Lake County >> On the morning of July 3, John O’Donnell arrived at Hartley Cemetery to water the tree he’d planted near his son’s grave, as he did almost every day. When he came upon the grave, which he visited in order to talk with and feel connected to his son, two statues — an angel and a lion — were missing. In their place was nothing but brown, dead grass. His son’s statues had been stolen. O’Donnell was in disbelief.
He asked if anyone had seen anything, but no one at the cemetery had any idea what had happened. Without anything else to do, O’Donnell turned to social media.
“I didn’t go to the law enforcement. I felt that they had more important things to do,” he said. “There’s far more pressing matters in our community that need physical police presence.”
O’Donnell recorded a heartfelt video, one that wasn’t full of anger or resentment, but compassion and understanding. He wondered aloud if the thief had taken the statues because they needed money, if they did it because they had no other options. In exchange for returning the statues, O’Donnell said he would give whatever was needed, including $250.
When recording the video he had two options. He could have been aggressive, he said, or “I can be a human being and try to be understanding and tolerant of whatever this individual or individuals are going through.”
In the video he implores, “Come out here and help me water my son’s tree and we can talk about whatever you’re going through.”
Anger wouldn’t have solved anything. Although he’s a photographer now, for years O’Donnell made his living as a mixed martial arts fighter, and growing upset is an easy and instinctive reaction. But he wanted to get his son’s statues back “the right way,” he explained.
O’Donnell posted the video to his Facebook. He never expected what happened next.
The video hit 31,000 views. It’s been shared over 800 times. It garnered media attention and ABC News picked up the story, running it first in the Bay Area. The story spread from there, airing in Texas and Philadelphia.
O’Donnell has since received an outpouring of support, from offers of monetary donations and replacement statues. Some people simply reach out to ask what they can do to help. Many of these individuals are complete strangers. While he’s been unable to make sense of someone stealing from a grave site, the response to his video gives him faith. “Those people really keep the spirit of what it means to be human alive,” O’Donnell said.
While he appreciates the offers to replace the statues, he’d prefer to have the original ones back, which had been at his son’s grave for three years, since the day after his passing. He’s also not accepting monetary donations.
Not long ago O’Donnell found a possible lead. He claimed he saw some pictures on Facebook of a woman posing with a statue that had been stolen from Scotts Valley Rd. Thinking she might know something, O’Donnell messaged her and the man she’d tagged in the photo. O’Connell has since been blocked by both individuals, he said.
“Somebody out there knows something and somebody has them and I don’t think I’m going to get them back,” he added.
As weeks pass without any sight of the angel and lion, O’Donnell is understandably beginning to lose hope on them ever turning up again. Visits to his son’s grave can be difficult trips. “Every time I go out there and water I expect them to be out there and they’re not,” he said.
He’s trying not to dwell on it any longer. It’s not ideal, but soon he may get new statues and cement them into the ground. “Mentally I struggle looking for an answer,” he confessed. “I’m not allowing myself to be influenced by that anymore. I think that’s where I’m at, I don’t want to feel frustrated.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
