According to USA Today
Kaybriel Mayhew wants her brother back.
Last week, her car was stolen. Inside were multiple items of value, but none as priceless as a small container containing the ashes of her younger brother. Days later, there are no signs of the car or the ashes.
“I’m not really worried about the car,” she says. “I’m worried about what’s happened to my brother.”
After work Wednesday, Mayhew, 21, parked the car in her Pekin apartment complex’s lot. She intended to pop inside her apartment, then go back out to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Though she locked the car, she left her purse inside.
Once in her apartment, she changed plans. Still, she did not retrieve her purse from the car. Though a car key, wallet and license were inside, she figured no one would notice the purse.
The car, a 2017 Ford Fusion, is unlocked by a keypad. She thought it was safe.
The next morning, she went to the car to finally get to that Christmas shopping. But the car was gone.
“I kind of freaked out,” she says.
She called the Pekin Police Department and filed a report. She listed the valuables inside the purse.
“But that stuff is all replaceable,” she says.
She can’t say the same about the ashes of her brother, which were inside the glove box.
In August 2017, Elijah Mayhew, 15, of Florida died of a gunshot wound there. Weeks earlier, he had told his mom that he wanted to be an organ donor. As such, he helped saved six lives, including one chronicled in the Journal Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.
After he was cremated, some of his survivors each kept portions of his ashes, which were encased inside a container about the size of a test tube. Kaybriel Mayhew kept the tube inside a purple gift box.
Usually, the ashes would be in her apartment. But on trips, she would take ashes along for the ride.
“He comes with,” she says. “He’s my protector. He looks over me. He’s like a traveling companion.”
In early December, she drove to Tennessee to visit her grandmother. The ashes were tucked inside the glove box for the journey. But when she returned to Pekin, she neglected to put the ashes back inside her apartment. The ashes remained in the car last Wednesday night.
“That’s why he was in the car,” she says.
After reporting the auto theft, she wrote repeated posts on Facebook. She included photos of her car, along with the license plate number – CB 60377 – in the hope that someone might see it and alert police.
“Hopefully, my brother is still there,” she wrote. “That’s the only thing I want.”
She frets that even if the car is found, the thief might’ve taken the box and discarded it as worthless.
“It’s an uncomfortable feeling that someone else has possession of him,” she says. “They could’ve just cleared out my car.
“It makes me a little crazy that I can’t do anything.”