SAN ANTONIO — Barbara Morales has been trying to keep it together between praying and crying. She can't find two lockets with a portion of her parents' remains inside.
"It feels like I'm going through their death all over again," Morales said.
Her parents, Rodolfo and Mary Helen Trevino, died in 2021 and 2022.
Morales said her father was a United States Marine. The 53-year-old said her mother worked at the San Antonio Independent School District and Northside ISD.
Trevino was fighting diabetes and COVID until March 27, 2021. According to Morales, her mother transitioned one day short of her husband's death on March 26, 2022.
The two were cremated and put into a mausoleum at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery. Morales bought silver lockets from Amazon to hold some of their ashes.
Her mother's locket had a love moment inscribed.
"She would always say I love you more," Morales said. "So hers says, I love you more, Mom."
Trevino's, she said, spoke to gaining his wings as an angel. Morales said she would wear the lockets on trips because she traveled with her parents.
"It feels like. I'm going through their death all over again," she said.
On Friday, Morales was going out of town with family. She stopped at the Dollar Tree on Marbach Rd and 410 to quickly grab an item. After arriving in Corpus Christi, she realized her parents' remains and the lockets were missing.
"I was devastated," she said. "I've been crying since then."
Morales said she tore through her luggage, turned their vehicle upside down, and backtracked, but the lockets were gone.
Retracing steps back to the Marbach Rd Dollar Tree was fruitless when she got back to San Antonio. She said no one had turned in the jewelry.
Desperate to find her parents' ashes, she asked the homeless and even checked pawn shops—still nothing.
"They have their ashes," she said. "That's all I have left."
Now, she holds on to memories, pictures, and her parents' rosaries, praying someone has the lockets but doesn't know where to return them.
Morales said she cannot rest in peace until that piece of them comes home.