COMOX VALLEY, B.C. – Mike Barrett’s ashes have been recovered.
The ashes were inside one of the 26 tonals belonging to the Comox Valley Disc Golf Club, that were taken from the 3L property on Duncan Bay Main some time before the Easter Weekend.
All of the tonals were recently returned, along with a note from the alleged thief.
The one key element missing was the ashes of Mike, the property’s previous caretaker.
READ MORE: Disc golf club’s tonals returned, alleged thief wrote he is ‘sincerely sorry’
But today, the club’s treasurer Ralph Rey decided to take one more look for the ashes.
Rey contacted the MyComoxValleyNow.com newsroom late this morning, with the news.
“I’m on the 3L property right now,” he said. “Just sort of doing the last of the cleanup and I thought ‘I’ll go look for Mike’s ashes, maybe they just threw the plastic bag somewhere.’ So about 20 feet where that tonal was, with his ashes in it, there is a little plastic bag which I am going to bring down to the RCMP for fingerprinting if they can find anything.”
The alleged thief left a note with the tonals, saying he “had no idea of the personal and private connection of the game pieces I alone stole.”
The note also said that the suspect “wanted to be an anonymous Robin Hood, rescuing the local artwork from potential loss from neglect and abandonment.”
According to the note, the motivation for the theft was the preservation and refurbishment of the tonals, “reinstalling them when a new playing field had been established.”
“I had no idea the removal of the tonals could injure any person in any way and I am deeply ashamed of my actions,” the alleged thief added. “I am sincerely sorry that my actions have resulted in the desecration of a final resting place.”
Rey said the letter is “a lie.”
“If it (the bag) just fell out, okay, but (it was) cleverly stashed, underneath the roots, cut back, underneath a tree about 20 feet from it, there’s no way in the world unless that was picked up by the guy who took those nuts (on the tonal) off, and those nuts were double tight and locked tight, so the thing about finger-tight was BS.”
Rey said he can sleep, now that the ashes were found.
