The Antioch, Calif., woman lost her newborn and is begging thieves to return the urn holding the ashes.
This has been a tremendously difficult year for Michiko Kiyoi. She lost her newborn son earlier this year and was homeless for a time before moving herself and her three children into a new home a few months ago, and now this.
"My heart is already broken and it will stay broken, but I want to be able to have that," Michiko said.
The mother of three said she cannot shake the sadness and the worry.
"That is all I have of my baby, please don't throw it away, don't discard it," she said.
The family's Antioch home was ransacked and burglarized Wednesday night. TVs, electronics, jewelry, a video game system and her kids' Christmas presents were all carried away in the night.
It's a crime the single mother and her three kids interrupted when they came home just after 10 p.m. from a family outing. They found a kitchen window shattered and a sliding glass door wide open. The burglars even rummaged through her 3-year-old son's toy box.
The worst part of all -- when Michiko looked in her own closet, she realized the burglars had taken the urn that contained her late baby's ashes.
"The baby's urn was in a jewelry box right here," Michiko said.
The urn contains the remains of her infant son who died this past January, just three hours after he was born.
"They took that box, and inside that box has the casing, and my baby's urn with his ashes in it," Michiko said.
The silver, heart-shaped urn is only about four inches wide and two inches tall. It is engraved with the baby's name, Gabriel. It was inside a box on a closet shelf.
"I'm almost sure they didn't know what they took," said Michiko's son, Makiyah Kiyoi. "I don't think anybody would really want to take an urn. It's not worth anything to anybody else, except us."
Michiko knows she'll likely never see the televisions or the camcorder again, but she desperately wants one item back.
"You violated my house and my children by coming in here. But I just need that. Whether you know you have it or not, please return the urn," she said.
Michiko says anyone who may have the urn can drop it in her mailbox or at the front door.
Tip Line:
Police will also take any information by phone or through their text tip line. All you have to do is text the word "ANTIOCH" to the number 274637. That can be done anonymously.
