$100,000 in jewelry reported stolen from Bonita home

Most nights before she goes to sleep, Diane Buechel slips the sparkling diamond and emerald rings off her fingers and tucks them away.

That’s what the 64-year-old Bonita Springs woman did last Wednesday night, according to her husband. She hasn’t seen her jewelry, worth nearly $100,000, ever since.

“She’s a wreck. Absolute wreck. For the first two nights, she couldn’t even sleep she was so upset,” said Richard Buechel, Diane’s husband.

They turned their Bonita Bay home upside down “20 times over” searching for her rings and a pair of diamond earrings, he said.

Diane Buechel said she still isn’t sure where her rings — which she said have more sentimental value than financial — could have gone. But the couple reported the jewelry missing Monday with the sheriff’s office.

Richard Buechel, of the 27900 block of Riverwalk Way, said his wife’s rings are at least 10 years old. They were his gifts to her. When they got married, he said, he was in medical school and their wedding bands cost maybe $200. She paid half. Buechel, a retired orthopedic surgeon, has since adorned her fingers with more sumptuous jewelry.

“She never had an engagement ring, so I gave her the diamond ring many years later,” Buechel said. “Our hope beyond hope, and beyond prayers, is that they’re going to show up someplace.”