Baby's ashes, urn stolen in Ohio burglary

by GEOFF REDICK, WSYX/WTTE

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) - A mother in Columbus' Hilltop neighborhood is begging for an unknown thief to return her deceased infant’s remains after the cremated ashes were stolen in a bold daylight burglary last week.

Iesha Harvey said no one was home at her house when the thief, or thieves, broke in Monday. The burglary included a television, two Xbox video game consoles, power tools, jewelry and clothing. But for some reason, the urn holding the cremated remains of Harvey’s stillborn daughter was also swiped.

"At this point, I feel like maybe they’ve thrown it in the trash, or they’ve just done whatever with it and I’ll never get it back," Harvey said Friday. "Having my baby’s ashes is the most important thing to me. That’s the only thing that I have left."

Harvey lost the baby in 2013, due to an umbilical cord complication in the womb. More recently, she lost all her pictures of the memorial urn in an accidental computer file dump. A blurry photo from a friend is the only one that survived.

Columbus police have labeled the case "zero solvability" since there are no witnesses or surveillance videos. A forensic investigation also turned up no fingerprints.

Harvey is hoping someone will see the picture of her baby’s memorial urn, recognize it and get it back to her.

"That’s all I want. I don't care about nothing else,” she said. “All the other stuff can be replaced — but that can’t."