A priceless tiara has been returned after an opportunistic thief stole it from a three-year-old girl’s grave.
Lorraine and David Conway, who live on the Gold Coast, lost their daughter Brittney three weeks after she swallowed a button battery in July 2020.
Brittney was buried under a black marble headstone in a cemetery in Mudgeeraba, where her parents had embedded a closed glass box to house her special tiara.
It suddenly disappeared in June and Mr and Mrs Conway have since publicly called on the “delinquent” thief who stole it to return it immediately.
“I was so angry to think that someone had taken something so precious, taken it from such a sacred place,” Ms Conway said. He told 7News 1st of July.
“If you’re watching this and you took it, I don’t hate you, just take it back.”
On Monday, Ms. Conway said she returned to the cemetery and discovered the irreplaceable headdress had been returned to Her daughter’s safe deposit box.
Three-year-old Brittney Conway died three weeks after swallowing a button battery in July 2020
Her parents, Lorraine and David, buried their daughter and embedded her ancient tiara in a safe deposit box in the grave, before an unknown thief stole it in late June.
Ms Conway thanked everyone who helped spread the news, which ultimately led to the tiara’s return.
“We found him last night… We are very, very happy,” she wrote on Facebook.
Ms Conway said the tiara was placed on her daughter’s grave as a reminder of how much she loved her little girl.
“We just wanted her to know she was our little princess,” Conway said.
Locals rallied around the distraught family, with some offering to donate money for a new tiara and others pledging $1,000 to anyone who could find the original.
Mrs Conway begged the “low-life” thief to immediately return the “irreplaceable” tiara.
On Monday, grieving parents returned to Mudgeeraba Cemetery on the Gold Coast to find their daughter’s tiara had been returned.
The couple first noticed the missing tiara in the last week of June.
“What filthy, despicable dogs stole my daughter’s tiara from the safe on her grave!” Ms Conway raged online at the time.
‘I hope they haunt you forever!’
It remains a mystery who took or returned the tiara.
