Family 'gutted' after large quartz stone stolen from gravesite in Gungahlin Cemetery

Police are on the hunt for three men believed to be involved in the theft of a large custom-made rose-quartz grave marker from the Gungahlin Cemetery that has left a local family devastated.

Sariah Rose Hunt died on 16 March 2020, aged 27, after a battle with bowel cancer, leaving behind a two-year-old son, Austin, and Austin’s father, Leigh. Sariah was also daughter to Rhonda, and youngest sister to Shellie, Elli and Melanie (last names omitted by request).

The family wanted to do “something a bit bespoke” to mark her gravesite in the government-run northside cemetery and settled on a slab of rose quartz, in honour of Sariah’s middle name, Rose.

Melanie says they braved the COVID travel restrictions in late 2020 and after a “couple of hours going through all these different pieces”, managed to source a stone from a crystal rock shop in Melbourne for about $400.

“We cut our hands while we were looking through all the bits because rose quartz is quite sharp when it’s not polished,” she adds.

They went through three different Canberra stonemasons before settling on one who could “bring the vision to life”, and the stone, weighing between 30 and 40 kg and measuring 30 to 35 cm tall, was finally installed at the gravesite about 12 weeks ago.

Together with the granite base, the family estimates the total cost was around $2000.

“She passed away in March 2020, so we wanted to have it installed by the anniversary just gone, but it wasn’t ready in time, so we were excited to have it ready for her birthday on Monday,” Melanie says.

Rhonda visited the gravesite on Sunday afternoon (28 July) to lay flowers ahead of Sariah’s birthday on 29 July, and the site was intact.

But when Leigh and Austin visited about 4:30 pm the next day, they found the quartz stone gone and the granite stone broken from the concrete base with deep gouge marks in it.

“They must have kicked it off with brute force,” Melanie says.

They reported the vandalism to both the Gungahlin Cemetery office and Gungahlin Police the same day and were told of at least three other recent cases.

According to ACT Policing, a woman reported having her phone stolen from her belongings while she was visiting a family member’s grave, and another grave marker with two gold-plated hands was stolen from a gravesite, both recently.

On Monday afternoon, a man returned to his car to find a man allegedly attempting to break into his car. The man fled the scene with two other men in a white 4WD-style vehicle with ACT number plates.

“Police are seeking to identify the three men who were at the Gungahlin Cemetery on Monday and are also seeking to confirm any other incidents that have occurred at the cemetery recently,” an ACT Policing spokesperson says.

To assist in getting the word out, Melanie’s partner Sean posted a message to Facebook on Tuesday morning, asking for people to share the post as “far as you possibly can”.

“If this post makes it to the person that has done this, I am speaking to you directly,” the post read.

“You are a heartless, shameless and worthless person. You have shattered the hearts of a family who will never stop grieving … This needs to come back. This needs to be undone.”

The family has been left “gutted”.

“Cancer is one of those things that just takes and it’s malicious, and during the grieving process that goes along with that, a human will try to grab onto anything to make it easier, and part of that process for this family was that headstone,” Sean adds.

“Now that that’s been taken, it feels like that entire portion of the grieving process has just been negated and desecrated.”

The family has been inundated with offers of money to buy a replacement stone, and a number of local stone companies have offered to provide a replacement free of charge, but the family is still working through what to do next.

“It’s encouraging to see the opposite end of the spectrum, that when people do really terrible things, others step up,” Melanie says.

“We would love to recreate it as it was, but there was so much that went into it.”

In a subsequent statement, the family described Sariah Rose as “not just a sister, or a mother, or a partner, or a friend”.

“She is the sum of all of these things and more. As distressing as this is, the family is not intent on making this about them or garnishing emotional leverage – they want to use the platform to shout from the rooftops their love for Sariah.”

Anyone who can assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.  Please quote 7812019. Information can be provided anonymously.