SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio mother is fighting back after she caught two people stealing toys from her daughter’s grave on surveillance video.
Nikki Kennedy says her daughter, Enedina Ibarra, 4, died on Jan. 28, 2019.
“She passed away from neuroblastoma cancer,” Kennedy said. “She was a feisty little girl. She went through a lot her entire life. She lived in the hospital and didn’t get to live like a child. She literally spent her entire life playing in the hospital. It just hurts me to know I lost my child like this.”
Since Enedina’s passing, Kennedy has kept her daughter’s spirit alive, decorating her grave at the San Jose Burial Park with things Enedina loved, like Peppa Pig.
In the beginning, Kennedy noticed things missing from her daughter’s grave.
“I visit her every day. I came one time, and her toys were everywhere. I think it was children who got her toys and put them everywhere,” Kennedy said. “They were in the pond, all over the gravesite. I had a feeling who was doing it, but I didn’t want to point fingers, so I installed a motion-detecting camera. I said, ‘My daughter can’t even rest peacefully because they are taking her belongings.’”
The first camera Kennedy put up was vandalized.
“They broke her first camera, and I replaced it with a new one,” Kennedy said. “They took her Peppa Pig things and the lights I had out there.”
Sunday afternoon was the first time Kennedy directly caught people stealing from her daughter’s grave.
“I was grocery shopping, and as soon as I arrived home, I got an alert that someone was there. I saw a gentleman sitting on a bench next to her. At first, I thought he was there visiting my neighbor’s grave, but then I saw that he looked familiar,” Kennedy said. “The men seen in the video were the same men my neighbor caught on their camera stealing things. When I saw them, I could only yell at them, and it scared them.”
By the time Kennedy got to the cemetery, the men were gone.
“How would you feel if you lost a child and someone was going tomes with their stuff? You would not like it,” she said. “I am pretty sure you went to sell for something that wasn’t worth it. To me, all of that stuff is valuable to me because I buy it from my heart for my daughter.”
Kennedy has filed a police report with San Antonio police. She said she wants the men caught, and she wants better security for the sake of the many loved ones buried at the cemetery.
“We spend too much money to buy a plot and to feel safe,” Kennedy said. “Now, we are constantly having to watch our backs. I want more lighting and more security here.”
The theft is under investigation.
Until the men shown in the surveillance video are identified officially by San Antonio police, their faces have been blurred in KSAT’s video (in the player above).
If you have any information that can help, you are urged to call San Antonio police.