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Granite Bay Woman Pleads For Safe Return Of Husband's Stolen Ashes

GRANITE BAY (CBS13) — A thief broke into a woman's home, stealing her silver and jewelry, but that was nothing compared to the theft of her husband's ashes.

Suella Martin was married to her husband for 40 years before cancer took him six years ago.

"A very caring person, somebody who would go out of his way to help anybody," she said. "He went through chemotherapy, and we had another great year."

Her husband was cremated and rested peacefully in an inscribed wooden box, until Halloween when thieves broke into her home.

"You feel like you've been socked in the stomach so many times," she said. "You just hurt all over."

The burglar got away with silver and jewelry, and for some strange reason they also took his ashes from the box.

"How could anybody be so horrible, hideous, and insensitive to take somebody's ashes," she said. "It's like robbing the dead."

Martin can't comprehend the theft because the ashes and the container they were in don't have any monetary value.

"No, it wasn't a big fancy urn, it didn't have jewels," she said. "It wasn't a priceless box, but what was in it was priceless."

She's hoping and praying that whomever stole her husband's ashes will do the right thing and return them.

"If they have a conscience, if they have a soul, think about what they did," she said.

She says she doesn't want to press charges, she just want the physical memory of her husband back in her home.

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