You won't believe how a bizarre series of events actually brought a missing piece of local history back home. More than a year after a bronze bust honoring Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee vanished from a St. Paul park, law enforcement stumbled upon it during an entirely unrelated investigation into gunfire.
Sometimes, crime solves itself in the weirdest ways possible.
The Bizarre Discovery on Forest Street
It started just after 12:30 a.m. on a Friday morning. Officers responded to a frantic shots-fired call on the 900 block of Forest Street in St. Paul. When they arrived, they didn't find an active shootout, but they did spot spent shell casings littering the staircase of a multi-unit apartment building.
Police cleared the building for injuries and ordered everyone outside. That's when officers executing a safety sweep noticed something unexpected sitting right inside a bedroom closet. It was the missing bronze bust of Suni Lee, intact and undamaged, which had been reported stolen from Phalen Regional Park all the way back on July 31, 2025.
Officers secured a formal search warrant. They pulled out firearms, ammunition, and the famous sports tribute.
Who Took the Suni Lee Statue in the First Place?
The mystery of the theft didn't end with a clean suspect for the original crime, though. Prosecutors later charged a mother and son—44-year-old Tamica Bazinet and 22-year-old Dashawn Caradine—each with a felony count of receiving stolen property.
The excuses offered to investigators were honestly hard to buy. According to criminal complaints, Bazinet told authorities she casually found the bronze sculpture "in some bushes down the street" about a month prior and brought it home. She claimed she looked it up online, realized it was stolen property, but simply didn't know who to contact to return it.
Meanwhile, her son admitted he knew the valuable artwork had been sitting inside their apartment for weeks. Court documents noted that the piece, created to celebrate Lee's historic victories as the first Hmong American gymnast to compete and win gold at the Olympics, was valued at $6,700 by its artist.
Why This Recovery Matters to St. Paul
Losing public art hurts a community. When the bronze tribute vanished in 2025, it felt like a direct blow to local pride. St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry didn't mince words about the theft, calling the perpetrators shameless for desecrating a community tribute to a local hero.
The city has had a rough run with public sculptures lately. Earlier in 2024, a bronze statue honoring author F. Scott Fitzgerald was stolen and cut up into pieces by thieves trying to flip it at a metal recycler. Thankfully, the Suni Lee monument survived its ordeal in one piece.
Police departments confirm that plans are already underway to reinstall the sculpture back at Phalen Regional Park so fans and young athletes can visit it again.
If you live in a community with public monuments, keep an eye on them. Report suspicious activity to local authorities immediately. Local parks belong to everyone, and protecting civic tributes shouldn't rely on random late-night police calls.
