Husband pleading for answers after wife’s ashes were stolen during home burglary

WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. (KAIT/Gray News) – A husband in Arkansas is pleading for answers after his wife’s ashes were stolen from his home during a home burglary.

Sean Houston and his wife Stephanie married in 2012. However, in 2020, she tragically passed away.

Before the break-in, Houston was going to take Stephanie’s cremated remains to Maui and spread them along the beach.

“He wanted to take them there as a last commemorative to her. She was really big into scuba diving,” Alyssa Craig, a family friend said. ”Stephanie was just his whole world so to even think that if that’s all he had left of her to be gone, It’s just heartbreaking.”

Houston had Stephanie’s ashes in a safe in the bedroom. But on Dec 2, two men drove up to his home on a four-wheeler, broke in, and stole the safe that contained her ashes.

Ring camera footage from a neighbor shows the two men riding down the street with the safe on the back. The safe contained guns, money, and most importantly a small bag of Stephanie’s ashes.

Walnut Ridge Police Chief Jordan Cooksey said this case is personal for him and his officers.

“They are following every lead that comes in. I have officers that are actually working after hours on their own time trying to hunt it down,” Cooksey said.

Cooksey said they do have suspects in mind and that he wants to try to get everything that was stolen back, especially Stephanie’s remains.

“It’s near and dear to him and it’s something that most anyone feels like they could put themselves in that situation and wouldn’t even want to think about the loss of something that dear,” Cooksey said.

Craig said that there is a cash reward for anyone who has any information about the stolen safe.

“All that other stuff can be replaced but we want Stephanie back. We can’t have her back in any other sense of life but we want what we have left of her back and those kids deserve to have that piece of their mom back,” she said.

If you know any information, contact Walnut Ridge Police Department at (870) 886-3568.

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