Woman pleads for return of mother's ashes that were inside car stolen in Montreal

When Carole Daoust woke up on Wednesday to find her car missing from the parking lot of her hotel in Montreal's West Island, she didn't think about the prescription sunglasses she'd have to replace or her favourite Birkenstock sandals or the half a kilogram of smoked meat she'd bought from a famous Montreal deli to take back to Toronto. 

She thought only of the urn in the trunk of her car — one that contained her mother's ashes — that was now gone. 

"I was in disbelief," said Daoust. "I mean those things are replaceable. This isn't replaceable. This is like a final goodbye."

Daoust, who was born and raised in Montreal but now lives in Toronto, had driven to the city with her sister to bury her mother's ashes next to her father in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery on Mount Royal. 

WATCH | Woman says all she wants are her mother's ashes back: 

She'd even gathered up all the love letters he'd written to her mother, along with her wedding bouquet, to be placed in the plot as requested by the 92-year-old matriarch, Winifred (Winnie) Aziz.

Aziz died in Toronto in 2021, during a time when COVID-19 limited visits to her seniors' residence. Gathering restrictions resulted in a pared-down funeral and a strike at the cemetery made it tough to get an appointment to lay her to rest. 

Daoust says this burial was supposed to finally bring her family closure, but she says it feels as though she's lost her mother all over again. All she cares about now is getting the ashes back. 

"The car is not important. Its contents are not important, those are all replaceable. Someone's remains, especially your mother's, are not replaceable," she said through tears. 

Daoust says she parked her car in the lot outside her hotel in the city of Pointe-Claire around 8 p.m Tuesday after returning from dinner with her sister. 

As the bag containing the urn with her mother's ashes was heavy, the sisters decided to leave it in the trunk of the car under a blanket, thinking it would be safe. 

"I even remarked to my sister, 'oh, look, there's a Tesla beside us. We're going to be fine here.' You know, who would take this thing?" Daoust said of her Toyota RAV4. 

But according to the hotel's security cameras, someone in a hoodie broke into and made off with the car at 3:40 a.m. Wednesday. 

The Montreal police service (SPVM) says it's not uncommon for thieves to target these types of vehicles. And this year, they're doing it more often.