BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) – A family has been left puzzled and traumatized after a box with the ashes of a New Hampshire man was stolen from their villa before they had a chance to scatter them.

Before his death, Sherman Davis Jr. of Nashua, N.H., had requested that his ashes be scattered at three of his favorite spots around the Caribbean island. But 12 hours after the family members arrived, they discovered the box had been stolen on Sunday. “We left home to go to dinner at seven and when we got back at nine o’clock and the box was gone,” said Davis’ widow, Jean. “We all cried. It was incredulous.”

Davis, 66, died of cancer two weeks ago at his home in Nashua. According to the family, he had been coming to the island since 1984.

Family members said signs including trampled plants and dirt on a couch suggested an intruder had taken the box.