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Jun 1, 2009 3:57 pm US/Central
Stolen Cremated Ashes Returned To Aledo Family
ALEDO (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Judd and Betty Putnam hold the returned ashes of their daughter, Laura.
KTVT / KTXA
A North Texas family is reunited with a loved one who was lost not once but twice thanks to two separate crimes. At Monday's 'homecoming' the family said to the second set of criminals "God bless you."
When Judd and Betty Putnam returned to their Aledo home on May 28th, they discovered that not only had someone broken in and stolen jewelry and other items, but that an oak box containing the remains of their 23-year-old daughter, Laura, was gone.
"When I realized they'd taken that urn, I feel like it kind of destroyed me," Betty said one day after the theft.
Laura Putnam was killed in a 2003 hit-and-run boating wreck. That tragedy also had Judd and Betty waiting, as it was two weeks before their daughter's body was recovered from the lake.
After the theft of Laura's ashes, the Putnams made a valiant plea to the thieves and waited again. "Just give me that box back. I don't care about the other two jewelry boxes," Judd said.
This time the wait for the family was brief. On Friday May 29th, just minutes after a story aired on CBS 11 News, a man left an anonymous message stating that the cremated ashes could be found near the Putnam home.
"Within 10 minutes I had a deputy at that location, which is just up the road here and sure enough they were there," said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler.
Sheriff Fowler personally returned the oak box to the Putnams. "It's like getting her back again," Betty said joyfully. "We lost her, and we got her back, and we lost her again. I can't… it's the greatest gift."
Monday, after saying how pleased he was that the Putnams had back what was rightfully theirs, Fowler announced that a $1000 reward is being offered for information on the burglary. The criminal not only face burglary charges, but will also be charged with abuse of a corpse.
Even considering the hardships in their lives, Judd said this is proof that there's a silver lining to almost everything. "It goes to prove that even the worst people have some redeeming qualities, in the fact that they brought this back."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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