Two years before he died under mysterious circumstances in 2007, the famed rapper Ryan “Woodie” Wood released a song where he requested to be laid to rest in Antioch, his hometown.

“When I die just let my body lie in peace/Beneath the earth and sky of Antioch on East 18th,” Wood raps on the song. Last August, his friends honored that request, installing a memorial marker at Holy Cross Ceremony in Antioch. While it didn’t contain his remains, the site became a place for his friends and loved ones to feel connected to Wood.

“That’s where he wanted to be,” said Antioch rapper Big Tone, a close friend of Wood’s, who declined to give his real name. “It was a place for us to go and pay our tribute to him out here.”

That is, until April 20, when the memory stone turned up missing, apparently dug up and stolen during the night. His friends and fans have reacted with shock and sadness, and now they are raising money for what they hope is a more permanent replacement.

“I felt that was beyond disrespectful,” said Brandon “B-Dawg” Rivera, who appeared on songs with Wood throughout his career. “He’s been gone for quite a few years now and for them to have the audacity to do something like that, I don’t understand it.”

Employees at the cemetery declined to comment.

Wood’s friends say they have no idea who took it, but there are theories. Among them: an obsessive fan, a thief wanting to sell it, or a rival who took gang references in Wood’s lyrics as a challenge.

“I wasn’t 100 percent surprised; I just was hoping it wouldn’t happen,” said Storm Wolf, who organized the headstone’s installation. “As loved as he was, there were people who hated him that much too.”

Wood began his rap career in the late 1990s, releasing his first album, “Yoc Influenced,” in 1998. Starting in 2000, he began a series of popular compilation albums called “Northern Exposure.”

He was known for his fast-paced style and gritty, adrenalized but also introspective lyrics. Many of his songs were based on real life — hints that his friend Gabriel “Snoop” Roberson had been framed for murder, or personal dilemmas he faced. A 2000 Contra Costa Times article by Celeste Ward says his songs were: “filled with references to gangs, guns, enemies, police, snitches, and, with an interesting frequency, conscience. Woodie often brings up sins, forgiveness and the Bible in his raps about revenge and thug life.”

“When you listen to his music, there were a lot of things he said to try to teach the youth so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes,” Rivera said. “He studied and did his homework…He didn’t talk just to talk.”

Wood started as an underground rapper, but after his first release began selling, he secured distribution at national music store chains like Tower Records. Once established, he was known for offering lesser-known rappers a platform, like Big Tone, who says Wood gave him a slot on a song when he was 17.

“He turned my life around,” said Big Tone, who now owns a barbershop in Antioch. “Up to then I was up to no good and that gave me hope to do something different.”

His March 2007 death, like the disappearance of his headstone, was abrupt and details are murky. Several fan blogs and online forums say he committed suicide in Florence, Ore. Officials with Lane County and Oregon state contacted by this newspaper were unable to locate records of his death.

“I’ll just say that the authorities said he took his own life and leave it at that,” Wolf said. “(Wood’s death) is difficult for me to talk about, even 10 years later…It is still very painful.”

He added, “I would not believe everything you read on the Internet.”

In 2016, after an epiphany led Wolf to change his own life, get an education and settle down, he began saving money for Wood’s headstone. It took him a year, but last August, it all came together. Wood’s friends and loved ones held a celebration of life the day it was installed, and Wolf said the events that day gave them all much-needed closure.

Since the theft, they have started fundraising to build a much bigger memorial that can’t be removed.

“It was unfortunate, but maybe we can all chip in and do something big for him,” Big Tone said. “From something negative, something positive can always come out of it.”