Toronto-area grave robbers are stealing family heirlooms. This victim says it’s ‘a total violation of my parents’

On a regular visit to his parents’ final resting place at a Toronto cemetery, Darren Mori made a disturbing discovery. 

The niche — a small compartment inside the mausoleum that holds his parents’ cremated remains — had been robbed. The urns containing their remains were intact, but cherished items including a jade ring belonging to his mother and a blue sapphire ring and frog pendant belonging to his father were gone.

“I was actually shocked,” he told CBC News.

Mori said it felt like “a total violation of my parents. The niche is sacred.”

On Nov. 17, 2025, the same day the Mori family reported the missing items from Highland Memory Gardens in North York, Halton police held a news conference detailing a string of thefts at eight cemeteries across the Toronto, Halton and Niagara region.

Officers had arrested a 45-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, both of no fixed address, at a Niagara Falls motel on Nov. 7, they reported. A search of the motel and a vehicle led to the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and stolen items.

The co-accused are currently facing 140 counts between them, including six counts of indignity to human remains, 20 counts of indecent interference of human remains and dozens of theft charges.

None of the charges have been proven in court and the co-accused remain in custody awaiting bail proceedings. 

The Mori family were able to get only one of their parents’ prized possessions back.

But brothers Darren and Derek Mori are going public to warn those in a state of grief that it’s important to weigh the sentimental value of filling a niche with the risk it might be stolen.

Suzuko and Shigeru Mori had been married for 60 years, a union marked with silver wedding bands.

“The wedding rings never came off. I never ever saw my parents without their wedding rings on their entire life,” Darren Mori said.

Those rings haven’t been recovered, but the Moris did retrieve their father’s frog pendant from a police station in Oakville.

Halton police say 140 people have reached out to them to report missing items from cemetery niches. After the story broke, 10 additional victims were identified. 

But so far, few have gotten their valuables back. Of the more than 600 items recovered, police said only 26 have been returned to families.

“A lot of the stolen items were either discarded, melted down because it was a precious metal, or sold,” said Halton police Deputy Chief Roger Wilkie.

Court documents obtained by CBC News show investigators believe at least 51 graves were disturbed between September and early November last year.

According to police, the crimes took place primarily during the day and in some instances the co-accused posed as grieving family members.

They allegedly used tools to unlock niches with minimal damage, which made detection difficult. Investigators believe that some families may still be unaware their niche was robbed.

Police said in some instances ashes were dumped out of urns or removed from jewelry.

“In some cases, we haven’t recovered the remains of those loved ones,” Wilkie said.

Police have posted a photo album of unclaimed items online in an effort to reunite more families with their valuables.

Mark Richardson, president of the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals, said incidents like this are incredibly rare.

“What happened in this case was not opportunistic vandalism. It was very targeted, organized,” he said.

In response, the association is helping its members review security measures like increasing monitoring around access points and watching for signs of tampering. 

But security should only be so tight at a place like a cemetery, Richardson said, because these important spaces are “intentionally open and accessible.”

“Families need space to grieve, to reflect, and to remember,” he said.

Derek Mori said his mother purchased the niche package at Highland Memory Gardens for $5,145 in 2010.

When she died in 2021, Derek said he signed an interment contract with the cemetery’s operator, Arbor Memorial.

After the thefts, he reviewed the contract and was surprised to find a paragraph that says anyone who opts to “display either monetary or sentimental valuables [in the niche]… do so at their own risk.” 

That slipped past him at a time when there was so much going on, he said.

“Emotionally, you’re not really in a sound mind.”

Arbor Memorial said in a statement to CBC News it has stepped up security measures at its cemeteries across Canada in the wake of the thefts.

“We discourage families from placing items of monetary or deep sentimental value inside niches as we want to help protect these cherished belongings,” the statement said.