By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
WESTFIELD — The family and friends of the late Edward Nied Jr. of Southampton say they don’t know why someone took the roadside memorial at the site of his 2013 motorcycle crash — they just want it back.
The memorial — a decorated metal cross, flags, and three solar lights — was taken the evening of May 16 from the site on Route 10 in Westfield near the Southampton line. That’s where Nied sustained fatal injuries 1½ years ago when his motorcycle was broadsided by a bear.
“I live about five minutes from where the memorial was, and every time I go by, I think, ‘Why?’?” said Robert Donovan of Westfield, a friend of Nied’s who knew him through the American Legion Riders of Post 224 in Easthampton. “I can’t figure it out,” he said.
In the days since its disappearance, Nied’s widow, Mary Nied, confirmed with the Westfield Department of Public Works and the state Department of Transportation that their workers did not move the marker. She and her two daughters have concluded that it must have been stolen, and they’re asking whoever took it to return it — no questions asked, she said.
“We would just like the marker back — leave it at the site or somewhere we can find it,” Mary Nied said in a message to the Gazette Wednesday. “The marker is very personal.”
Members of the American Legion Riders designed a fitting tribute to their friend after his death. A metalworker crafted the cross, and a tattoo artist decorated it with feathers — a nod to Nied’s love of birds and nature. It also featured a peace sign, a dream-catcher, a few bird figurines, and the flags of the American Legion Riders, the U.S. Air Force and the United States.
Donovan said that though the marker meant a lot to friends and family, it had very little monetary value. He believes the theft was more likely the work of a mischievous person or people, as opposed to a person hoping to hock it at a pawn shop.
“I don’t know why, but it’s gone,” Donovan said. “The only thing they left were the plants.”
He said he often sees roadside memorials while out on motorcycle rides. “And they’re never touched,” he said.
Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe said Thursday he had never before heard of a roadside memorial being stolen. He said Mary Nied filed a report about the missing marker, but he is not hopeful it will be recovered.
“We have no leads or anything else that could possibly lead to its discovery,” McCabe said. While he said police are not actively investigating the theft, the detective bureau posted a photo of the memorial on its Facebook page and asked anyone with information about the apparent theft to contact the bureau.
Mary Nied said her sister drove by the memorial at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, but a friend texted her about 7:30 p.m. that the marker was gone.
Now, what stands at the site is a handwritten sign chastising whoever took the marker: “The man who died here was honorable, loving, caring, and thought of others before himself — I hope you think about that every time you look at his marker that you stole!”
While Mary Nied said she is not sure what Westfield Police could do about the theft, she filed a report because she wants to get the word out in case the person has a change of mind and decides to return it. She also posted a plea for its return on Facebook, which has been shared 178 times, and went on Western Mass News to talk about it.
“That is all we can do,” she said. “We are so grateful for all the support we have gotten.”
Nied’s friends in the American Legion Riders have not been sitting idle since the memorial was stolen. A rider who is a metalworker made a new cross, and Donovan was in the process of mounting it to a metal pole Thursday so it can be installed in the same spot on Route 10.
He said that it will serve as a replacement, “until hopefully, the one that was stolen is returned.”
Donovan said he hopes to have the new cross up early next week.
Anyone with information about the missing memorial may contact the Westfield detective bureau at 572-6400.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
