Car thief returns stolen ashes to Everett cemetery with anonymous note

UPDATE August 16, 2015 -- 

Thieves who stole a man's car last week returned an urn containing his father's ashes to a cemetery in Everett.

The thieves apparently left a note explaining what was inside the urn.

They did not, however, return Troy Graham's car. But Troy says he doesn't care about that.

Troy and his family asked for help from local media, including Q13 FOX News in spreading the word about the stolen urn. He credits that coverage with helping get his father's ashes back.

The urn is now back with Richard Graham's wife, Joyce.

Watch and read our previous coverage below:



EVERETT, Wash. -- A Snohomish County family is hoping their stolen car will turn up, because there was something very valuable left inside. The ashes of 84-year-old Dick Graham, who recently passed away, were in an urn in the backseat.

“You know, Dick was always kind of a jokester. I wonder if he engineered this,” says Joyce Graham, Dick's wife.

She can’t help but laugh when she thinks about her late husband of 61 years. She says he would think it’s funny that his ashes went missing, just hours before his memorial service.

“We’re having a memorial for him and he can’t come. He couldn’t be here, sorry about that.”

But Graham’s son Troy says he wasn’t laughing when he woke up Wednesday morning, and found out his 1999 Honda CRV had been stolen from his locked parking garage in Everett.

“I was out of mind at that point, I didn’t know what to do.”

The family went ahead with the memorial service. Troy says it didn’t feel quite right.

“We just want to finalize it all, it feels missed, something’s missing right now.”

Dick loved cars, so the family was going to put his ashes in an antique car model on Joyce’s mantel. She says she hopes police recover the car or the thieves return the ashes, so she can still do that.

“You’re kind of empty,” she says. “It would be good, it would fill up our car.”

Joyce says her husband always enjoyed going on adventures, but she hopes this one comes to an end soon.

“Quit playing around and get back home.”

The vehicle is a white, four-door, 1999 Honda CRV with a Washington license plate number of AKG-1121 and a black cargo trailer hitch. The urn is described as a gold colored tin box about eight inches square.

Anyone with information about this vehicle theft is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 1-800-222-TIPS.