A Houston family says a theft at a West Houston cemetery has reopened old wounds that had never fully healed. The case involves cremation niches that were broken into at a local funeral home and cemetery. For the family, the loss of deeply personal items has brought back the pain of a death they were still grieving.
According to authorities, the break-ins happened at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home and Cemetery. Surveillance video released by Precinct 5 shows a woman walking through the mausoleum. Investigators say she then used a tool to open the cremation niches inside.
Investigators believe at least three cremation niches were targeted, and they say there could be more victims. The scope of the case was still being determined as the inquiry continued. Authorities were working to identify everyone whose niche may have been disturbed.
In the surveillance footage, a young child can also be seen nearby. The detail added to the unsettling nature of what investigators described. Officials released the video as they sought help in the case.
One of the victims was identified as Marcello Esteban Garcia. His sister said the items taken from his niche were deeply personal to the family. She spoke about how much the keepsakes had meant to those who loved him.
Among the items taken was a necklace that Marcello had been wearing the night he died. His sister said the beads on it were his birthstone, and that the necklace had been bent during the events surrounding his death. Its loss struck the family especially hard.
Garcia died in a motorcycle crash on his 35th birthday last year, his family said. His sister said the theft felt like reopening a wound that had never really closed. She described the lasting hole left in the family's life since his passing.