Couple finds infant's ashes in stolen truck and seeks to return it to child's family

A Las Vegas couple this week returned an urn containing the ashes of an infant child back to a relative who revealed they hadn't known it was stolen.

Ahmad Ervin, 42, found the capsule, which had the name Marcel Akarhi Alexander inscribed on it, while cleaning out his reclaimed truck. It took about a week for Ervin and his girlfriend to find an individual related to the boy, who revealed he hadn't even known the urn was missing. “I know, if it was one of my children’s ashes, I would have just lost my mind with worry, because it’s something that you can never get back,” 50-year-old Danielle Belin, Ervin's girlfriend, said. “When once you have your child’s ashes, it’s like the most precious thing.”

It all began when the 42-year-old awoke in his Las Vegas home on the morning of Sept. 25 and noticed his truck was missing . Ervin, who said he owns a moving business, hurried to file a report with the police. Ervin actually found his stolen vehicle himself by asking some homeless people who were able to steer him in the right direction. He would reunite with his property four days later on Sept. 29.

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The truck was filled with seemingly stolen items, suggesting the perpetrator was using the vehicles to stash the goods until police were off of them. Ervin said all the spoils, including wallets and purses, were confiscated by police as evidence. Police left the lesser valuables in the truck for Ervin to clean, including tons of clothes, he said.

“When I picked up a [pile] of clothes, I felt something heavy,” he says. “I take a look at it and realized it’s an urn.” It wasn't a typical urn, but one with a miniature sculpture showing a brown-skinned baby sleeping in a pair of angel wings under the words "wrapped in love." The sign said the child died when he was just over a year old, being born Jan. 7 2020 and dying Feb. 20, 2020.

Understandably, he couldn't bring himself to toss the ashes into the trash, so he set out on a mission to locate the family or parents. The situation hit close to home for Belin who said she's lost children, according to People. “It just tore me apart,” Belin says of learning about Marcel's urn. “It’s like having your child kidnapped, pretty much. It was our job to find out whose child it is to return to his parents.”

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Belin, who all ready had some urns harboring the ashes of four of her dead kids, agreed to store the urn until the rightful owners claim it. The trail has run dry as of late as the local funeral home, which Belin found by tracking the name of the deceased infant, didn't yield any leads.

The 50-year-old is also spreading the word on social media, which has garnered some much-appreciated help. The number of people willing to aid the mother on this important mission has been "overwhelming," she said. Las Vegas police have not issued a statement regarding the whereabouts of the thief or the origin of the ashes, according to People.