Remnant's From Someone's Past Found In Bayville

BAYVILLE, NJ - It wasn't your typical beach find, like a sea shell, driftwood or sea glass. It was a cremation urn, filled with someone's ashes.

Eileen Hunt's husband Gary didn't make it a habit to walk along the shoreline near the entrance to Berkeley Island County Park.

But on Tuesday he decided to get some exercise and walk their dog at the same time. As he made his way through the reeds near Barnegat Bay, he spotted a battered metal object about 10 inches high. It appeared to have once had a label on it, but that had been worn away.

He brought it home and stuck it in the garden. When Eileen first saw it the following day, she thought it might be a bomb. But as she examined it more closely, she realized it was probably a cremation urn, possibly with someone's ashes.

She got up the nerve to open the urn today, to see if there was any kind of identification inside. There wasn't. But there were ashes. She has been criticized on the Bayville...Best Place on Earth Facebook page for opening up the urn.

"For all the negative comments,we opened the urn because there might be a tag inside identifying the ashes, or there could have been anything in there," she posted on the Facebook page. "I am a floral designer and I deal with death all the time."

Now she has made it her mission to see if she can find the person's family, as difficult as it might be to track them down.

Hunt is convinced the ashes and urn were probably blown out of someone's home during Superstorm Sandy, or dislodged during one of the recent Nor'easters.

"I've seen houses with just one wall left," she said. "I think someone lost it in one of the storms."

The Hunts are all too familiar with the devastation caused by Sandy. They were out of their Cypress Drive home for some time after the devastating storm.

"We lost a lot in Sandy, along with thousands of other people and my purpose here is to maybe reunite the owners of the urn," Eileen said. "It washed up on shore. It wasn't placed on the beach, and since ashes are usually dumped in the water or kept in the house, it most likely was lost in a storm."

She hopes that someone, somewhere who reads the story may realize the ashes could belong to a loved one.

"It would be awesome if someone recognized it and got it back," she said.

Anyone who thinks the urn and its contents might belong to their family, please contact her on the Bayville Facebook page or private message on her Facebook page.

Photos: Courtesy of Eileen and Gary Hunt.