An Elgin widower has made an emotional plea after he says thieves burglarized his suburban home and got away with his late wife’s ashes.
Roger Stettner says the criminals took what looked like a jewelry box after kicking in the front door and raiding his home last month while he was out of town, but inside the only valuables were the one thing that is most valuable to him – his wife Donna’s ashes.
Donna was his high school sweetheart; they were married more than 50 years and raised three children together. She passed away two years ago at the age of 71 after a painful battle with heart disease.
“It’s just like losing part of your heart,” Stettner said.
Stettner says he had kept the ashes next to her bedside as part of a pact they shared.
“Whoever survived would keep their ashes with them, and then the other one passed we would be buried in the same burial plot,” Stettner reminisced. “So, that’s not going to be possible now.”
He says the hardest part is seeing the empty space where he kept the handmade gold and wood engraved box next to Donna’s favorite poem and her treasured figurine angels.
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“I did a lot of talking to her after she passed,” Stettner said. “It’s like she’s gone twice now, which is… tough.”
Although weeks have gone by since the devastating break-in, he says he still has faith the thieves will do the right thing and return the beloved ashes.
“I really want that back, it’s part of my life. It’s my wife,” Stettner begged.
Stettner asks only for the ashes and contends they can be returned to Elgin police, his home, or his church Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 340 Grand Blvd. near Lord’s Park.
