BILLINGS — A Billings woman is heartbroken after someone stole memorial torches from her home Saturday that honored her mother and cousin who died from cancer.
Tanaia Kruger discovered the Relay for Life torches missing from her property when she returned home from work. The purple-glowing memorial torches had been a constant presence at her midtown home, representing her mother, Jennifer Edwards, and cousin Kelly Jo Lothert Schuler, who both lost their battles with cancer.
Watch Tanaia Kruger talk about the meaning behind these torches:
"It hurts that somebody could be so callous to take something with that kind of meaning," Tanaia said Tuesday. "Granted, no monetary value, but it was still meaning to the family behind it."
The torches held deep personal significance for Kruger, who would see the purple glow each morning as she headed to work.
"I see the last of the purple glow from my torches as I'm walking to my garage," Kruger said. "It's just a kind of a good morning from my mom and my cousin, who I both have lost to cancer."
When she discovered them missing, Kruger initially thought they might have been moved by wind.
"Looking around like, Did they just get moved because of the wind?" she said. "Nothing anywhere around."
The Relay for Life torches represent someone who has died from cancer. In July 2017, Kruger's mother lost her life to pancreatic cancer, and her cousin Kelly Jo died from ampullary cancer in October 2023.
"She was my best friend, (she) was there for everything, and I lost her two weeks after my 41st birthday to pancreatic cancer. My kids all four of them lost a great woman who loved them with her heart," Kruger said about her mother. Her cousin, "lost her just after her 42nd birthday to ampullary cancer so, trying to remember them, keep them in memory."
The torches represented more than just her family members. Kruger said they also symbolized others battling cancer.
"I still participate with Relay for Life. I've got friends that are battling or have fought cancer," Kruger said. "Some have won some have lost, but they're still heroes in my eyes."
With her family's names on the torches, Kruger finds the theft particularly puzzling.
"I've heard of things being stolen, but why memorial torches? Why Relay for Life torches?" Kruger said. "It just made no sense."
Kruger has turned to social media, hoping someone will recognize the torches and return them.
"I didn't care who it was. I didn't want anybody to recognize. I just wanted them returned," Kruger said.
