A woman quietly walked into an Odessa funeral home following a visitation service Friday and stole a wedding ring from a dead woman lying in a casket, a relative said Saturday. 
 
 Odessa police had little information about the theft, but Vel McKee, daughter of Lois Hicks, said a woman she never saw before walked in Friday to the Sunset Funeral Home, 6801 E. Business 20, and yanked the ring off her mother’s left hand, tearing off part of the skin from the woman's finger and took off with the jewelry. 
 
 It was placed on Hick's hand to symbolize her love and devotion to her husband, Gayle, who died three years ago, McKee said. The theft occurred a day after Lois Hicks died. She was 88, McKee said. 
 
 “I can’t believe someone would be that low,” McKee said Saturday. McKee and other family members saw the video surveillance of the thief jerking on Hick’s hand, she said. 
 
 “It makes me sick to my stomach,” McKee said. “Horrible. I hope they catch her.” 
 
 Bill Vallie, general manager of the funeral home said the video surveillance showed the unidentified woman parking her car, getting out of it and entering the building. 
 
 McKee and Hicks’ other loved ones had left the funeral home shortly before the woman showed up at about 5:27 p.m. Friday. The woman walked in asking where the restroom was but went into the room where the casket was instead, Vallie said. 
 
 “You can’t restrict anyone,” he said. 
 
 Several shots of the vehicle’s license plate from the video recording can be enhanced for close ups; Hicks’ family is going to press charges, Vallie said. 
 
 Jewelry theft from the dead at funeral homes is nothing new, Vallie said. But nothing prepared him for the brazen nature of Friday’s incident. 
 
 “This is the first time this has happened” at the Odessa funeral home since it has been in operation in 1999, said Vallie, who worked in the funeral home industry for the past 40 years. “It never happened where I was at.” 
 
 McKee said she and her sister, Brenda Vaughan, spent part of their Friday putting on makeup and brushing the hair of their deceased mother. Then one of funeral directors later called McKee up asking if either she or Brenda would want to touch up her makeup. That’s when McKee spotted the missing ring, she said. 
 
 “We had only been gone for 15 minutes,” McKee said. “It’s just heartbreaking.” 
 
 The sisters confirmed that a video recording was taken of the theft which alleviated some of their concerns, but McKee said she was stunned that such a crime to happen to someone so defenseless. 
 
 “It made me sick,” McKee said of the theft. “We just never dreamed that something like this would happen. Not in a million years.” 
 
 Anyone with information about the woman or her whereabouts can call the Odessa Police Department at 335-5784 or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 333-8477. ||||| UPDATE: 
 
 Odessa Police have just released higher quality video of the suspect wanted in reference to a theft of a deceased person that happened at Sunset Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home. 
 
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 UPDATE: 
 
 The family has given CBS 7 News a photo of the suspects vehicle. 
 
 Anyone with information in reference to this incident is encouraged to contact the Odessa Police Department or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS. 
 
 UPDATE: 
 
 Odessa Police responded to Sunset Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home located 6801 East Highway 80 in reference to a theft of a deceased person. 
 
 The investigation revealed that on April 8th an unknown female stole a ring off a deceased person and fled the scene in a red or maroon 4-door Saturn. The suspect is described as a heavy-set white female wearing a brown long sleeve sweater, black sweat pants and black sandals. 
 
 This is currently being investigated as a State Jail Felony. No arrests have been made and the investigation continues. 
 
 Anyone with information in reference to this incident is encouraged to contact the Odessa Police Department or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS. 
 
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 An Odessa woman wants to find a thief after her mother's wedding ring was taken as she lay in a funeral home. 
 
 Take a look at this video: The woman you see here allegedly took the ring from the mother's body at the Sunset Funeral Home in Odessa. 
 
 The family is still grieving the woman's death, and is asking anyone with information about the theft to come forward. 
 
 If you have any information, you can call Odessa Crimestoppers at 432-333-TIPS.
– A Texas woman was caught on surveillance video stealing a wedding ring off the finger of a dead woman Friday, the Odessa American reports. The body of Lois Hicks, 88, was in an open casket at Odessa's Sunset Funeral Home. The woman's family had just left the funeral home after a visitation service when a stranger parked outside, came in, and asked to use the restroom. Instead, the funeral home's manager says, she walked into the room with Hicks' coffin, grabbed the ring off her finger, and left. Hicks' daughter says some of her mother's skin was actually torn off during the theft. "I can't believe someone would be that low," she says. The surveillance video captured the alleged thief's license plate, and the family is pressing charges. The incident is being investigated as a felony, KOSA reports. The suspect is described as a heavy-set white woman who was wearing a brown long-sleeved sweater, black sweat pants, and black sandals at the time; she drove off in a red or maroon four-door Saturn.