Zachary and Beth Tomczak embrace just shortly after he returned home from his third tour of duty in Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Zachary Tomczak was killed during his fourth tour by sniper fire. This Christmas, Beth Tomczak said her husband's wedding and engagement rings were stolen from her home in Belle.
Beth Tomczak said she thought her husband's wedding and engagement rings were lost in Iraq after his death in 2007.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Beth Tomczak said she thought her husband's wedding and engagement rings were lost in Iraq after his death in 2007.
When a married soldier dies, his belongings are sent home to his wife in black boxes. Every piece of clothing is washed and folded, every picture is wrapped and small items are placed in plastic bags.
Army Staff Sgt. Zachary Tomczak's wedding rings were in his box when they were sent to Beth Tomczak in September 2007, but it came weeks after his body was sent for burial. Sgt. Tomczak was killed from sniper fire just inches above his bulletproof vest during his fourth tour of duty in Iraq.
"He wasn't wearing a ring when he was killed," Beth Tomczak said. "Diamonds sparkle clearly in the night and they don't let soldiers wear them."
Tomczak said she was relieved when the rings arrived in the mail a few weeks later.
She worried she had lost the rings -- the only jewelry her husband ever wore.
Beth Tomczak, 27, said she is now afraid the rings are gone for good after a burglar slipped into her mother's house in Belle three weeks before Christmas and stole her jewelry box.
Among the pieces in the box were her husband's two rings, her wedding ring and her grandmother's pearls.
She left her jewelry box with her mother in Witcher Creek while she was in the process of moving to Fayetteville, N.C.
Three weeks before Christmas, someone apparently slipped through an open window and took the box while her mother was on vacation.
When she and her mother returned to the house, everything seemed to be fine.
"There were no signs that anyone had broken in. I went to look for my digital camera and I thought it was just misplaced," she said. "That's when I went to get my jewelry and I realized it was gone."
"There were three other jewelry boxes in the house, but the one in my room was the only one touched," she said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Beth Tomczak said she thought her husband's wedding and engagement rings were lost in Iraq after his death in 2007.When a married soldier dies, his belongings are sent home to his wife in black boxes. Every piece of clothing is washed and folded, every picture is wrapped and small items are placed in plastic bags.
Army Staff Sgt. Zachary Tomczak's wedding rings were in his box when they were sent to Beth Tomczak in September 2007, but it came weeks after his body was sent for burial. Sgt. Tomczak was killed from sniper fire just inches above his bulletproof vest during his fourth tour of duty in Iraq.
"He wasn't wearing a ring when he was killed," Beth Tomczak said. "Diamonds sparkle clearly in the night and they don't let soldiers wear them."
Tomczak said she was relieved when the rings arrived in the mail a few weeks later.
She worried she had lost the rings -- the only jewelry her husband ever wore.
Beth Tomczak, 27, said she is now afraid the rings are gone for good after a burglar slipped into her mother's house in Belle three weeks before Christmas and stole her jewelry box.
Among the pieces in the box were her husband's two rings, her wedding ring and her grandmother's pearls.
She left her jewelry box with her mother in Witcher Creek while she was in the process of moving to Fayetteville, N.C.
Three weeks before Christmas, someone apparently slipped through an open window and took the box while her mother was on vacation.
When she and her mother returned to the house, everything seemed to be fine.
"There were no signs that anyone had broken in. I went to look for my digital camera and I thought it was just misplaced," she said. "That's when I went to get my jewelry and I realized it was gone."
"There were three other jewelry boxes in the house, but the one in my room was the only one touched," she said.
She immediately called Kanawha County Sheriff's deputies to file a report.
"I'm from Witcher Creek and there is a lot of drug activity up there," she said. "The deputy told me it was probably stolen and traded for drugs."
Beth Tomczak said she believes whoever stole the rings knows her and her mother. Her mother often gives out free meals and money to those in need. She believes it is not a coincidence that the house was burglarized the first day her mother went on vacation.
"Whoever did it took their time and cleaned up," she said. "We just converted my room from an attic. To anybody that didn't know, the door would have looked just like an attic."
She does not expect to find her grandmother's pearls or her wedding ring, but she does hold out hope of finding her husband's rings.
"I'm assuming someone bought them so I'm willing to pay to get them back," she said. "I just really want them back."
The pair was engaged in 2004, just shortly after Sgt. Tomczak's first tour in Iraq. She said their relationship was "love at first sight."
"I met him in January and we were married by May," she said.
Her husband enlisted in the Army immediately after graduating from high school in South Dakota. He was about to return to Iraq for his second tour of duty when they decided to buy their engagement rings.
The decision to buy the rings came after Zachary Tomczak's sergeant asked why she wasn't wearing one.
"[Zachary] explained that we had just moved to the base and we didn't have a lot of money," she said. "The commander said he shouldn't let a pretty girl like me be on base without a ring."
After signing up for a credit card, Sgt. Tomczak took his fianc?e out to pick out rings for both her and him.
Reach Travis Crum at travis.c...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.
Source: http://wvgazette.com/rssFeeds/201112290164
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