ROLLA, Mo. — What was supposed to be the happiest day of a local man's life was already a little bittersweet, since his father wasn’t there to see it.
Now things are even harder as police work to catch the thieves who took his father away from him all over again.
On Saturday, Jacob Villalobos, of Franklin County, Missouri, married his wife, Sydney Villalobos. The two have been together for five years and have a 2-year-old son together.
"We finally tied the knot on Saturday," Jacob said. "The whole reason we moved the date forward to February is so my dad could make it.”
Jacob's father, Danny Villalobos, had lung cancer. Everyone hoped he would live to see his son's wedding, but he died in September 2019 at age 51.
“He was everything to me. I was his only boy, and I tried to make him as proud as I possibly could,” Jacob said.
He made sure his father still had a seat at the ceremony in Vichy, Missouri. His urn was set up on a chair, nestled in a memorial next to a sign that read, 'We know you'd be here if heaven wasn't so far away.'
“He sat right next to my mom during the wedding,” Jacob said.
After the wedding, Jacob relaxed and had fun, thinking family members were looking after his father’s urn. He stayed the night in a hotel in Rolla.
When he got up Sunday morning, he asked about the urn.
“They told me they strapped it into my car seat,” he said.
When he went to his car to check, it was gone. It had been stolen along with his wife’s purse.
“They even took our cake topper,” Jacob said. “A car full of presents and of course they took the most sentimental things.”
The thieves tried to use both of his wife's cards.
“They charged about $390 at Rolla Walmart and they went to McDonald’s a couple of times."
Instead of spending the morning after their wedding excited for their honeymoon, the newlyweds were frantically canceling cards and filing a police report.
The Rolla Police Department posted surveillance photos of two suspects, a man and a woman, on Facebook. The man has a distinctive "100" tattoo on his right hand.
Jacob said he has no idea why someone would take his father's ashes.
“I don’t know what they thought it was. It’s not light," he said. "What would you even do with it?”
Police have searched ditches and gutters for the urn, he said, but so far they've found nothing.
He now anxiously awaits answers while trying to make the most of his honeymoon in Honolulu.
It's not about the money the thieves spent, Jacob said. It's about getting his father back.
“I just want my dad back. I don’t care if they dump him somewhere. Just give someone a clue as to where he is.”
Anyone with information should call the Rolla Police Department at 573-308-1213 and ask to speak to Sgt. Kenny Moberly.
More local stories:
