DETROIT – Members of Joe Sanders Jr.'s family feel at peace again when they visit his gravesite.
The cherished lion statue that was stolen from his tombstone months ago has been replaced.
"The lion represents my husband," his wife Catherine Sanders said. "It's pride, honor, courage, family. It's also to overlook and protect not only him, but his mother who's (lying) at rest next to him."
Joe Sanders Jr., who died four years ago, was a lifelong Detroit Lions fan. He was known as the "lion man" to his family, who erected a white lion statue on his tombstone as a memorial to him.
Sanders visits her husband's grave at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Detroit often with her two children, Joelle, 17, and Joe, 10. She said someone took the lion statue last Thanksgiving weekend. She believes that whoever took it planned the theft because the statue weighs over 500 pounds.
"This is somebody that just didn't jump the fence, take it off and jump back over the fence. They had to come in and literally remove this," Sanders said.
"You've disrespected not only my husband but myself ... his children, his family, the entire Sanders family and all of his friends. And seriously, the ... city of Detroit. He meant the world to me, and just losing that was just like losing another piece of my heart."
The Sanders family filed a police report and called the Local 4 Defenders for help. Last December, we aired a story showing the statue. The family just wanted it returned.
While the original statue was not returned, the family is grateful it has been replaced.
"This here being restored on his birthday was really a blessing," Sanders' daughter Joelle said.
On what would have been Joe's 58th birthday, his family met at his gravesite to see the new lion statue placed back on his tombstone. Every year on his birthday, the family gathers at Forest Lawn Cemetery to remember him.
"I feel like that kind of took away the peace of his rest but now that its back he can keep resting peacefully," Joelle said.
This year's memorial was a little more special with the lion statue replacement happening the same day.
"It has been stressful because every time we have come out her to visit it just a piece of him is missing. Although a materialistic item doesn't necessarily represent him, but it is a token of him so that being replaced is definitely, definitely a blessing," Catherine Sanders said.
Forest Lawn Cemetery told Local 4 that it cannot comment other than to say it helped the family.