where she came from She was proud of who she was But because she understood exactly what staying meant for her She wanted to believe in who she could become And that determination that refusal to accept a ceiling That someone else put on her life That was going to carry her further than anyone in Belgrade could have imagined So Makiva does what she says she's going to do She gets out After graduating from high school, she enrolls at University of South Florida in Tampa Studying for her bachelor's degree in criminal justice She was on her way First person type of energy moving forward Exactly the plan that she'd been building towards her entire life And then she found out she was pregnant And now think about that for a moment in what it might have felt like You grew up watching what happens when life catches you off guard And you don't have a foundation under you yet You fought your way out of Belgrade specifically to avoid that story And now here you are in college, single, pregnant And the relationship with baby's father wasn't going anywhere And Makiva knew that a lot of people can feel trapped by that moment I have been in that exact situation So I know what that feels like and I wouldn't have blamed her And I don't think anyone else would have either But Makiva, she makes that part of her story She stays enrolled in college, she keeps the baby She raises her daughter by herself And sure she was juggling a lot Being a new mom, a full-time student It wasn't easy But Makiva didn't just survive She finished, she got her degree And then she went back She enrolled at Barry University in Miami And got her master's degree She chose a degree in social work I know we hear about these success stories But these are not small things That's an extraordinary thing And after school she threw herself into entrepreneurship Because that is who she was She wanted to own herself She did not want to work for somebody else Especially because her brain never stopped She always had good ideas and she kept them coming And she would test a few She opened a creative party designing business Where she helped her events Then a tax business Then a boutique Where she sold fashion items and beauty products But none of them felt right So Imagine setting your makeup Then forgetting it's even theirs Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York Jeldermist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours With flexible all day comfy grip No tightness, no stickiness, no residue Just plump, dewy hydrated skin That still feels like your skin Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York Maybe it's Mabelie Oh, they didn't last But she knew that going in that they might not work But she didn't treat them as failures She treated them as the tuition you pay Before you figure out what you're actually supposed to be doing And I love that Because it's so true It's just a stepping stone What she was actually supposed to be doing turned out to be the prime enterprise group Which is a business consulting company that she built From the ground up It helped entrepreneurs and small business owners Turn their ideas into real, fundable business plans Just like she did She worked with people who had never had access To this kind of knowledge before People who wanted to hustle But they just needed the roadmap And she became the roadmap She posted YouTube videos and she posted on Facebook
She held online conferences and Zoom calls, and she was truly inspiring. She documented everything on social media and not in a curated, highlight, real kind of way, in a real way, the long days, the setbacks, the winds and the losses. She came on without getting dressed up, putting on her makeup or having her hair perfectly done because she wasn't pretending that success was easy. She was showing people that it was possible. And she was truly one of the most genuinely raw types of content creators that aren't trying to be an influencer, but instead just share their world hoping they will encourage others. Or let other people like her know that there's someone out there that can relate. - Hi everyone, my name is Makiva Jenkins, business strategist and coach with the Prime Enterprise Group. What I do is help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. And then things got really hard before they ever got better. In 2013, Makiva didn't have a place to live. Here's a woman with a master's degree, with a daughter, with a business, and she's trying to build all this and she doesn't have a roof over her head that she can count on. Now I'm not sure of all the specifics of how this came to be, but it was deeply personal to her and she kept going anyway. And that's what's important. And then by 2015, she hit six figures. And by 2017, she was making multi-six figures and purchased a home of her own. She was planning a five-day digital business seminar to teach other people how she did it. It was a classic rags to Rich's story, and that was exactly her brand. If she could do it, you could too. And through it all, her little brother Quay, who was 11 years younger than her, was watching. And to him, Makiva wasn't just his sister. She was like his second mother, his constant. The person who made sure that no matter what was happening around them, he never felt alone in it. She pushed him to want more for himself. She believed in him when the circumstances around them were telling both of them to give up. She was everything to him, which is going to matter a lot in this tragic story. But there was another part of Makiva's life that she was really proud of, because it was great that she was self-made, but she wanted to have someone to share her life with. That was the real prize. And here's where God or the universe, or whatever you believe in, decides to finally give this woman a break. But we're gonna have to back up just a little bit. It was New Year's Eve, 2009. Makiva is at a church celebration. She's 26, she's