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ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The owner of a funeral home said Friday that thieves who a day earlier swiped the home's cargo van can keep it for all he cares. Just return the body of the woman in the back of the van, he begged. 

"I just plead the people would have the decency to return the loved one," William C. Harris told the Post-Dispatch. "They can keep the van, I don't care. My concern is the family can't have closure with her mother's passing with this unfortunate incident."

The funeral home, formally known as , was transporting the woman's body from a nursing home where she died to a crematory, he said. The employee driving the white van stopped at a QuikTrip in the Spanish Lake area and left it running when he went inside. Police believe a man and woman took it about 10:30 a.m. Thursday from the store parking lot at 12100 Lusher Road.

The van is a 2012 Nissan NV1500 with license plate 5MDX73. A green wreath with the letter H is displayed on the back.

Police searched Thursday and overnight for the suspects but said on Friday that neither the van, nor the body inside, have turned up. Police believe the vehicle might be in the Godfrey area. They released surveillance images of the man and woman and police said several tips have come in that they are chasing.

Harris said it was heartbreaking to tell the dead woman's daughter that her mother was missing.

"This was a first," Harris said. "However the family member of the deceased was very understanding. I explained to her what happened and I would keep her updated. She greatly appreciated that. It was difficult to explain it. I didn't want to seem like I was covering anything up."

Police routinely warn motorists not to leave vehicles running, even for a moment, because of opportunistic thieves who will hop in and drive away. Surveillance video from the QuikTrip showed a man and woman trying to enter other cars nearby before they took the van, Harris said. 

With the woman's body missing, the cold weather could actually be a plus. "Same thing if a loved one were in a hospital and would have to stay in a refrigerator," he said. "But none of this is in my favor at all. It just happens to be extremely cold."

Harris said his employee made a mistake Thursday. "It was an unusual circumstance, very very cold and he was trying to run into the QuikTrip," Harris said.

"It will never happen again." 

"It's a reprimand but I'm not gonna make him lose his job," Harris said. "He has a family, too."

A 2013 story in the Post-Dispatch featured Harris when he and his family appeared on several episodes of "Funeral Boss," a cable television series on the Discovery Fit & Health channel. Harris' biography on his company website calls it his "five minutes of fame."

Police have broadcast the photos and descriptions of the couple suspected of taking the van. Investigators obtained images of the suspects from surveillance cameras. The van was seen on surveillance later in the day Thursday at a Conoco gas station in the Metro East. The man is white, of medium height and has black and gray hair. He was wearing a navy and white baseball cap, a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and a black ski mask. The woman is white, of medium height and has brown or red hair. She wore a black jacket, dark pants and dark boots and carried a black backpack.

Anyone with relevant information is asked to call police at 636-529-8210.