After cross stolen twice from Monroe memorial, family has questions

MONROE — Charina Linao already had a bad feeling when she decided to visit a cross marking the place where her son died earlier this year.

It had been a tough day, and she just wanted to visit her child, Szander Pouv. To her horror, when she arrived at the spot where family and friends placed the cross months ago, it was gone.

“I just had the feeling I wanted to talk to him, it gives me comfort even though I’m scared to go up there,” Linao said. “And then just seeing it was gone, I was devastated.”

It looked like it had been cut with a saw earlier this month, she said. All that was left was the concrete that anchored it into the ground. The cross has yet to be found. The old cross had Pouv’s name on it, with a message: “Your heart touched many.”

Linao’s boyfriend Shaune Hull quickly built a new cross last Sunday, which bears the same message. Family and friends put it in the ground.

Within a week, it appeared to have been stolen again. All that remained were bent metal stakes and an angel on the ground.

Family and friends described Pouv as caring and smart. He started a clothing business called BeaKind and Munger said his “whole model was ‘be kind.’”

“He was the bestest friend I’ve ever had,” Munger added. “He was definitely one of a kind. But (expletive) things happen to good people all the time.”

Around 9:30 p.m. Jan. 16, a black Honda Civic left the road and struck trees at the intersection of 215th Avenue SE and 108th Street SE northeast of Monroe, according to court records. At the site, police reported the Honda was pinned against a tree, according to court papers. Firefighters had to cut into the car to extract Pouv, who was a passenger.

Detectives found scuff marks on the road that reportedly suggested the Honda may have been going upwards of 50 mph when it veered off the street, began to roll and crashed into the tree.

Pouv died five days after the crash. He was 20.

Prosecutors charged the alleged driver, 18, with vehicular homicide.

When Linao realized the cross was gone, she immediately called Pouv’s girlfriend Reanna Warren and another friend, Haylee Munger. Living about 10 minutes away, Warren joined Linao almost immediately.

Frantically digging and searching, they found nothing.

“I just kept pacing back and forth, walking back and forth to that area,” Linao said. “The people that were driving by were probably like, ‘What is she doing?’”

Linao came back home and cried. The grief is still fresh. Linao called it a journey. Having a good support network has helped, but the pain is clear in her words.

“I was heartbroken,” Linao said. “I know it’s just a little thing for my son, but it meant a lot to me.”

Family and friends want to find out what happened to the cross.

Linao and Warren knocked on a couple doors in the area to ask if neighbors knew anything. They didn’t.

While a new memorial to Pouv is already installed at the crash site, another is in the works. The City of Monroe will put in a bench with a plaque dedicated to Pouv close to the skatepark at Lake Tye.

The skatepark was his “hangout place,” Linao said.

The family raised enough money to buy the bench, city staff said. The materials will take some time to acquire so it can get built.

“I’m so grateful, I’m so blessed,” Linao said. “The continued support from all his friends, they’re like family to me.”

Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jordyhansen.