"It was probably the most stressful thing I've ever been through," World-Renowned Violinist and Plum Coulee native Rosemary Siemens says. "I've never been so beside myself."

Nicknamed "Sparkle" the priceless 302-year-old violin Siemens had been given to perform with, along with a gifted $15,000 bow, mysteriously went missing last week after a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in California last week.

"It felt like a piece of me had died... I love sharing the story of how I got my instrument and how it touches people," she says. "And I thought, "how can my story be taken from me?" It's such a positive story of how people have given to me and how I give back through it."

At 3:00 a.m Siemens and friends went out into the Santa Barbra streets scouring dumpsters, and inquiring at gas stations for any sign of the 18th century instrument. With a flight to catch in a matter of hours, Siemens says she didn't know how she would play her next show. It was then a glimmer of hope appeared, a good samaritan heard about the story and offered a $2,000 reward to anyone with information on the missing violin. Fellow musician Ainsley Kroeker offered to borrow a bow, friends and family were praying through the night. She says even her taxi driver helped search dumpsters around the hotel.

"It was unbelievable how people jumped in to help," Siemens says.

After a sleepless night, Siemens boarded her flight bound for North Dakota with no news on the missing instrument. It was during a layover in the Seattle airport she received word the violin had been returned as mysteriously as it was taken.

She learned someone in a hooded sweater had walked into the front desk of Siemens' hotel and placed the violin on the counter with the simple explanation, "I hear you've been looking for this," and walked out.

There in the boarding area of the airport Siemens broke down, "I could not stop crying," she says.

While the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and return of the violin are still unclear, Siemens believes it was the power of prayer that prevailed. The entire experience has also given her a new appreciation for what she calls, "the perfect instrument," one that has defined her sound as an artist for the past 14 years.

"I'm just so thankful, everyday I'm waking up thankful," Siemens says.

The story that could've ended tragically, she says, is now inspiring others. After sharing the experience fans have offered to pay travel costs to reunite Siemens with the violin, while another, a massage therapist, offered a massage after the stressful episode. She notes it's also fitting May is Pay It Forward month.

"It's beautiful because one man's junk is another person's treasure, and he doesn't know what he stole from me," Siemens says. "It's important to just do wonderful things for people, even simple things, because you  don't know how it's going to touch them on that day."