Westminster family recovers urns containing remains of loved ones in stolen moving truck
In late January, a family in the process of moving from Denver to Westminster had their U-Haul stolen. It contained all of their belongs and the remains of loved ones.
It happened in downtown Denver near the intersection of 22nd Avenue and Washington Street. A week later, someone spotted it in Lakewood, and police found it on the corner of Ellsworth and Reed streets on Feb. 5. Denver police are investigating, but no arrests have been made yet.
Since then, the family has been waiting to see if their belongings were still inside the truck. They had trouble getting details from police because the theft victim is technically U-Haul, not them.
On Feb. 6, U-Haul called to tell Gabriale Voeltner that only trash was left in the truck. It wasn't the news she was hoping for.
"I was such a blow to my soul," Voeltner said, "it was so hard to describe how much it hurt that they didn't think that anything was in there."
But days later she got another call from someone contracted to clean out the U-Haul.
"I had already lost hope," Voeltner said.
The man had found a few items inside the U-Haul. On Saturday, Voeltner and her kids went to take a look.
"We kept digging, we kept digging, we kept digging," Voeltner said. While looking among the trash, and stolen items that didn't belong to them, she saw it.
"First we found this one which was my mother's urn," Voeltner said. The blue urn was scratched as if it'd been tossed around, but intact. Voeltner kept searching and found her husband's urn in the very back of the truck.
"I realized that it was his and I freaked out and I was like 'We found it!'" Voeltner said.
It was the miracle the family had been praying for.
"We finally found him, and I stopped believing that we would find him," said Voeltner's youngest child, Thomas.
Nearly all their other belongings were lost, including ashes and memorabilia of the family pet. But later that day. They adopted a new one.
"She just kind of like melted into your soul and made you feel like everything was just better," Voeltner said, holding their brand new puppy, Evie. They brought their new family member home Saturday, along with their old ones.
"From now on, we're just going to keep moving forward," Voeltner said.
Now the family is living in their new Westminster apartment. It's still a challenge having to replace all their stolen furniture, clothing, and belongings. But they say many people and organizations have reached out to help and donated. And they are beyond grateful.
