POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – At Mountain View Cemetery, where parents come to remember loved ones, every small token of love matters. So when Meri Sistrunk found the hand-painted gnomes on her 14-year-old son’s grave missing, it felt like losing a piece of him all over again.
Jesse Sistrunk passed away in 2014 at 14 years old. He always had wanted to grow a beard, so the gnomes symbolize him.
“I came out to put out his Thanksgiving decorations, and he had two gnomes sitting out here, Beasty and Ninjy. And when I got out here, all the rest of the decorations were here, but they were gone,” Jesse’s mother, Meri Sistrunk, said.
Jesse’s sister, Sheila King, says the stolen gnomes bring her and her mother heartbreak.
“I don’t think that people realize the emotional impact that stealing from a grave in general, let alone a child’s grave has on grieving parents, or grieving families in general. Obviously, they can’t celebrate holidays or anything with their children in the living world. And this is the little that they can deal with,” King said.
King took to Facebook post in hopes to find someone with information. Other grieving parents from the area said they also experienced gravesite robberies at the Mountain View Cemetery.
Unfortunately, there are no leads, but many supportive comments.
While some families have stopped decorating headstones because of the consistent robberies, Sistrunk will never quit.
“I will never stop until I’m dead. Stop decorating or stop celebrating him,” Sistrunk said.