already a single mom. She's grinding, she's building, she's doing it all by herself. And if there's one thing she's been praying for consistently, genuinely, it's a family, a real one, a partner. Someone to do life with. And then she sees this handsome guy at church, Yuri Jenkins, he's 23 years old. He's the son of a pastor. He is absolutely devastatingly good-looking in her point of view. And Makiva is not the type to stand in a corner and just hope that he's gonna notice her. She walks up, she introduces herself, and the smile on her face when she did. People who were there the night still were talking about it years later. Her cousin said, she hugged Yuri a little tighter than she hugged anybody else that night. And she was in it deep for this man. But the feeling was mutual. I mean, come on, Makiva was a catch. She was beautiful, smart, grounded. And they believed in the same things for their future. They started dating and things moved fast, but it wasn't in a reckless way. It just felt right. He's charming, he makes her feel safe. Her family does have some reservations 'cause they just tell her, you can slow down. But Makiva is all the way in. She know what she wanted and sometimes you just do. This was the answer to everything she had been asking God for, a partner, a father for her, her child, and maybe future children, a family, being built the way she had always envisioned it. And it's meant to be when the other person wants the same things. And within about a year, she was pregnant with their son. And for privacy reasons, I'm not going to be naming her minor children, so I will just prefer to him as their son. They knew that they wanted a wedding as well, but that was gonna have to wait. But the day finally came on November 27th of 2010. They got married in a beautiful church ceremony surrounded by everyone they love. And Quay, her little brother, walked her down the aisle. He said it was the happiest he had ever seen her. She posted about it on Facebook, the way that someone in love does. She said she was forever grateful to be on this journey with her soulmate, her supporter, her backbone, her best friend, her forever. And she meant every single word of that. Two people building a life together. While Makiva was building her empire, the family was growing, and by this time, they had the home, the stability. This was the period of her life that I told you when things came together. She was finally making really good money. They moved into a beautiful two-story home with a pool and it's in Lake Worth and Palm Beach County. It was a gorgeous home. Pambago place in the vineyard subdivision. Tall ceilings, hardwood floors, four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a two car garage, and like I said, a pool, which is perfect for Florida, and it was perfect for their growing family. And they want to talk about Yuri for a second because I've kind of left him out of it, focusing on how happy Makiva was to have met him. Yuri Dorel Jenkins, son of a pastor, raised in the church the same way Makiva was, which is probably a big part of why. She felt so comfortable with him so quickly. They had the same values, the same foundation, and he becomes a barber. And not just a barber, he actually runs his own company, his own shop out of their garage. Their home is also his workplace. Clients are coming and going. The clippers are buzzing, music is playing. It's got this whole energy to it. And Makiva loves that for him. She actually helped him get all set up because remember, she's the entrepreneur that helps people set up their businesses. She encouraged him to pursue it, helped him follow his dream by hyping him up to enroll him in barber school and cheer him on the entire way. That's who she was. She believed in the people that she left. And it wasn't always easy. They had been through a lot. Like I mentioned, they at one point didn't have a home. And at that point, they had two kids at the time. They were struggling. They pretty much had an infant and they were just trying to find a place to live. They did this together. And everybody could tell that Yuri was a present father, not just to their son, but also to the daughter Makiva had before. Sinaya, Yuri is there for her. He's engaged. He's doing things that dads do. He's visible. Whether it's going on the pool with them, grilling out in the backyard, that's so important to Makiva. He also makes sure the kids are taking care of when Makiva has to work. And she brags all the time. But how blessed she is to have a good man. So now you've got this picture of this entire family. Makiva building her business empire from the dining room table or wherever she chooses to work that day. Two kids running around, her brother Quay in and out, the house full and loud and alive, exactly the way Makiva always imagined it would be. And the business keeps growing. The prime enterprise group is picking up a lot of momentum. Makiva's working with clients. She's building business plans, teaching people how to access funding that they never thought would be available to them. She's getting invited to speak at events. She's being interviewed. And in May of 2016, she speaks at a financial event in West Palm Beach, specifically, to high school graduates. Talking about budgeting, managing money, avoiding debt, financial literacy for young people who grew up the same way that Makiva did. Never having been taught any of this. In that month, she actually gave birth to another daughter as well on May 6, 2016. So now she and Yuri have a son and a daughter of their own. By the summer of 2017, she's got a toddler, a six-year-old, and a 13-year-old. And she's preparing to launch her most ambitious project yet. A five-day digital business seminar, 10 hours of instruction, walking people through complete business plans that they can actually take to a lender to get funding. She's 33 years old. And she's exactly where she always said she wanted to be. And personally, she was happy. She was genuinely happy. We know this because six days before she dies, she posts about it on Facebook, about her husband. She says after seven years, every time she looks at him, it still feels like New Year's Eve in 2009 when she first saw him in church. Still feels like the beginning. And from the outside, this family has everything. Beautiful home, business, full house, a future being built in real time. But here's the thing about what we can see on the surface. It only shows you what's on top. Not the depths of someone's life behind that closed door in that quiet neighborhood. Let's peer inside, though, to the summer of 2017. Makiva's in full motion, as I said, her oldest daughter, Saniya's 13. She's a competitive softball player. She's playing on a team called All Ball Elite. And Makiva is that mom that always shows up, who rearranges everything around her kids, [BLANK_AUDIO]
without a second thought. She went with her to Fort Pierce for one of her tournaments. And the following week, she takes her all the way to Fort Myers to celebrate her 13th birthday, a whole trip just for her daughter. One week after that, she's celebrating her youngest daughter's first birthday. And she's not complaining about how busy she is while juggling everything, not once, because this is a life that she wanted. On June 23rd, she posts that Facebook message about her husband, the one about still feeling like it was New Year's Eve of 2009, like the beginning. She said, "I've been with my husband for seven years, and every time I look at him, it feels like New Year's Eve 2009 when I saw him in church. I thought he was one of the most handsome guys I'd ever met. I didn't say anything to him until 2010, and we've been making history ever since. I love me some Mr. Jenkins." Then she hashtagged, "Marriage Works, Black Love, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins." He put a ring on it. When I read that, I didn't know if she was trying to be funny, because they met New Year's Eve of 2009. So I didn't know if she meant it turned 2010 at midnight, and then she said something to him. But either way, she shares so much. She posts a lot every day, multiple times a day, and her posts show how content and happy she was. 127th, she wrote. I don't even try to count my blessings. There are too many. Then McKeva works all day, and when she's done, that same night she posts, "Finally made it home to my honey bunny and the kids, with a heart and a home emoji." Sounds like a lot of us, or friends that we know, it's normal. The next day on Wednesday, June 28th, she's back to posting encouraging things, questions, and thoughts about her day. Then later that night, she posts again at 8.24 pm. This time, it's that reflection about her journey. She shares a screenshot of a Facebook message that she sent to someone back in 2011, and she writes, "I'm in awe of how far I've come. This lady reached out to me about my business plans. We've been Facebook friends for years. But the last time we spoke through private message was August of 2011, in this message I was inquiring about Dave Ramsey's financial peace university offered through her church. I couldn't even afford $99 at the time. Fast forward to now. We overcame being homeless in 2013 and 14 to reach my six-figure mark in 2015 to now making multi-six figures. No matter what the road looked like, I followed my heart and stuck with it growing my business. I'm saying this to say, anyone can do it. It takes determination and consistency. And McEvoy writes that like someone who has been through the fire and wants to reach back, through whoever is still going through it. But this is the last post she would ever make. That night, the house is relatively calm. So let me give you more context about what everyone was up to. Her oldest daughter isn't home. She's with her dad in Tampa, visiting him for a couple weeks since it's the summer. Her youngest daughter, the one-year-old, had fallen asleep in her playpen. She's downstairs. Her seven-year-old son is asleep in his room upstairs. And McEvoy goes to bed in her room, which is also upstairs, around 9 p.m. McEvoy had just recently found out. She was pregnant with her fourth child. She's only about eight weeks along. It's new. She's tired. And she's been going nonstop. And her brother Quay is there as well, hanging around the way he always does. He's been there since earlier that day. They all went to play basketball together. Yuri, Quay, and 19-year-old Dimitri, who Yuri has known since he was born. Dimitri is practically family at this point. Yuri's mom used to work for a non-profit called Federation of Families, and Dimitri was part of that. Dimitri had brought over his friend, Jovonne Joseph, also 19 years old, to play basketball as well. And afterward, they all came back to Yuri's house. And he was busy that day. Remember, Yuri has a whole barbershop set up in his garage. He keeps the garage door open while he's working. Yuri is cutting her nonstop. And he had a number of clients and friends who had come by that day. Yuri even offered to cut Dimitri's friend's hair, and that's who he was. He would do it for like $10 or $15. Not only did his friends get a deal, but they would send more people his way so he could practice. His son's out in the driveway playing basketball. They have a hoop right near the front door. So Yuri could watch while he worked. They're a few music playing. Everyone would be chatting and hanging out. So that is what the day had been like. I also think it's important to know the layout of Makiva's home. The garage door is actually to the left when you're looking at the front door. And when I say garage door, I'm referring to the exterior one that rolls up the big one. And then the front door is straight ahead up the driveway. And there's a little basketball hoop in the driveway out front. I'm showing a picture of your watching. Later that evening, it