Melissa Brown (PHOTO: KFOR.com)
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR) – An Oklahoma woman said she felt like she had lost her son all over again after someone stole her car with her child’s ashes inside. When Melissa Brown’s car broke down over the weekend, she and her husband pulled into a Garden Ridge parking lot, near I-40, and asked the manager if they could leave the car there for the night.
“He said the car was there at 11 p.m. Saturday when he left work and when he went back at 7 a.m. Sunday, it was gone,” Brown recalled.
Stolen Car (KFOR.com)
In the trunk of the car was the thing that mattered most to Melissa, a box of ashes, the remains of her child.
“To lose something that was physically part of me, I can’t describe in words how bad it hurts,” she said. “It’s horrific to think somebody has my child’s ashes.”
Last year, Melissa gave birth to a stillborn son and had a box of keepsakes, including his ashes, castings of his hands and feet, a stuffed dog and a blanket, inside a box in the car’s trunk.
“We were going to scatter his ashes when we found the right place,” Brown said. “I feel like I’ve lost him all over again. I won’t have closure because we can’t lay his remains to rest. I mean I know they didn’t know the ashes were in the trunk, but they shouldn’t have stolen the car.”
Police told the victim it may have been a criminal with a tow truck, a common crime in that area.
Unfortunately, Garden Ridge did not have cameras at the back of the parking lot so there’s no video to show of the thieves.
