Maple Ridge mother tearfully pleads for return of late daughter’s stolen items

MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS 1130) — A Maple Ridge mother is devastated after someone broke into the family storage office and stole her late daughter’s personal items.

Julie Raymond’s 16-year-old daughter, Shannon, died in 2008 after she overdosed on ecstasy while on a party bus.

The family had stored her clothing in a storage locker, which was broken into Saturday.

“I had put things in a plastic bag because it preserves her smell,” Julie tells NEWS 1130 in tears. “It’s all gone.”

A tearful plea from a Maple Ridge mom, after her late daughter’s clothing and items were stolen from a storage locker. Julie Raymond’s 16-year-old daughter Shannon died in 2008, after taking ecstasy on a party bus. Last night personal items were taken by thieves. @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/PwQVjqQjag

— Tarnjit Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) March 1, 2020

Julie insists the boxes were visibly labelled, and the person would have been able to notice how treasured these items in the locker were.

“Anybody can see the box and see what the box is labelled [as], that is obviously items that were cherished by somebody that had died.”

Stolen items include baby items, the clothes Shannon was wearing on the night of her death, her favourite TNA bag, as well as an unopened birthday gift.

“I had purchased a birthday gift for Shannon, which she never got an opportunity to get because she died two weeks before her birthday,” she says. “I had [the gift] in a locker in a box with some other items of hers, and they took that as well.”

Julie says when they went through the locker after the robbery, the thieves had broken into sealed police evidence files because of a court case of Shannon’s, which Julie hadn’t opened because she didn’t “have the heart to open them, but the thief did.”

Raymond says “I didn’t have the heart to open (sealed items), but the thief did. They took a lot of items.” She says some clothing was kept in sealed bags to keep Shannon’s scent, and provided comfort in the years following her death. @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/KSyUr36h22

— Tarnjit Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) March 1, 2020

Julie is pleading for anyone who has the items to return them to her grieving family, although she would like if the items were returned, it wouldn’t feel the same.

“I just feel like her memory has been violated in the worst possible way.”