was now just the three of them. Yuri, his friend Dimitri, and Makiva's brother, Kueh. They're just watching TV. It's a normal night. Nothing unusual. And at some point, Kueh goes to 7/11, grabs some snacks that night, and then comes back to chill. Finally, around 2 o'clock in the morning, Yuri turns to Kueh and he's like, you know what? Let me cut your hair. He finally had a free minute. So he's like, let's just get it done. They walked to the garage through the door from inside the house. And then they open up the big garage door that looks out to the driveway. Kueh sits down in the chair, sets his phone on the counter, Yuri turns on the clippers, and they're just about to get started. When out of nowhere, they see a guy walking up the driveway, which would not be that out of the ordinary, but it is kind of late. And then they see this guy getting closer. And that's when they can tell he's wearing all black, including a mask on his face. And he's got a gun pointed out in front of him. Kueh's first thought was like, okay, someone's playing a joke on us, and he actually laughs at the guy. And he's like, look at this one boy trying to scare us, his words. That last half a second though, maybe. Because the man grabs him, presses a revolver to the back of his head, and it's clearly not a joke. The gunman forces all three of them, Kueh, Yuri and Dimitri into the house through the interior door, and up the stairs at gunpoint. He's demanding to know where the money is. He's asking questions, and he's controlling this entire situation, which is terrifying. Once they're upstairs, he orders them to get down on the ground. And Yuri can hear his son waking up in his room right there next to the stairs. Yuri is begging the gunman not to hurt his kids. Please. And Yuri asks, please, at least let one of them bring his kid downstairs and out of the way. The gunman points Dimitri the youngest of the three of these men and tells him to go get the kid. He quickly grabs the boy, gets him down the stairs and away from danger. The lights are off. They can hardly see anything. And Yuri and Kueh are now faced down in the floor. They can barely make out what the gunman looks like. And though I'm sitting here explaining every little detail, seconds are going by, this happened really quickly. It's confusing. It's really scary for them. The guy was yelling. He was saying, I'm out playing with you. This is not a game. And in that moment, Kueh believes that he was going to die. And he accepted that. But he doesn't shoot them. Instead, he leaves. He walks towards McEva's bedroom where she is sound asleep. And before they can even think of what to do next, they hear a gunshot ring out. One shot, that's it. One gunshot. And then this gunman runs on the stairs and right out of the house and he's gone into the night. Kueh and Yuri get up. They turn on the lights. They run into McEva's room. And they're still a cloud of gunpowder in the air. She's just lying face up covered in blood. Kueh could see a hole right below her ear with blood coming out of it. Kueh said, the only way to describe that moment was real hell. It felt like something out of a horror movie. And nothing about it felt real. While Yuri is tending to his wife, Kueh gets on the phone and calls 911. It's 217 in the morning. He's screaming. He's falling apart. He can barely get the words out. The dispatcher is trying to hold him together. And he keeps repeating, "Oh God!" over and over again. Because there are no other words for what he is witnessing. He told them his sister had just gotten shot in the head. And he thinks she might be dead. And he's still answering the questions as best as he could in between screams of anguish. Now I think you understand what was going on in that house in the beginning of this story. Deputies, paramedics arrive within minutes. They find McEva lying face up unresponsive in her bed. They located a gunshot wound to her head and it looks like she had a wound behind her right ear and to her right eye. They believe that one is of course an entrance and the other is an exit wound. But she is still breathing. But her breaths are slow and irregular. They work on her immediately and get out of that house and Kueh and Yuri follow the ambulance to Delray Beach Medical Center. Meanwhile, officers are at the home talking to Dimitri. He ran next door to a neighbor's house with Yuri's seven-year-old son Dimitri had a
also called 911. And when he called, he was able to provide a lot more context about what happened. Because as you're watching this, you know about the intruder, but all the police do at that point was that someone had shot Mekiva. When Dimitri calls, he explained, they're in the garage, this robber comes in, holds them all at gunpoint, asks them for money, and then made them get face down, but allowed Dimitri to take the young boy out of the house. But when no one put Dimitri knew at that point, was what he related to officers next. He encountered the intruder as he was running out of that home. This masked man demanded a car, and Dimitri didn't know what else to do, but reached in his own pocket and hand him the keys to his white dodge charger. And the guy took off in it after that. Now the police have the description of a getaway vehicle, so they put out an APB on a white dodge charger. As they go door to door in that quiet neighborhood, they're asking residents if they heard or seen anything. And at the same time, they're looking for businesses along major roads outside the neighborhood, hoping to locate CCTV footage that may have captured the car, and hopefully the killer so they can track them down. Now back at the hospital, doctors were doing all they could to save Mekiva, but it's not looking good. And that info is related to the police. They put up the yellow crime scene tape. Units are parked up and down on Mekiva street looking for the perpetrator, or clues left at the scene or any signs of the