Local mom hopes thieves will return ashes of her baby son who died of cancer

LAKE FOREST PARK, Wash. -- A local mom says a thief broke into her home and stole something irreplaceable -- her baby's ashes.

Jessica Kopf's son, Casey, was diagnosed at 6 1/2-months-old with brain cancer. He died nearly nine months later.

"It's hard to know that he's really gone this time," Jessica said Wednesday.

It's hard enough to lose a child once, but Lake Forest Park Police say someone stole the baby's ashes that were contained in a fire safe in the family home. Other items were taken in the burglary, but it was the fire safe with Casey's ashes that she wants back.

Jessica had Casey cremated in Virginia and says the box holding his cremains has a metal tag inside that says “Fairfax Funeral Home”.

"I always expected that when I get buried he would be buried with me," Jessica said. "It's the box -- I really just want the box" with Casey's ashes.

Her biggest fear is that the thieves might have thrown the box away.

She said she fears "that he's in a landfill, that somebody just threw him in the trash and that my son who didn't deserve to have cancer and die so early is gonna be laid to rest in a landfill -- that would be really had to bear," she said.

Jessica is hopeful that someone out there can help make this right and return the box with Casey's ashes. A neighbor reported seeing a dark blue SUV leave the area, but didn't get a license plate, make or model.  The family hopes whoever took the ashes will return them to P.O. Box 924 Lynnwood, WA 98046.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Lake Forest Park Police Department.