Former Pierce County Council member Tim Farrell’s car was stolen outside his central Tacoma home Wednesday evening. Inside the gray 1990 Honda Civic were the cremated remains of Farrell’s father.
Both were still missing Thursday morning.
Farrell’s father, Mike Farrell, died in February. The retired U.S. Marine Corps Reserve sergeant was cremated in California and his ashes were placed into two purple boxes.
Tim Farrell drove them back to Tacoma thinking he would find a spot along the way to spread them.
Instead, he found his father’s ashes comforting on the long trip home.
“Because we always did family road trips,” Farrell said. “Every year, we would constantly go up to the mountains.”
Farrell kept one container of cremains in his car and another in his truck.
On Wednesday, while Farrell was out of town on business, the car was stolen from outside his home near Tacoma General Hospital. The theft is one of thousands of automobile thefts in the county this year. In 2021, auto theft jumped 66 percent in Tacoma.
“As someone who is a former elected, I’m very disappointed in the direction the city is going,” Farrell said. Farrell served on the council from 2005-2012.
Tacoma Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow confirmed Thursday the car as been reported and logged as stolen.
“Any law enforcement officer stopping it will know it is stolen,” Haddow said.
Mike Farrell had a well developed sense of gallows humor, his son said. He had told Farrell he didn’t care what happened to his remains.
“I figure there’s a part of him that would be laughing and another part of him that’s like, ‘I’m going to haunt you until the day you die,'” Farrell said.
Farrell is, of course, hoping the car and his father’s ashes are found.
“I think this is pushing me to now find some place permanent for him,” he said.
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