Corey Foy just wants his late wife’s jewellery and a pendant containing her ashes back, no questions asked — if not for him, then for the three daughters who have been left without a mother.
On Monday, the St. Albert widower’s home on Deerfield Way was broken into, sometime between 1:45 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. when he was out buying dog food.
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He returned home and noticed something off in his bedroom. The drawers of the nightstands were open and Foy said thieves stole a small fireproof safe containing documents, his watch and bracelet, and his late wife Elaine’s jewelry box.
“The jewelry box had our wedding rings, my keepsake [Tree of Life] pendant containing a portion of my wife’s ashes, and other jewelry that I had saved for special memories to give to our daughters as they got older,” Foy told Global News.
Corey, 38, and Elaine met in 2006 and were married in 2009. She had three daughters from a previous relationship. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the end of 2013 and underwent many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
Each of the stolen pieces tells a story of their life.
There were several Pandora charms from trips they took together, costume jewelry from a vacation to Mexico and a ring with two hearts from one of their anniversaries.
Also missing are faith- and angel-themed Pandora charms Foy got his wife when she received her “cancer-free” diagnosis in April 2014.
There’s a Pandora snowflake ornament from their last Christmas together in 2015 — two months after her cancer had returned to her lymph system and spread to her vocal cords, stealing her voice.
“It was everywhere and chemo didn’t help.”
Missing, too, are the earrings Elaine wore through chemo, radiation and while she was in palliative care.
“In March 2016, she went to the hospital and she never came home again,” Foy said. Elaine died in July 2016, two days before her 36th birthday.
Foy is now raising her three girls, who are 14, 16 and 19 years old, and whom he has always loved and treated as his own. They each have their own lockets containing ashes as well.
“Elaine had requested that our oldest have the wedding rings when she married,” Foy said. Their 16-year-old was to receive the Pandora bracelet and charms. “And our youngest the heart ring and earrings that she had been wearing.”
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With the pendant containing a piece of his wife, he is desperate to have it returned.
“I would just ask them to look into their hearts and return our keepsakes. Those items are meaningless to them, but they have so much memory and feelings associated with them for us,” he told Global News.
He said the pendant can be left in his mailbox or returned to a police station.
“Somewhere, someone will find it,” he said. “If it’s kids — turn them into the school lost and found or something. The teacher knows my girls. The items will make it home.”
St. Albert RCMP said they are investigating the theft. Police are looking for a black Honda Fit they believe may have been involved in the robbery. They said the vehicle was seen parked on the driveway of the victim’s home with four teenage boys in it. On Wednesday afternoon, they released a photo of the vehicle which can be seen below.
Anyone with information about the suspects or what happened is asked to call the St. Albert RCMP detachment at 780-458-7700. Tips can also be anonymously submitted by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
READ MORE: ‘Our house is whole again’: son’s ashes returned to Alberta mother
St. Albert borders the north edge of Edmonton.
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