‘There’s no words’: Mother mourns daughter who drowned in spring days before her 14th birthday
LAKE CITY, Fla. (WCJB/Gray News) - A Florida mother is mourning her 13-year-old daughter, who drowned after getting caught in a current at a popular spring.
Family say 13-year-old Jackhria Sheppard drowned Sunday evening in a popular spring at Royal Springs Park in Suwannee County. She was with her two older brothers when she was caught in a current that took her underwater, WCJB reports.
“No parent wants to experience this. There are no words for this – not when it’s your baby, not when she’s young, not when she’s only 13,” said Diana Sheppard, Jackhria’s mother.
Fire rescue officials say 911 was called just before 6 p.m. Jackhria was pronounced dead at Suwannee Emergency Room.
“Please be safe when you go into the waters. Please be safe. Don’t go alone. Go with an adult. Always have somebody surrounding you,” Sheppard said.
Jackhria loved to dance and sing. She would’ve turned 14 on May 6. This week, her classmates at Lake City Middle School decorated her desk in her honor.
“She just had a giving heart, and I want people to her as the loving person that always gave, was always willing to give, always willing to do for others,” Sheppard said.
The mother is grieving her daughter less than five years after losing one of her sons, leaving her with only two children.
“To keep from crying, I have to laugh, to keep from falling to pieces. It’s not easy. I have good moments. I have bad moments. It’s just a process that’s very overwhelming,” she said.
Trey Hosford, a family friend who is also the principal of Columbia County High School, tells WCJB that everyone is devastated.
“I can’t imagine what the family’s going through. My thoughts are with her and the older brother and just all the cousins, just the whole family, because I know them all, and I know they were heartbroken,” Hosford said.
He and high school football coach Brian Allen are running a fundraiser to help Sheppard’s family with funeral expenses. Funds will go to Jachkria’s mother. There will be other fundraisers held, as well, by others in the community.
“Let her grieve and let us, as a community, step up. She would do it for us, and I have no doubt in my mind. So, we need to do it for her and her family,” Hosford said.
Sheppard thanked everyone in the community that has donated and is trying to help her family as they mourn.
Copyright 2025 WCJB via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
