A Calgary mother is asking the public for help to track down several mementos from her deceased son that were stolen from her vehicle while she was in Red Deer on the weekend.

Elissa Carpenter, a former reporter at CTV Calgary, lost her son Evan, 14, a few weeks ago after he suffered a brain aneurysm and died in a B.C. hospital.

Carpenter was in Red Deer on Sunday visiting her mother when her car was broken into in the 4700 block of 33 Street at about 5:30 a.m.

“Because I had come from Vancouver Island to Calgary for Evan’s funeral service, I still had all of those mementos and everything with me and I had taken a lot of them with me to show her, to start to look through the guest book and read some of the sentiments that people had left, and my mom came outside and one of my windows was down about this far and she looked in the car and said I think they’ve taken your suitcase,” said Carpenter.

Thieves made off with a suitcase containing several pairs of Evan’s shoes and a number of items from his memorial service.

Carpenter called police and was told to wait for an officer before opening the vehicle to see what else was missing.

“In the trunk were a number of shoes, to most people they’re just shoes but to Evan they were really, very important and they were on display at his funeral service. So when the police got there they said go ahead and open the trunk and see what else is missing and I opened the trunk and those shoes were gone as well,” she said.

The following items were taken from Carpenter’s car:

  • Nike Jordan Retro 5s - youth size 4.5 or 5 (black high tops) 
  • Nike KD8 - youth size 4.5 or 5 
  • Nike Air Jordan - youth size 4.5 or 5 (white high tops) 
  • White ladies Carolina Panthers Jersey - Carpenter on the back.
  • Two green guest books 
  • Funeral leaflets 
  • Condolence cards
  • Yellow children's scrap book 

The stolen items were some of the last memories Carpenter has of her son and she just wants the items back, no questions asked.

“It’s only valuable, really, to people who loved him, like me,” she said. “If they knew that they stole from a dead child, that they might do the right thing, you know, either put it back where they got it from, take it to a church or a fire hall and we’ll make sure it gets returned to us.”

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.