A homeowner says he is deeply upset after it was discovered the urn containing his wife’s ashes, along with several other items, were stolen from his home in Port Credit.
Eighty-year-old Marvin Perschbacher said he didn’t notice anything was wrong at first when he came home Tuesday around 10 p.m.
He went into the kitchen, he checked his email and then went to the washroom upstairs.
It was then that he discovered drawers and doors had been opened and that things were “scattered.”
“I then realized something strange had happened, so I checked around the house and found the back door — the glass had been broken and they had kicked the door in and the wooden door was split,” Perschbacher told Global News on Friday.
He said he went around the house to find out what was missing.
“Yes, some cash was missing from various locations and a silver tea set, however, on further examination, I came into the dining room and I realized looking around that the urn, which was a wooden box, was missing,” he said.
Perschbacher had been married to his wife 77-year-old Deanna Perschbacher for 55 years up until her death on June 6, after a battle with cancer. The couple have two daughters and four grandchildren.
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The family had been planning to deposit Deanna’s ashes in the cemetery plot over the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.
“It’s a shock, we just can’t believe that that could ever have happened, it’s so disgustingly upsetting,” Marvin said.
“There’s no dollar value but sentimental value beyond all cost,” he said.
Deanna had been a teacher throughout her life, first teaching home economics before taking French courses while she stayed home to have her daughters. When she went back to teaching, she taught elementary core french, Marvin said.
When asked about his wife, Marvin said she was “the wife of my life.”
“The first month you rattle around alone,” Marvin said. “I used to jokingly talk to people, ‘Well, half my brain is gone.’ It’s a big void. My wife and I used to joke, what one wouldn’t remember, the other one would remember.
“Between the two of us, we had one brain.”
Marvin said his daughters have been very supportive and helpful since the death of their mother.
In terms of relocating the stolen urn, Marvin asked the suspect or suspects to “identify where it is and let the police know.”
The urn is described as a cherry-coloured wooden box with a marble top.
Peel regional police are asking anyone with information to contact them.