Grieving couple is trying to find stolen items that memorialize stillborn baby

Jacqueline and Nate Mace were trying to get back into a routine. The young Lee’s Summit couple had been grieving the loss of their first child, Charlotte, who was stillborn on June 4.

But on July 23, two items that memorialized Charlotte were stolen from their car, among other things. According to police, the theft occurred at night while the vehicle was parked in front of the couple’s home. The next morning when Jacqueline discovered the backpack containing her pregnancy diary and an outfit for Charlotte was gone, she was devastated.

“I couldn’t even talk. I was panicking,” the 26-year-old said.

The outfit, a onesie, was supposed to be what Charlotte would return home from the hospital wearing. The diary documented Jacqueline’s pregnancy: the first time she felt Charlotte move, what she was looking forward to about being a mom, letters to her daughter and, finally, details about Charlotte’s funeral services. The diary had become a way for Jacqueline to process her grief.

“We’ve been trying to grieve, but this kind of threw us off the course that we were on,” she said.

With the help of their church, the Maces searched nearby streets to try to find items the thief might have discarded. They have found almost everything except the onesie and the diary.

“It’s just so strange,” Nate said. He doesn’t understand why they haven’t been able to find the two items.

“Now it feels like not only our daughter was taken from us but also our memories of our daughter got taken from us,” he said.

The backpack was in the couple’s car because they had just returned from a vacation their family had paid for them to go on. Nate said it was healing for the couple, especially for Jacqueline.

“It was her first chance to get away and be distracted and not think about her grief all the time. We had fun for the first time,” Nate said. “Then this happens and it just ripped the scab off of all the healing that had happened so far.”

On Facebook Jacqueline wrote that these are “irreplaceable items.” They are offering $750 as a reward for their return.

The Maces don’t think the theft was committed by anyone they know. They are hoping someone picked up the items and just doesn’t know what to do with them.

“They could be dropped off at the nearby post office, our doorstep, the police station, we just want them to find their way back to us,” she wrote.

This story was originally published August 3, 2018 at 7:41 PM.