SURREY, B.C. -- A heartbroken Cloverdale family is making a desperate plea to their community to help find an irreplaceable belonging that was stolen from them.
Brooke Ludolph said her Cloverdale home was broken into on Monday when she and her fiancé Matt McGarva were away for Thanksgiving.
“When Matt returned to the house in the morning, the garage door was wide open and had visibly been emptied,” Ludolph said. “Almost all of our belongings were taken.”
Among the items stolen was an invaluable box containing the ashes of the couple’s late friend Craig.
“It's our last connection to him,” said Ludolph.
In April 2014, 23-year-old Craig Lilly was killed in a fatal pedestrian collision on Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows.
Losing his ashes in the break-in “feels like losing him all over again” Ludolph said.
Ludolph and McGarva are renovating their home and had packed many of their things into boxes, one of which contained Craig’s ashes. Also stolen were other valuable items including TVs, artwork, jewelry and watches.
The thieves also took expensive tools the young couple had purchased for their renovation, as well as a toilet.
The RCMP has told Ludolph and her fiancé that the sentimental items will likely be discarded as they will not be of value to the thief.
“Thinking of him sitting in a ditch or in a garbage somewhere is gutting,” Ludolph said.
Now, the couple has one message for the thief: “We just want Craig returned, no questions asked.”
They are also asking others to look out for the small box containing Craig Lilly’s ashes.
“It is impossible to even equate a value to having him and his ashes returned,” Ludolph said.
