Homes Burglarized While Family Is At Soldier's Funeral

A Chandler family buries their young soldier and comes home from the funeral to find both of their homes burglarized.

Police say there's a string of home burglaries in the area, but this one hits this family especially hard.

After a nearly seven year battle dealing with a traumatic brain injury, the Steeley family had to lay 32-year-old Levi Steeley to rest.

No one imagined they would come home from his funeral Monday evening to find their most memorable belongings stolen.

"This is the door. That's the shoe print right there where he tried to kick it in at first," said Morgan Steeley. "I can't even sleep at night without picturing his hand coming in my window of my door and unlocking my door."

Morgan Steely, a single mother of three, says several laptops, iPads, jewelry and a class ring were stolen from her home.

"I seen it, and I'm just devastated. I mean, it's just devastating," said Morgan. "The stress and the pain that you're feeling at the moment is just awful."

Right next door at her father's home, guns, tools and work equipment were taken.

They believe the burglar took his time.

"Instead of going through the drawers and dumping all the drawers on the floor, he took the drawers, set them out and went through them," said Morgan's father, Raymond Steeley.

They had just returned from saying their final goodbye to a brother and a son.

"To drive home from that, from being with your family and being so overcome with everything that's going on, and not knowing if you can handle anything more and you just pull up to my father walking down the road with a police officer, and telling me to stop where I'm at," Morgan said.

Levi suffered a brain injury during his deployment in Iraq in 2008 and never fully recovered.

"I had about 4,000 pictures on my laptop that were the only pictures," Raymond said.

"You can't imagine putting a person that is a part of you in the ground, and never seeing them again," Morgan said.

Police believe they know who's responsible for the burglary but have yet to make an arrest.

If you have any information, you have been asked to call the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at 405-258-1191.