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Utah mother heartbroken after decorations stolen from son’s grave

Posted at 9:29 PM, Jan 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-01 08:42:05-05

ROY, Utah -- A northern Utah mom is heartbroken after she said someone stole decorations from her infant son's grave in Roy.

Nicura Thompson said her son died at just six weeks old on her birthday in December of 2016.

She visits his gravesite once a week, she said, to clean it off, add new decorations and keep it looking nice.

It's also time for her to connect with Colton.

"I just talk to him about things that we're doing," she said. "I always tell him that I miss him and I love him, and we're always thinking about him."

Colton passed away from a rare genetic disorder called DiGeorge syndrome, a congenital heart disease.

When she showed up to the cemetery for her weekly visit on Wednesday, she said she immediately noticed his decorations were missing. After calling the City of Roy and confirming that they didn't clean the gravesite up, Thompson realized someone likely took them on purpose.

"Who steals stuff off the grave of an infant?" she asked, in disbelief.

Normally, Colton's grave is surrounded by solar lights that keep his grave lit at night, as well as decorations for the season.

"It just gives me that sense of peace knowing he's not in dark," she explained. "So when they took his lights, I was kind of mad."

Thompson said other missing items included stick figures of snowmen and snowflakes, as well as items for Valentine's Day.

The pieces of love and comfort weren't worth a ton, but to Nicura, they meant everything.

"It's important for grieving families, especially mothers that have lost a child, to put stuff at their grave," she said. "We can't do much for them in life anymore— We can't buy them birthday gifts, we can't go take them out to dinner. This is all that we can do. We can only decorate their grave."

She said she's hoping the thieves will return the lights and decorations, but said she knows it's not likely and plans to replace the items instead.

Of the few things left behind, Thompson said she was grateful the person or people didn't take three painted rocks. They're from the group 801 Rocks, which came together to paint dozens of rocks in honor of Colton last year.