7 News Belize

Man Loses Daughter Twice After Ashes Stolen From Cemetery
posted (December 17, 2024)
In other news, a father is grieving for a second time after his daughter's remains were stolen a little over a year following her death. The Chavarria family kept the ashes of 40 year old Indira Theus at the cemetery in Benque. They checked on it often, but this time, they found that it was missing and the locks that secured it were broken. We spoke to Theus' father today and Courtney Menzies has this story.

40 year old Indira Theus passed away on September 6 2023 in the US. She was cremated and her ashes were brought back to Belize. Her urn was kept in the cemetery in Benque with a locked grill door for safekeeping, and her family adorned the inside with flowers, pictures, and candles.

But somebody broke the locks and stole almost everything. Theus' father said the burglary had to have happened sometime over the past week.

Alfredo Chavarria, Father of Deceased
"We usually visit the cemetery every two weeks but we were in the states for two months and when we came back we came and checked last week, everything was alright and this week when we came to the cemetery, the urn was missing, the candles was missing, and somebody took off the locks from the burglar bars and so far we don't know what's going on. the photograph of my daughter, nothing is inside."

"They took the picture and left frame, they took the urn, they took the candle, the one that uses batteries and the Belladoras and the flowers and everything and left the whole thing open. They took the locks too."

Chavarria is now pleading with the person responsible to return his daughter's ashes.

Alfredo Chavarria, Father of Deceased
"I'm a person here in Benque that everybody knows, everybody knows my family so the person who took that please come and tell me and let us get back the urn because we really need that."

"Right now, I really can't explain how we feel but it's sad. I wouldn't wish that to happen to any other person."

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