Thieves breakin blind womens home steal ashes

Thieves steal ashes of Valerie Blackwell's late husband and son in Springfield burglary
by The Republican Newsroom
Monday July 20, 2009, 5:26 PM
By GEORGE GRAHAM ggraham@repub.com SPRINGFIELD - One or more thieves, ransacking Valerie Blackwell's Pine Point neighborhood apartment, made off with her most-valuable earthly possessions - the ashes of her late husband and son. "Can you imagine grieving all over again?" the 47-year-old legally blind woman said on Monday as she sat in the darkened living room of her Leland Drive home. "I can't think straight." Blackwell was robbed some time on Thursday while she was on a daylong trip to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston where she said she receives care for retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease. The disease has been gradually stealing away her sight since she was first diagnosed at age 16. Blackwell said she returned home that night to discover her possessions strewn about, her furniture and mattress slashed, the ashes gone. Investigators believe Blackwell my have been a victim of a hate crime, targeted by somebody who knew her and the significance of the urns, according to police spokesman Charles L. Youmans. "It's not like a regular burglary," said Youmans, speaking to the apparent viciousness of the break. Missing, along with the urns containing the remains of her husband and son, were a substantial amount of cash and the special adaptive equipment that Blackwell relies on to use her telephone and computer. "They took from me what I need to be independent on my own," said Blackwell. White clouds of stuffing, ripped from Blackwell's furniture and mattress, still drifted about the apartment's floors on Monday morning. "I had money in my mattress; that's why they cut up the place," Blackwell said. "They cut everything up to find the money." Blackwell said she can survive without the money and that the equipment can be replaced. "I know in my heart my son's spirit is with God in heaven, but his remains were here with me" she said. The two urns are similar; both are royal blue, zig-zagged with 10-karat gold. Blackwell said her son, Tyrone J. Bailey, died in Atlanta in 2007. Her husband, Gregory G. Blackwell died 23 days later of a massive heart attack. "They said he hung himself," Blackwell said of her son's death. "He was my first-born, my first gift from God, and he was so gifted." Her husband, 40 years old when he died, "was a loving man," Blackwell said. Blackwell said she would eagerly accept the return of the ashes, no questions asked. "I just want the ashes back," she said. A small safe, with such things as her late son's jewelry and her mother's wedding ring, was also taken. Blackwell started sobbing, in recounting the safe's contents, when she realized that it also contained a lock of her late son's hair. Police said at least $1,500 in cash was taken and that the stolen jewelry was estimated at $10,000. Blackwell said she is determined to get on with her life. "I am not going to give up. I will not give up. I am just grieving now," Blackwell said. Asked if she is afraid to stay in her apartment, now that the shelter it provided has been so violently shattered, Blackwell said no. "They took something so precious that my heart is almost dead," Blackwell said. "What else can they do to me?" Blackwell said she takes comfort in knowing, however, that her son and husband are safe in heaven. "If I never see those ashes again it's going to hurt, but, I know my husband and son's spirits are in God in heaven," she said. Blackwell hopes to study public relations and criminal justice at Springfield Technical Community College. "You better believe after what happened to me I am going to do it," she said. Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call the Police Department at (413) 787-6355.