A South Philadelphia woman is pleading for the return of her necklace with her mom's ashes inside.

"I keep going to grab it on my neck and it's not there and it just feels really weird," said 21-year-old Brianna McCollum who thought she was doing the right thing. But the very thing she was trying to prevent happened.

"It me took a few minutes like I didn't have it on my neck and I'm like 'oh my God my necklace is in there.' So I started freaking out," she said. Inside the necklace is the remains of her mom who she lost two years ago. It's still very hard for her to talk about.

"I'm getting upset. My grandmom bought me the necklace to put her ashes in and I've worn it every day since I've gotten it. The one day I take it off to be safe this happens," said Brianna.

It happened between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Brianna and a group of friends were celebrating the new year after the Mummers parade. She says she had taken off the necklace and put it inside her purple JanSport backpack. She sat the bag on the ground and says someone must have walked off with it.

"I had it on all day so I sat it down not thinking anything because all my friends were standing there."


Now, it's all she's thinking about. She even posted on Facebook what happened.

"I was so sad. I'm just trying to be positive about it because hopefully somebody will speak up or find it."

Brianna says she doesn't care about the bag, who may have taken it or why. She just wants the necklace back. It's rose gold, has the word mom engraved with a guardian angel charm attached.

"That's all I had. Pretty much all I had. The closest thing I have left to my mom," she says.

She's asking anyone who finds it to message her on Facebook here or you can contact FOX 29 on Facebook here.