Woman Wants Stolen Urn With Mother's Ashes Returned

HESPERIA (CBSLA.com) — A Hesperia woman came home from a vacation last week to find her apartment had been ransacked.

Worse, the thief stole something priceless. The valuables were replaceable. But something else was not.

Vanessa Llanas' mother Yolanda Bedoy died of Lupus a few years ago.

Her ashes were kept in an urn in a closet.

"She was a very kind, special woman," Llanas said about her mother.

The distraught daughter sat down with KCAL9's Crystal Cruz to talk about the theft of the urn. The thieves stole valuables as well as things like the dead woman's death certificate and her Bibles.

"We didn't bury her for a reason. 'Cause she said she always wanted to be home with her grandkids," Llanas said.

"I don't understand how a robber would want it. What are you going to do with it? It's a body. You have to have some type of heart," she told Cruz.

Pictures show her apartment ransacked.

"They went in through the window," she said. The thief or thieves apparently went out the back door.

A neighbor has given Llanas a TV to replace the one that was stolen. But her mind remains on the ashes.

"My worst fear is they just didn't dump her ashes out in the dirt to pawn the vase," she said.

She went to a local pawn shop and was told they don't take urns.

Llanas filed a police report. She told Cruz some of her property was found in a dumpster in Victorville.