getaway car. They also call homicide detectives to come out there. Agent Justin Dameron and lead detective Sean Oliver, both veterans from Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office with many years under their belt come out, and they're a prize of the situation. But they don't have much information, and it's a very emotional time for a quay and uri, so they can't speak with them just yet. So they focus on the car, and they don't have to look far, because as soon as they make it out towards the main road that leads into the neighborhood, which is called Lawrence Road, they see the white Dodge Charger parked on the side of the road in the grass, just abandoned. And they wonder why someone would have just left it there. If this guy needed to get away car, why would it be abandoned? They thought that maybe someone had been waiting for this person, and once his real getaway driver came, he ditched the other car. They look inside, they see keys and a black shirt are sitting on the seat. They call in the license plate, and it belongs to a rental car agency. The records show it was rented to a Mr. Manners, but to catch the chase, I'm just gonna let you know it was rented for Demetri, he's only 19, and unless you're 21 years old at the time, you could not rent a car on your own. And it had been in his possession for a few weeks now. He identified it as the one that he'd been driving, and later the one the gunman drove away in. But they do not have a warrant for the scar, so they cannot touch anything. But to secure it, they do put those red evidence tapes on the door to make sure it remains closed until they get it towed to the crime lab. Once it does get there eventually, it's walked for DNA, it's fingerprinted, and it's thoroughly examined for other evidence. Next, Julian Brandt. She's a crime scene investigator with 32 years of experience. She's taking photos in video of the scene and the driveway, which is accompanied by three vehicles, a niece on Ultima, a Chevy, and a small Kia. There was a small area of blood like stain on the Chevy Malibu, so it was photographed and swapped. There's a barberscape on the ground inside the garage. She moves to McKeva's room. There are blood stains upstairs on the floor next to the bed, more on the sheets, and above the headboard. No bullet or shell casing was found. She collects all of the bedding that pillows everything looking for defects that may have been caused by a protractile. She even measures the dimensions of the bed and also the blood stains on the wall. This will indicate how far the shooter might have been standing and the trajectory of the bullet. All the doors are swabbed, including the sliding glass door from the pool area to the living room. She also swabbed the family room wall where the stairs were and the banister. But I already told you the heartbreaking truth. This woman, who had worked so hard to get where she was in life, doesn't make it. McKeva Jenkins is pronounced dead. At 5.11 a.m. on June 29th. Yuri collapses. He's sobbing on the floor at the hospital. He's inconsolable. And he's crying out for his kids because he doesn't know what he's going to do now that McKeva is gone. Quay screaming. He's falling apart. And none of this feels real to them. Now in the early morning hours, investigators have a crime scene. Three witnesses and absolutely no idea what they're actually looking at. Before I tell you the details of what Yuri, Quay, and Demetri are going to explain to the officers. They had already been inside that crime scene for several hours. Those homicide detectives had caught their around two in the morning. So essentially three hours. They've been searching the scene. They've been taking photos and videos. And I have some of those to show you. So let's talk about that first. Things that I noticed about McKeva's bedroom. The baby's crib was just so eerily looking so close to the scene where McKeva was lying there bleeding. Even though the baby wasn't in it, she was downstairs. It's just the sick feeling that I got knowing this mother's gone. And those babies were in that house when it happened. And a third died in her tummy. And that is sad. I spotted her laptop right next to her bed and her entrepreneur magazine on the floor below it. I don't know. Just something about seeing that made me emotional. Just imagining her maybe in her bed earlier, writing that last Facebook post, reading that magazine, or just knowing that she was just doing her best to try to be her best. Just the relatability of it all. I have the same heater that was sitting next to her bed. And seeing her phone charger just hanging there, everything reminded me of myself or other mothers like myself. And I'm sure you can relate as well. This was an ordinary night. McKeva went to bed happy. She went to bed feeling blessed. And then she never woke up. Blood had soaked into the upper part of the bed and dripped onto the floor below. There was a lot of it. The detective described her room as in Desiree. And to me though, it honestly looked like an ordinary busy mom's room. And sure, there were laundry baskets kind of overflowing. There were baby items clothing, miscellaneous things. But to me, it did not look like it had been ransacked. And it certainly didn't look like a hoarder or abnormally messy. It looked lived in. Same with their primary bathroom attached to their bedroom. It just looked like a normal bathroom of a busy family. Half cleaned baby bottles that were left on the counter. Just kind of soaking. The kind that you might leave there in the middle of the night when your baby's crying. And they need to be sued. And you just don't feel like going all the way downstairs to put it in the kitchen sink. Her bra folded neatly on the countertop as well. Like she might have just changed out of it before stepping into bed. Again, very normal. And I'm bringing all this up because it describes most of our living spaces. But also