Mother in plea for return of photos

ANDREW GORRIE/ The Dominion Post

LOST MEMORIES: Claudia Astorga-Ralph holds a necklace with a photo of her son Raja. "I can't stop crying I can't even really think at the moment.''

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Claudia Astorga-Ralph's son Raja lived for just five hours, but in that time his parents took as many photographs of their boy as they could.

Now a thief has taken most of those precious photographs, breaking into Ms Astorga-Ralph's home while she was out looking after her sick sister.

"I can't stop crying I can't even really think at the moment," the distraught 24-year-old said.

"You try to do something nice and then this happens. I can't believe it."

The thief came in through the window of her Stokes Valley home between 10.30am and 2.30pm on Thursday, emptying out Ms Astorga-Ralph's backpack and filling it with a laptop, iPod and battery rechargers.

The thief moved some of her belongings around and cracked the frame on her bedroom mirror.

The laptop contained a large number of photos and videos of Raja, who was diagnosed while still in the womb with anencephaly, a condition in which the brain is under-developed and the skull incomplete.

Ms Astorga-Ralph said the thief could keep whatever he or she liked, so long as they returned the photos and videos of her son.

"I have copies of some of them, but some I won't be able to replace."

Since Raja died, Ms Astorga-Ralph, who has a four-year-old son, Pedro, has worked as a volunteer for Sands, a group that supports parents who have lost a baby.

Sands national chairwoman Vicki Culling said she hoped whoever had stolen the laptop would return it when they realised what they had done.

"She's amazing, I sometimes forget how young she is, and she's done so much."

Ms Astorga-Ralph works with other women who have lost their babies and has produced a documentary about her own son.

She spoke at a conference in the United States last year.

Ms Culling said: "Whoever took them might have thought they were just baby photos like everyone has, but hopefully they'll bring the laptop back when they realise."

- © Fairfax NZ News