A Collin County family dealing with the death of a baby girl is now dealing with another loss.
They say priceless photos of the 6-month-old were stolen from their home last week.
Fern Thedford was found unresponsive inside a hot minivan parked in front of the Thedford family home on June 21.
The family calls it an accident the baby’s father, Michael Thedford, is now charged with manslaughter.
During her first interview since the incident, Michael’s wife, Jenny Thedford, recalled the day it happened. She says she was at work and called her husband while on a break.
“We talked for just a short period and he just started screaming and he wouldn’t stop, and when I finally got him to stop all he would say is, ‘Oh God, she’s not breathing.’ And I said, ‘Hang up, call 911,’” Jenny Thedford said.
An arrest affidavit shows Michael Thedford claims he dropped the couple’s other two children off at daycare, then went home and took a nap. When he awakened, he found the baby in the hot van, according to the affidavit.
Last week, Fern’s mother Jenny Thedford says someone broke into their home just outside Melissa and stole three laptops and a digital camera containing some of the last photos taken of the baby.
She says the family is in the process of moving to McKinney and she realized the electronics were missing when the family returned home from trip to their new place.
“I assume it was just somebody that saw the moving trucks here and decided that it was a good opportunity,” Jenny Thedford said.
She says the photos of Fern on the camera were taken at her 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party just two days before the baby’s death.
The Collin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Jenny Thedford filed a report for burglary on July 10.
“It’s pretty much lived everybody's worst nightmare in the past month and it kind of feels like punches keep on coming,” Jenny Thedford said.
She’s now pleading for whomever took the camera to return the memory card, no questions asked.
“Really what I want back I want that memory card. It means more to me than anything,” she said.