because even though at first glance it looked maybe like somebody had torn all these areas apart, looking for something, especially considering the fact that Quay had mentioned that they had been robbed or were being robbed. After looking around, the detectives are not finding clues that align with that narrative. Case in point. It didn't look like the drawers had been dumped out. It didn't look like anything was taken. The electronics were there, expensive items. Her Louis Vuitton bag is sitting right next to the bed untouched, you would think. If someone's coming in there looking for expensive items or money, they would take an expensive purse. But as they start interviewing these three men who were there that night, it seems like this could be a case of mistaken identity. That's even more terrifying and heartbreaking, especially when the detectives find out who this robber could have been looking for. So I guess it's a good time to reconcile what all three eyewitnesses said happened that night. And for the record, their reports are very similar. So much so. When detectives left from interviewing them, he had already concluded that none of them were the shooters. Yuri, Demetri, and Quay are checked off of his list. What detectives do is they move from the inside out in an investigation. So if you are the husband or you are the brother or a close family friend, of course you are in Makiva's inner circle. All three of them talked about being in the garage. All three of them talked about being held at gunpoint, but on the ground. And Quay felt like he got the best look at this guy. Remember, Yuri is behind Quay doing his hair. So he's concentrating on that. Demetri was hanging out, not paying attention. Quay is looking straight ahead. He's facing the garage door opening. He not only looked right at the guy as he approached them, he laughed in his face before the guy grabbed him. He says he's a black male. He's about six feet tall, slim, but muscular, and he had brown eyes. But here's a new detail that Quay tells detectives. The guy kept saying where's Quay? Where's Quay? Where's the money? So of course, do investigators like, what? Who? Who's that? Do you know someone named Quay? And Quay is like, yeah, that's my mom. My mom is Marquesta. Everyone calls her Quay. And actually it was around the same time at the hospital while Yuri and Quay are talking detectives. My Questa walks through the door, in que, who's somewhere between grief and pain.
and rage actually turns around immediately and starts saying to his mom, "What did you do?" Quest is just genuinely confused. She doesn't know what he's talking about, but Quay knew things about his mom's past. He knew that Quest had been making some really bad choices running with the wrong people, and there was a specific incident that stuck in his mind. Quest had apparently purchased drugs using counterfeit money. And she passed that fake cash to a dealer in Belgrade. And that's the kind of thing that can have really bad consequences. And it can follow you. And he knew that she had real debts to pay. He thought his sister just paid with her life. It was not impossible that someone thought McEva was Quest because they looked similar with similar features and a similar build. And if someone came to that house in the middle of the night in the dark looking for Quest, they could have thought that was her in her bed. But why shoot her? Detectives aren't sure. But they take the theory very seriously, and they know they need to follow up on it. So as this family grieved, they looked up, Mark Quest's background, and she did have a criminal record. They planned on speaking to her as soon as she got home from the hospital. She just lost her daughter. And the word is traveling fast. There are reporters lining McEva's street. So shooting like this does not happen in this area. It is all over the media. And her on Sabrina gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. She had left her TV on in her room, and she hears the news about a mother of three shot dead in Lake Worth. And of course, at the time, she's not connecting it to her own niece, but she thought to herself, how sad. She's getting back in bed, and she looks at her phone and notices she's got a ton of notifications. People have been calling her non-stop throughout the night, and then her phone rang. She answered it, and it's one of her friends, and when she answers it, all they say is, is it true? Sabrina's like, is what true? And she's like, I keep seeing posts on social media saying, R-I-P, McEva. Sabrina hung up. She quickly calls her sister Mark Quest, so she finds out it is true that McEva was gone. And it's unreal. She could not comprehend the reality of it. Why? That was the biggest question. She wasn't involved in anything shady. So how does this happen? And as more and more details start to emerge, people in the surrounding areas are horrified, at the notion that someone could go to sleep at night and a stranger could come into their home and shoot them dead while they're sleeping. And this killer is on the loose. In this type of situation, the public is going to want answers now, and rightfully so, because they are terrified. They're worried about their families and their loved ones. They start questioning their choices about where they're living. And the police department knows they need to act fast. So the detective Oliver goes out to Bellead to talk to Mark Quest, a four hours after her daughter was pronounced dead. Now, he was expecting somebody very different to the woman that sat down and talked to him. She was straightforward. She was genuine. She was obviously in shock that her daughter had been killed, but she made something very clear to him. She said she had nothing to do with her daughter's murder whatsoever. And she could guarantee there was nobody looking for her, and if they were, if somebody wanted to find her, they wouldn't go to Lake Worth. It was