Sister pleads for return of dead brother's stolen ashes, 'no questions asked'
Michelle Beaulieu, 25, kept an urn holding her brother's ashes in her living room
The sister of a man killed in Winnipeg two years ago feels like she's lost him again after his ashes were stolen from her home in a break in.
"They mean the world to me, those ashes. It's the last piece that I have of him and having somebody steal those, it makes me feel like...like I didn't do my part, like I didn't keep him safe," said Michelle Beaulieu, 25.
Beaulieu kept her brother's ashes in an urn in her living room. Tanner Beaulieu was also 25 when he was killed at the Forks on Canada Day in 2014.
Michelle was at the lake over the August long weekend and returned to her Centennial-area home to find her front door kicked in and her house in disarray.
Her laptop computer, jars of change, meat from the freezer and other electronics were gone. To her horror, so was the most precious thing she owned
"I looked down and I saw my brother's urn was open and his bag of ashes that was in there was gone. Pretty much lost focus on everything else that was missing at that point," Beaulieu said.
"I immediately started crying, started screaming, 'my brother's ashes, my brother's ashes!' I was heartbroken. There's no really words to describe how I felt, how I feel."
Beaulieu phoned police but officers told her they couldn't get fingerprints off any of her belongings, and had no suspects.
She searched her neighbourhood, the backlanes and ditches but found nothing. Now she hopes the public will help bring the ashes back.
'Bring them back..no questions asked'
"I just want whoever took them to bring them back. Drop them off. No questions asked," she said. "He belongs here. He belongs with me. It's taken me a long time to cope with his death and now this I feel like I'm put back right from start."
Beaulieu says the burgundy bag the ashes are in is marked with '"Cropo Funeral Home" and the plastic bag of ashes itself also holds her brother's body tag and ponytail. She doesn't believe the person who stole these items did so deliberately.
She's asking Winnipeggers to keep their eyes peeled for the bags.
She said having the ashes in her home kept him, and her brother's memory close.
"They say they're forever in your heart but to actually physically have a piece of him still left was better than nothing...and now it's nothing."
Killed at The Forks on Canada Day
On the last day he was alive, Beaulieu says her brother spent the day at The Forks, feeding the geese and taking photos with his new girlfriend.
She says they left before the Canada Day fireworks began because Tanner had to get up early for work the next morning.
"On his way home, another group come up behind them, a fight was started. They say it only lasted a few minutes but it was his last few minutes I guess," she said.
Police told her that the man who stabbed her brother multiple times seemed to be a stranger to him.
"It's changed my life drastically," she said. "I dropped everything. I quit my job, I just kind of gave up on everything. It hit that hard. There was things that I normally would do, we would go fishing; there's no interest in those things anymore."
"It makes me hate. My trust, I have no trust in anybody. I'm scared to go places. Canada Day is not a celebration anymore."
She says she and her brother Tanner were very close, lived together and looked out for each other.
"If you were in a bad mood or if you were sad or down or whatever, he was always the one to pick up your spirits."
