Heartless thief steals diamond wedding ceremony rings from Alzheimer’s affected person at Michigan elder care facility

A Michigan family is reeling after their beloved matriarch’s diamond wedding ceremony rings appear to have been stolen off her fingers at her nursing home over the weekend.

“I was giving my mom lunch [on Monday], and when I pulled her left hand out from under the blanket, there were no rings there,” Sandra Desautels instructed The Post Thursday of the second she discovered her mother, Norma St. Holmes’, engagement and wedding ceremony rings had been gone.

St. Holmes, 92, has superior Alzheimer’s sickness. She moved into Seacrest Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Monroe on Jan. 9, just one week when the dear jewels went missing.  

Desautels grew to develop into emotional when she described how her mother remained fiercely defending of her rings.

“Those rings were my mom holding on to my dad [who died 10 years ago],” she outlined.

When Desautels tried to remove the rings in anticipation of St. Holmes’ relocation to Seacrest ultimate week, she talked about her mother balled her arms up into tight fists.

“You would be shocked at how tight an almost-93-year-old woman can clench her hands,” she recalled ruefully.

“And if you persisted [trying to take them off], she would start, with her other hand, slapping you.” 

Eventually, the family decided to let the rings carry on for a variety of further days. Further makes an try to remove them as quickly as St. Holmes was settled at Seacrest had been unsuccessful.

Desautels, who lives in shut by Ida, remembered her mother carrying the rings when she visited Saturday. They had been gone when she returned Monday morning.

“I was very distraught,” she remembered, noting that the employees at Seacrest had been “great” and immediately snapped into movement.

After trying St. Holmes’ room extensively, DeSautels outlined, they moved to “‘Plan B,’” and went via the laundry and kitchen. 

None of the searches turned up the rings.

Desautels instructed The Post that she doesn’t suppose the rings had been stolen by definitely considered one of Seacrest’s employees.

“I don’t feel like one of my mother’s caretakers is responsible, I don’t,” she insisted.

“It could have been a visitor it could have been any human being who was in that building over the weekend.”

When reached by phone, Seacrest declined to the touch upon the incident. An employee beforehand instructed WXYZ that the potential theft was beneath investigation.

Desautels, whose husband is a retired deputy, reported the missing rings to the police on Monday. She has not heard once more from the division nevertheless talked about she plans to contact them as soon as extra by the highest of the day Thursday.

When requested what she would say to the alleged thief, Desautels begged the ne’er-do-well to “please just do the right thing” and return the jewelry to the nursing home.

“Those are family heirlooms,” she continued, her voice breaking.

“I have three grown daughters, and they are just heartbroken that grandma’s jewelry is gone.”