Bob Herrle, Whose Wife's Ashes Were Stolen, Passed Away Before Thieves Could Be Charged

Urn Thieves Charged, But Widower Died Before Justice Served

A Monument widower did not live long enough to see justice carried out against a pair of thieves who had stolen an urn containing his wife's ashes last January. On Monday Damon Brimer, 34, was sentenced to five years in prison with parole and Jeremy Farr, 23, to 11 years in prison with parole. The two men were found responsible for as many as 20 burglaries surrounding Colorado Springs.

However widower Bob Herrle, 76, died in July months after the urn was returned--coincidentally on what would have been his wife's birthday.

"I really thought it was a lost cause really, but to have it show up two months and two days later is amazing," Herrle told KOAA in March after the mahogany box containing his wife's ashes was found at the Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Colorado Springs. "I'm really kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing."

When Farr and Brimer broke into Herrle's home in January, they had stolen several of Herrle's possessions, including a television, laptop, camera, and the box containing the ashes of his deceased wife Terry who died in 2009 of ovarian cancer. The Colorado Springs Sheriff's Office urged the burglars to return the urn to the police station or other public place, even if anonymously, and Herrle's neighbors--who had also been robbed--agreed to post a $1,500 reward for information pertaining to the burglars.

Herrle told the Colorado Springs Gazette the day after the urn went missing that he had been keeping her ashes because he wanted them to be mixed with his in a garden when he passed away.

Six days after the urn was stolen, police found an apology note from the thieves left outside the Trinity Church of the Nazarene, along with the urn--but without Terry's ashes. The note said that they found the urn and, "once they realized what it was they treated it with the utmost respect," Sheriff's spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene told KMGH.

"That to me was the greatest loss," Bob Herrle told the Gazette. "Other things can all be replaced by insurance and money. You just can’t replace that."

Terry's ashes was finally returned to Herrle on March 11, her birthday. After their return, Herrle celebrated by taking his children and grandchildren on an Alaskan cruise, something Terry had always told him she wanted to do, according to KOAA. The day after they returned from the trip, Herrle was admitted to the hospital for kidney failure and died shortly thereafter.

The thieves, who say they have drug problems and will accept responsibility for their actions, were finally caught after attempting to rob Farr's uncle, Larry Bowin, who issued an apology to Herrle.

"My stuff is just stuff,” he said. “But with Bob, it was his wife.”

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot