Christopher Hennequin and his wife, Linda Jane, discovered the flowers were missing when they visited Grouville Cemetery on Thursday and realised that they must have been taken some time in the preceding week.
It was a further distressing incident for the couple, whose daughter, Kerina, died suddenly at Christmas time, aged 33.
Due to the length of time it took to determine her death – which was deemed unexplained – it was not until five months later that the family was able to bury her.
‘My wife is very distraught and I was very, very angry, and I’m still angry. We lost our daughter at 33, the unexplained death was bad enough, and we only buried her on 15 May. But then someone steals the flowers from the grave. It’s not as if we’ve had a nice six months – she was our only daughter,’ said Mr Hennequin. ‘I didn’t think things like robbing from graves existed in Jersey. The person who did it must have no morals.’
The distinctive silk flower wreaths were specially made in the UK and are roughly pillow sized and weighted to stop them blowing away. The word ‘granddaughter’ is printed on one of the wreaths and ‘niece’ on the other.
‘My sister-in-law and family brought the wreaths over from the UK when she came for the funeral, and they were appalled when I told them what happened,’ said Mr Hennequin. ‘You can’t get the wreaths in the Island because they’re not made here. Wherever they are they’ll stand out and hopefully people will recognise them. I’ve looked round the cemetery and can’t find them, but I can’t go round all the cemeteries in the Island.’
Mr Hennequin, who helps with the fundraising for Jersey Cheshire Home, has tried to find out who took the flowers and has also reported the theft to the States police.
‘All I want is their return and to be put back and left in the condition they were in. I don’t want any further problems,’ he said. ‘The police are looking into it and if they find out who did it, they’ll be prosecuted,’ he said. ‘But that won’t happen with me – I just want whoever did it to return the flowers and leave them at the cemetery. I just want my daughter’s grave back as it was. She’s my little girl and she doesn’t deserve that.’
Anyone with any information about the theft is asked to call the States police on 612612.
