Robbery victim pleads for return of mom’s ashes
A Regina woman has reached out to the online community in search of her mother’s ashes.
“I don’t think whoever took it even may have realized what it was ... at least I’m hoping they didn’t. And I’m just hoping that because they don’t know what it is they might discard it or maybe take it or return it somewhere,” Kristin Vogel said.
On Monday afternoon, Vogel’s husband Chris came home from work around 3:30 p.m. to find the couple’s home on the 100 block of Cornwall Street had been broken into. The house had been empty between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
“One of the first things my husband noticed (missing) was my laptop because it was in the kitchen. There wasn’t a huge mess; they didn’t tear a lot of things apart,” she said.
He then noticed a few other things missing — such as Vogel’s jewelry box and his wedding ring — but after the Regina Police Service forensic unit came in to dust for fingerprints, the couple noticed the urn containing the ashes of Vogel’s mother, Rhonda Ermel, was missing as well.
The urn was kept on a bedside table in the couple’s bedroom among their wedding photos.
The two married in Mexico last year. At the time, both of their mothers were very sick. Ermel had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011 and given a year to live. She was well enough to make it to the wedding, but died later in the year.
Her and I were beyond just being best friends, like I honestly can say that my mom was my soulmate.
The connection to Mexico ran deep for the mother and daughter, as they would travel there together every year. Ermel was a single mother, and she and Vogel were very close.
“Her and I were beyond just being best friends, like I honestly can say that my mom was my soulmate. We were just always together and to lose her at such a young age has been a terrible thing for me,” Vogel said.
The two would travel to Playa del Carmen together, and last week Vogel had booked a trip to Mexico to spread her mother’s ashes there.
“The ocean there is just beautiful and so whenever we could, even throughout her diagnosis and fight with cancer, whenever she was well we would go there as well. So it’s really important to me that I can get those ashes there,” she said.
On Monday night, Vogel posted on her Facebook page a plea for the urn’s return. The post had received over 2,800 shares by Tuesday afternoon.
“Please if you have a heart, please put them in my mailbox or leave on my property! I’m begging,” Vogel said in the post.
The urn is rectangular, creamcoloured and either ceramic or stone.
It is six inches tall and four inches wide. There is a human figure on it with its arms outstretched. The figure gradually turns into a bird in various positions and eventually flies away.
The Regina Police Service confirmed officers responded to the break-in but have not yet identified any suspects.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers at 306-777-6500 and 1-800-222-8477.