Mom Pleads For Thief To Return Necklace With Daughter's Ashes Inside

BARSTOW (CBSLA.com) — A Barstow mother is pleading with a thief Thursday evening to return a necklace that means the world to her.

It's not that the necklace is filled with precious gems; it holds something more valuable. Brittany Brown's ashes.

When the 23-year-old died of a rare liver disease in 2012, her grief-stricken mother had some of her ashes put into a necklace.

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her," says Karen Brown about her daughter.

To honor her daughter, all of the family members got necklaces and put some of Brittany's ashes in them.

Brown tells KCAL9's Crystal Cruz she knows the thief didn't know what was inside the necklace but she can't bear the idea of not having it back.

The family is distraught.

Destany Brown told Cruz she wears her necklace every year on the anniversary of her big sister's death.

"Every now and then I'll think about it, and I'll start crying because I miss my sister. I really do," says Destany.

Another sister had a dragon necklace and put some of Brittany's ashes in it. That necklace was on the car's rearview mirror.

It was that necklace that was recently stolen out of the blue Honda Civic.

"It just feels like a part of me is gone. Someone took a piece of her, and I would like her back, you know," says Karen.

Police told Cruz there have been several car break-ins around Brown's neighborhood, and according to the Barstow police, this one is a little different because Karen's daughter left her car unlocked.

"She knows now to lock her car at all times for everything," says Karen. "They consider it a petty theft because it wasn't locked up."

It might be a "petty theft" to the police, but the necklace is a pretty big deal to a mother who just wants it back where it belongs, with their family.