Washington Mom 'Heartbroken' After Theft of Urn with Ashes of Son She Lost in Pregnancy
A mother in Washington state is grieving after her son’s urn was stolen in a burglary last month.
“Praying my little Jacob can come back to me,” Melissa Carter wrote in a Facebook post on Dec. 29, the day her home was broken into. “I am so heartbroken.”
Making the urn even more precious to the mother is that she says it’s all she has left of her baby, who was lost when Carter was six months pregnant with him.
Carter told TODAY her other son’s bedroom window was smashed and her home was ransacked.
“My living room was still kind of chaotic from Christmas, but it appeared nothing had been touched,” she said. “My computer was still here, my TV was still here, but I noticed that all the bedroom doors were open… I turned to my left and I saw that son’s door is wide open, and I see his bedroom door completely smashed in. I immediately realized someone broke into my home.”
She called the police immediately as she searched her home for any missing items. When she went into her bedroom, she noticed her dresser appeared to have been rummaged through.
“The urn of my son, Jacob, was in there, along with all of my jewelry, and I noticed that the lid was off,” Carter told TODAY. “All but a couple small necklaces were gone, and so I start looking around, trying to see if maybe someone realized it was an urn and dropped it, and I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
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Carter and Tacoma police hope that someone will see Carter’s plea and return the urn.
“I’m a single mom, and I’m doing my best to raise my son, but I’m also grieving the fact that somebody stole something so precious to me,” Carter told TODAY. “It’s been really hard trying to be really, really strong for my son, but inside, I feel so broken right now.”
A forensics officer with the police department visited Carter’s home and found a single finger print. The break in has left Carter and her family shaken.
“My son, Mason, he’s been sleeping with me every night. I have a lot of family and friends and an amazing boyfriend who have been staying with me, because I’ve just been absolutely terrified,” Carter said.
She continued: “I don’t care about the jewelry,” she said. “I just care about that urn, and I don’t even — if somebody could come forward, drop it off somewhere, something, so I can get that back — that’s all I care about.”
