Grandfather’s ashes stolen from Caswell Hill garage

A weekend break-in at a garage in the city’s Caswell Hill neighbourhood has left a Saskatoon family devastated.

Tanya Marie Nowlin told 650 CKOM the garage belongs to her aunt.

The only thing stolen in the June 2 break-in was a box containing her grandfather’s ashes.

“They were in a red tin and they had his name on it, so I assume they thought it was full of tools,” Nowlin told 650 CKOM.

A red tin similar to one stolen June 2 containing the ashes John Nowlin, who died in 1989. (Tanya Nowlin/submitted photo)

She said her grandmother didn’t want the ashes when her granddad, John, died in April 1989. The crematorium contacted Nowlin’s aunt years later, asking her to pick them up.

“She buried them in the garden, then she found out that’s illegal,” Nowlin said. “So she dug them up and for whatever reason, she put them in the garage.”

Nowlin said thieves have now targeted her aunt’s Avenue H garage three times. The previous two break ins saw gas cans and a lawnmower go missing.

“This time there was a lawn mower, a leaf blower, I have bins in there, and all they took was my grandfather’s ashes.”

Nowlin has reached out through social media to try to get the ashes back but so far hasn’t heard anything.

“I don’t care about laying charges I just care about getting them back,” Nowlin said.

She said the family has saved up money for a memorial bench to house the ashes of her grandfather, grandmother and father.