TURNER — It’s something you almost never hear of: the theft of a roadside cross meant to memorialize the death of a loved one.

But it appears to have happened along Route 4. A hand-painted cross, left in tribute to Margaret Wing, 54, of Auburn, vanished sometime this week.

For a group called The Hogsisters, the loss of the cross is another blow in an August full of them.

On Aug. 17, Wing was killed when the driver of a pickup truck turned in front of her motorcycle. Her “sisters” — the motorcycle group includes nearly 20 — flew in from all over the country. While they were mourning the loss of Wing, another member accidentally drowned in a hot tub.

“It was a bad time,” said Terry Caito, one of the Hogsisters. “A bad week.”

And now this. The hand-painted cross, which depicted Wing being lifted up into the sky, is gone. Nobody seems to know where it went. Just as baffling, nobody seems to know why.

“It’s just gone,” says Darcy Childs, leader of the club and one of Wing’s closest friends. “I guess you could say it was stolen.”

The highway department didn’t take it. Childs checked with them. She checked with Maine State Police, too. The cross wasn’t taken for official reasons. That much they know.

“It’s sad,” Caito says. “You see crosses up and down Route 4. Nobody bothers them.”

Wing was killed when she struck the side of a truck turning from Route 4 onto Oakwood Drive. That’s a short road populated by a trailer park. The idea has been passed around that maybe somebody in the trailer park took the cross down because they didn’t want to be reminded of the tragedy.

The Hogsisters understand.

“We would gladly have moved it,” Caito said. “We don’t care about finding out who took it. We just wanted it back.”

The Hogsisters mean it. Childs was reluctant to discuss the matter, but she plans to hang up posters around Turner with information about the missing cross. Anyone who has it can take it to the Town Office.

“No questions asked,” Caito said.

The Hogsisters said if they get their cross back and the people of Oakwood Drive would rather not see it, the group will look for another spot. Caito said they are looking to officially adopt a stretch of Route 4 in Wing’s name.

One man who lives on Oakwood Drive said he noticed the cross was no longer there on Wednesday. Thinking high winds might have knocked it down, he went out and searched around but found nothing.

Wing, who worked with the mentally ill, founded the Hogsisters 15 years ago, along with Childs. It’s a group composed of women who ride Harley Davidsons. The members save money over the course of the year and at one point during the summer, they take a group ride. The Hogsisters had taken a trip to New York shortly before Wing was killed.

“It’s a great group of girls,” said Caito, one of the newer members.

Childs said the group had the cross custom-made to memorialize their friend and fellow rider. The cross features a photo of Wing from their recent New York trip.

Some states have banned roadside memorials, but Maine is not one of them. Several can be found the length of Route 4, police said, some marking crash sites dating back decades.

Turner town officials have agreed to allow their building as a drop-off point if somebody wants to return the cross. The Town Office is near the intersection of Routes 4 and 117. The cross can be dropped off any time.

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