A grieving mother who had just received the cremated remains of her baby girl had the ashes stolen by a heartless thug with a gun on Wednesday at a bus stop in Opa-locka.
Janie Brunson spent nearly 24 heartbreaking hours before she got one of the best calls of her life: the police had recovered the ashes of her daughter Shaunyce.
"I was so happy I screamed," Brunson told the Miami Herald. "I was thanking God."
It was good news in what has been an otherwise tragic year for the 23-year-old woman. Last August, Brunson miscarried her first child, a son named Shaun. Then, on March 30, came the death of Shaunyce, who was born weighing just 14 ounces.
Brunson had planned to place the ashes in her home as part of a memorial to her two deceased children.
"I thought once I'd get her ashes my memorial would be completed," Brunson said. "I'd be able to go on and think of future things and future babies."
But just minutes after she had picked up the remains, as she and her boyfriend were sitting at a bus stop, a man shoved a gun in her face and demanded the box of ashes.
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Despite Brunson's pleas to the gunman to let her keep the ashes, he made off with them.
Police found the ashes yesterday, but the gunman is still at large.
"I just pray they catch him," Brunson said.
