A bronze statue honoring a Miami Lakes boy who died of brain cancer has vanished from the park named in his memory, and his heartbroken parents are now begging publicly for whoever took it to bring it back. Jakey Duque Park sits at the corner of Northwest 154th Street and 89th Avenue, and until recently it held a bronze tribute depicting Jake “Jakey” Duque as a smiling child in a Superman-style cape, holding a large fish atop a pedestal.
Karen Duque told WPLG Local 10 that the family simply wants the statue returned, calling the sculpture priceless to the Duque family. Her husband, Orlando Duque, echoed that plea, saying the statue means a lot not just to their family but to the entire community. The couple does not want criminal charges pressed against whoever took it, according to the station's report, and Orlando Duque suggested a simple path forward: leave the statue back at the park under cover of night, no questions asked.
Jakey was diagnosed at age 4 with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a rare and highly aggressive brain tumor, in October 2019, per the same account. He died in June 2020. The bronze tribute was unveiled at the park on May 8, 2021, a date that would have been his sixth birthday.
A Community-Funded Tribute Now Missing
The monument was crafted by Art & Sculpture Unlimited, a Miami foundry known for fine art lost-wax casting, sand casting, and 3D digital carving, according to the foundry's own background materials. City officials unveiled the tribute after it was created through a community-driven fundraising effort among family friends, the article notes. The Town Council had renamed the park, formerly known as 1-5-4 Bridge Park, in Jakey's honor back in June 2020, according to reporting by The Miami Laker.
The bond between the town and the Duque family predates the statue itself. In May 2020, before Jakey passed away, Miami Lakes organized a parade of more than 100 classic cars and trucks for his fifth birthday, during which town and county officials presented him with keys to the municipality, The Miami Laker reported at the time.
A Park With a History of Fighting to Survive
Jakey Duque Park has been the center of civic battles before. In 2022, the park became a flashpoint in a regional infrastructure dispute over whether to reopen the closed NW 154th Street bridge connecting Hialeah and Miami Lakes over Interstate 75, drawing thousands of resident petition signatures aimed at preventing the memorial park's demolition, according to The Miami Laker's coverage of the dispute.
That fight produced formal legal protections still in place today. Under a July 2022 Town Council motion and a Memorandum of Understanding between Miami Lakes, Hialeah, and Miami-Dade County, any relocation or site change involving the Jakey Duque monument requires the consent of the Duque family, per Town of Miami Lakes records. A related town resolution, No. 22-1869, formalized a Donation Agreement granting the town perpetual display rights to the statue while providing that legal ownership reverts back to the family if public display is no longer viable.
Open Questions About the Theft
It remains unclear whether investigators are reviewing footage from license plate reader cameras near the park; the Town of Miami Lakes had specifically identified the intersection at NW 154th Street and 89th Avenue for such camera installation in its 2025–2026 federal legislative funding request. It is also unknown whether local scrap metal recyclers have been alerted to watch for the piece. Florida Statute § 812.145 classifies bronze as a regulated nonferrous metal, requiring scrap recyclers to log seller identification and hold stolen goods orders specifically to curb this kind of secondary metal theft.
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, the cancer that took Jakey's life, accounts for 10% to 20% of all pediatric brain tumors and originates in the brainstem, according to the Cristian Rivera Foundation, which notes that survival statistics for the disease have remained largely unchanged for four decades. The Duque family has continued raising awareness of the illness through an effort known as Jakey's Army. For now, the family's hope rests on the same message they gave Local10: bring the statue home, no questions asked.