night and day between there and Bellead. If someone wanted Quest, they knew they could find her in Bellead, they knew where she lived, and they knew what kind of car she drove because she always was driving around in her white car, which was right there, parked at the house the whole time when McKeeva was killed. Number Quest said admitted to having a past, but as it currently stood, she wasn't involved in anything nefarious. She was just a grieving mother. However, McKeeva's grandma, who was more like a mother to her, had recently gotten on her case for posting so much personal information online, especially in relation to her finances. And I've already told you a little bit about this. She would post bank statements. She would talk about how much money she made that month. And Mark was the new that Gloria had confronted her granddaughter and warned her to stop posting stuff like that. She literally told McKeeva, someone is going to rob you. And it is true. McKeeva would post things to show off what she was doing in her life. I mean, just that month on June 21st, she showed a summary of her checking account with the name of her business at the top. And it showed a deposit of over $20,000. This is the way she would promote her coaching business. She said, "Maze deposits were lit. I can't make this up. I work hard because I have to. My life depends on it. I don't ever want to be homeless again." That was a bad feeling. I learned a lot through that storm. If you're ready to take your business to the next level, sign up for a coaching session, and then she provided a link and went on to write. Or sign up for my coaching programming and she shared a link to that too. Ending with, let's make it happen. Either way, there is gonna be work to do. So if you wanna make money in your business, let's get to it. These were the type of posts that worried her grandmother. To her, it felt like McKeeva was showing off. Not to forget to mention, she loved nice things. She worked really hard so that she could buy things like Louboutin Hills. Her aunt Sabrina said, she can't think of one picture where McKeeva wasn't showing off red bottoms of her shoes. That's what McKeeva would do. But what she did in response to her grandma's concerns, she made an entire video about it on Facebook, saying she disagrees with her grandma. She made it clear. She was doing it to encourage people to show them if she could do it. They could do and she could help. It was almost to say, times have changed grandma. But now McKeeva was dead. So detective started to scour her Facebook, getting access to her messages, comments that might look suspicious or raise any red flags. Was someone lurking her posts? And thinking that cash would have been inside her house that night? But here's the truth. Modern day, people are less and less likely to carry cash on them. I mean, yes, this was 2017. They didn't have tap to pay or Apple Cash, but they had credit cards and debit cards. It's more likely that people who are doing more illegal enterprises would have cash lying around at their home compared to someone like McKeeva who had a legitimate corporation. She showed bank statements, not stacks of cash. So why would anyone want to rob her and think that she would have cash to take? She didn't have a safe or anything like that either. So something isn't adding up there. But then while looking through Facebook, they have a new theory, jealousy, revenge, a love triangle. Because in ex of Yuri named Tiffany Webb was posting some shocking and very disrespectful things on Facebook about McKeeva with no shame. She essentially said she was not upset that McKeeva got killed. That everyone always talked about how nice and what a good person McKeeva was. But Tiffany said, she wasn't. And she went on to say, I'm gonna go to her funeral and slap her out of her casket. Wow, she was definitely not hiding the fact. She did not like McKeeva. And if you haven't been paying attention, maybe you were distracted by something, doing something else, we do it all the time. But you might want to listen right now. 'Cause it's about to get deep. 'Cause it turned out that Tiffany and McKeeva were pregnant at the same time, not now. I'm talking about in the past, actually Tiffany was about two months pregnant when Yuri had gotten McKeeva pregnant. It was in the beginning of their marriage. And each she did with Tiffany. They both ended up having sons, two months apart. And that did not go over well at all. Yuri shows McKeeva over Tiffany. And she felt slighted. And she felt like he abandoned his son that he had with her because of McKeeva. Reason being, he had to admit what he did. And they had a really hard time in their marriage. And one condition that McKeeva had was that Tiffany's son was not allowed to be part of their family. Yes, it was Yuri's biological child. But McKeeva didn't want anything to do with him and she didn't want him in their home. And that made things very difficult for Yuri, who actually did want to be part of his son's life, regardless of who the mother was. And I can understand both sides of that. It's a really tough situation to be in. So Yuri ended up sneaking around a lot behind McKeeva's back so that he could provide money and baby items for his son. The other problem is Yuri wanted all of his children to be in each other's lives. He wanted both of his new sons to get to know one another. So he was hoping that over time, McKeeva would warm up to that. Yuri also had a daughter from a previous relationship who was older and closer to McKeeva's older daughter's age. So there was a lot of moving parts here. He legally had to keep someone in touch with both of those women from previous relationships because he had children with them and paid them child support. McKeeva understood that part. But aside from the necessary contact, she did not want Yuri communicating with Tiffany and Tiffany didn't like that. That's it for all of you.
