Statue of slain 10-year-old Barway Collins missing from Twin Cities park

The memorial statue for 10-year-old Barway Collins, which has stood in Becker Park in Crystal, Minnesota, for only about a year, is now missing.

Collins was murdered in 2015 by his father, Pierre Collins, who is now serving a 40-year prison sentence.

WCCO spoke last year with Barway Collins’ mother, Karluah Owens, who said her son loved to play at Becker Park. She said the statue gives her and Barway Collins’ siblings a place to feel his presence.

“I feel happy to see my son’s memory will stay alive,” Owens said.  

This is the fourth reported theft of a public statue this year in Minnesota. In August, someone stole a bronze bust of Olympic gymnast Suni Lee from St. Paul’s Phalen Regional Park. The granite plaque was later found in a nearby lake, but the bust is still missing.

In July, a statue of a soldier was stolen from Rush Point Store in Chisago County. It was brought back safely the next day and a suspect was arrested.

And in February, police arrested a 37-year-old man and charged him for stealing a bronze statue of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, which sat outside the former site of a school he had attended in St. Paul off Dale Street.

WCCO has reached out to the Crystal Police Department for more information about the Collins statue theft.