Jacque MacDonald, Valley crime victim’s advocate who hosted “The Victim’s Voice,” dies
Jacque MacDonald, a longtime Merced resident who was a passionate defender for victims of violent crime and their families, died last month after a long decline in health in Grants Pass, Oregon, according to her friends and family.
While living in Merced, MacDonald hosted the Victim’s Voice weekly television and radio show that for 18 years highlighted unsolved cases in the Valley.
MacDonald died on March 11. She was 86, according to the coroner’s office in Josephine County, Oregon.
Her husband Dennis said her ashes will be taken to Evergreen Funeral Home and Memorial Park, once the coronavirus pandemic has passed.
Members of Merced County law enforcement, like former Sheriff Mark Pazin, remembered MacDonald as a stalwart supporter of victims’ rights.
“I have nothing but fond memories of a person who was in pursuit of her daughter’s killer that went on for years,” Pazin said.
McDonald’s life changed forever in March of 1988, after her daughter Debi Whitlock was murdered in her home in Modesto.
Shortly after the murder, McDonald and her husband Dennis MacDonald moved from Minnesota to Merced. Jacque began working tirelessly to help law enforcement catch her daughter’s killer.
“When you want something, be the biggest pain in their ass,” MacDonald told the Sun-Star during a Victim’s Right Ceremony in 2017. “And don’t apologize to anyone.”
She made countless calls to national and local TV programs to try to tell her daughter’s story. Shows like “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries” told Debi’s story.
“When she was first trying to get national publicity for Debi’s case she took notes on all the producers and assistants of these TV shows,” said Angela Dove, who was Debi Whitlock’s stepdaughter.
“She would get to know them. Then when she made her daily or weekly calls she would ask ‘how is your son’s cold?’ She would send tea bags if that person drank tea. She would do whatever she had to do, but she did it with such sweetness.”
MacDonald worked closely with a local group called Citizens Against Homicide to rent billboards to feature her daughter’s picture and displaying a reward for information that led to the arrest of Debi’s killer. MacDonald also posted fliers on pizza boxes and inside stores.
The billboards worked. Nine years after Whitlock’s death, a witness came forward, leading to the arrest of Scott Avery Fizzell. Fizzell was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 36 years in prison.
“She had this gentile persistence, this do-not-give-up attitude,” Pazin said. “She was willing to listen to other people’s pain, meanwhile, she had her own pain going through her own horrifying experience losing Debi to a murder.”
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Television show was a platform for victims
The Victim’s Voice television program became a useful tool for law enforcement to solicit information from people in the Valley. MacDonald helped to shine a spotlight on groups like Citizens Against Homicide that help support victims and survivors.
“She had a the good fortune of a beautiful voice that transitioned into her weekly radio show that I had the fortune of being a guest numerous times,” Pazin said. “We talked about cold cases, current cases and her lot in life at that time was to never give up home. She believed there would always be a resolution, no matter what the time gap was.
“She hated the term cold case. She would always tell me, ‘No sheriff, these are not cold cases. We need to keep them active.’ And I would say, ‘Yes, Jacque, you are correct.’ I would have to watch the way I talked to her.”
Pazin says it’s hard to measure the importance of MacDonald’s weekly show.
“It was therapeutic for Jacque and it always ensured other people had a voice who were victims of violent crimes,” Pazin said.
Pazin said oftentimes when he’d go out during his time as sheriff in Merced, people would come up to him and tell him to give their love to Jacque for keeping their sons, daughters or loved ones in her thoughts.
“Jacque had this sincere caring of people who she crossed paths with even though her heart was so beaten up and bruised because of the murder of her daughter,” Dove said. “The fact that there was no arrest does something to the families who suffer a loss. There’s no answer. People from the survivor community close their door but that didn’t do that to Jacque.”
With the help of MacDonald, Dove wrote a book called, “No Room For Doubt. A True Story of the Reverberations of Murder.”
“Jacque’s positive story was not only heartbreaking, but a story worth telling,” Dove said.
MacDonald was a recipient of the Justice Department’s National Crime Victims Service Award in 2007. She was also honored by senators, district attorneys, members of congress and the United States Attorney General.
Jacque and Dennis had lived in Grants Pass since 2015.
