The home of a family struggling with a child's cancer treatment was burglarized Monday while the child and his mother were at a doctor's appointment.
Cohen Lirette is 16 months old. His parents received the shocking news about his cancer in January.
“They came in to tell me they had found a massive tumor that was taking up his whole inside,” said his mother, Lacey Lirette.
Though he still requires special care, the child is doing much better now after months of treatment and surgery.
But Monday his mother received another shock after returning from a doctor's visit with her son. Their home had been ransacked.
“When I looked around I could see everything in here open, like in the kitchen, open and thrown around,” she said.
The TV where Cohen enjoyed watching Barney was gone, Lirette said.
“He wants to know where his TV is,” she said.
Also missing were jewelry, the family’s computer and a digital camera with pictures taken during Cohen’s treatment. Even some of Cohen’s medication was missing after the burglary.
The mother said she posted a message in advance about the planned doctor visit for about 200 online friends on her Facebook page.
“People want to know when we go and they’ve been very supportive with what we were going through and that’s how we’ve kept in touch with people,” Lirette said. “They’re people that we think prayed for him and cared for him.”
Mesquite Police Sgt. Wes Talley said detectives have no evidence the crime had anything to do with the Facebook posting.
Talley said no other burglaries have been reported in the neighborhood the past several days and the crime does not appear to be a part of any pattern.
Police recommend that people keep their travel plans private.