knew this was a very tough time for Yuri. He had to call him back in because he wondered with all the animosity that Tiffany had. Could she be involved in this murder? They brought Tiffany in at the same time. Yuri admitted to the affair with Tiffany but said that was a long time ago. We're talking seven years and he said he did not mess around with her anymore.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Makiva Jenkins, a 33-year-old mother of three and entrepreneur, was shot dead in her Lake Worth home on June 28, 2017, just hours after posting a proud Facebook message about her journey from homelessness to financial success.
Her final post highlighted her resilience, financial growth, and belief that anyone could achieve success through determination, which drew widespread support and admiration.
The shooting occurred during a late-night incident when a masked intruder entered the home, held family members at gunpoint, and shot Makiva in the head—after she had been asleep in her bedroom with no signs of forced entry or robbery.
Eyewitnesses—including her brother Quay, husband Yuri, and friend Dimitri—described the attacker as a Black man, six feet tall, with brown eyes, who demanded money and repeatedly asked for “Quay,” leading investigators to suspect a mistaken identity due to a striking resemblance between Makiva and her mother, Mark Quest.
Mark Quest, who had a criminal past, was not involved in the murder and denied any connection, but her history and the family’s financial openness raised concerns about potential targeting.
A key red flag was the absence of cash or valuables in the home, contradicting the robbery theory, and the presence of detailed financial posts that may have attracted attention.
A separate motive emerged from Tiffany Webb, Yuri’s former girlfriend, who openly expressed hostility toward Makiva, including threats to slap her at her funeral, and had a prior pregnancy with Yuri that created a tense marital conflict.
Investigators found no physical evidence linking the attacker to a known criminal or to a robbery, and the case remains open with a focus on motive and a possible tragic mix of mistaken identity and personal conflict.
Summary:
Makiva Jenkins, a 33-year-old mother of three and successful entrepreneur from Lake Worth, Florida, was fatally shot in her home on June 28, 2017, just hours after posting a heartfelt Facebook message about her journey from homelessness to financial independence. Her final post, which praised her resilience and success, had drawn widespread admiration, highlighting her journey from poverty to multi-six-figure earnings. The night of the incident, a masked man entered the home, held her brother, husband, and friend at gunpoint, and demanded money before shooting Makiva in the head.
Despite the family’s apparent stability and wealth, the crime scene showed no signs of a robbery—no stolen items, no forced entry, and no cash. Investigators found no physical evidence linking the killer to a known criminal, and the home remained unransacked. A key suspicion arose from a mistaken identity: the gunman may have confused Makiva with her mother, Mark Quest, who had a criminal record and similarities in appearance and build.
Additionally, a motive of jealousy and revenge emerged from Tiffany Webb, Yuri’s former partner, who had a prior pregnancy with Yuri and openly mocked Makiva online. Though Yuri admitted to the past affair, he denied any current involvement. The case remains unsolved, with investigators focusing on motive, identity, and the possibility of a tragic mix of personal conflict and mistaken recognition.
The incident shocked the community, raising concerns about safety and the dangers of public financial transparency in personal lives.
FAQs
Her last post was a reflection on her journey from homelessness to financial success, sharing how she overcame challenges and emphasized that anyone could achieve success with determination and consistency.
Her posts openly shared detailed financial information, including bank statements and business earnings, which raised concerns that someone might have targeted her home, believing she had accessible wealth.
She was shot in the head while sleeping in her bedroom at her home in Lake Worth, Florida. The gunman entered the house, demanded money, and was later seen fleeing in a white Dodge Charger.
Makiva's husband Yuri, her brother Quay, and their friend Dimitri, who were all in the garage when the intruder entered and held them at gunpoint.
No, the home showed no signs of being ransacked. Items were left in place, and valuable possessions like her Louis Vuitton bag remained untouched, suggesting no motive for a robbery.
Yes, Tiffany Webb, Yuri’s former partner who had a child with him, posted disrespectful messages about Makiva and expressed no remorse for her death, indicating a possible motive of revenge.
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