Stolen pendant held boy’s ashes
Theft was ‘like losing him again’
A family that moved to Edmonton for a new beginning following the death of their nine-year-old son in a Manitoba plane crash are devastated after a pendant that holds their son’s ashes was stolen.
David and Crystal Pentecost are asking for the public’s help to find the necklace, taken last week from a vehicle in central Edmonton just two weeks after the family moved to the city.
“It was like losing him again,” Crystal Pentecost said Tuesday.
Their son, Dawson, was among four people killed Feb. 10, 2013, when a Cessna went down in a field near the community of Waskada, in southwest Manitoba.
Dawson was hanging out with his friends Logan, 9, and Gage, 10, when they asked him if he wanted to go for a plane ride with their dad, experienced pilot Darren Spence.
Dawson had never been on a plane before and phoned his father to make sure it was OK.
Later that Sunday afternoon, Dawson’s dad, a volunteer firefighter, received a pager message that a plane had gone down. He rushed out on a snowmobile and was one of the first to find the wreckage. The pilot and all three children died.
Speaking Tuesday afternoon outside Edmonton Police Headquarters, Crystal Pentecost said Dawson’s family members, including his three brothers, had cremation pendants made that contain Dawson’s ashes.
One brother kept his pendant — a small gold and silver cross with five crystals — hanging from a silver chain on the rear-view mirror of his dad’s truck.
Dawson loved going for rides with his dad, Pentecost said, and his brother thought it would be appropriate to place it in the truck so “he could come for all the rides he wanted.”
The pendant had hung there for more than a year. Edmonton police say it was stolen between July 17 and 18 in the area of 113th Avenue and 86th Street.
“We’d just really like his remains back,” said Pentecost, clutching a photo of her son.
A man allegedly broke into a red and black four-door Dodge Ram and unsuccessfully tried to start it. He then took the necklace and about $20 in loose change, departing on foot through an alley.
The suspect is described as a white man in his late teens or early 20s with blond, curly hair. He was possibly wearing red and white shorts.
“When they told me what had been taken, it was heartbreaking,” said Const. Michael Roblin of Downtown Division. “They’re new to the city and it leaves kind of a bad taste.”
Roblin is pleading for anyone with information about the pendant to come forward.