Mother searching for late son's items after they are donated
HARMONY, Maine - The search is on in New England for a mother's meaningful items. It is believed they were accidentally donated to Goodwill after a storage unit went up for auction and the items inside were sold.
Ashton Lizotte is a 26-year-old mother of two. Lizotte lives in Harmony, Maine, and lost her first child, Arthur, to a difficult pregnancy in 2016.
Her son was cremated, and his ashes were put in a teddy bear. Lizotte said she kept a memoir box and baby blanket, too.
Earlier this year, Lizotte said the family fell on hard times and housing became unstable. They decided to put some of their belongings in a storage unit for safekeeping. The family said they started to fall behind on the storage unit's monthly payments and said their unit went up for auction last week. Lizotte claimed she was only informed of the auction a couple of days ago. Her items had been sold. The teddy bear, memoir box and blanket were gone.
"It was devastating," said Lizotte. "Knowing what I had left of my son was gone and I may never see that or get it back. I'm still pretty distraught over the entire situation. It has been pretty tough to deal with."
Lizotte was able to track down the winning bidder, who informed her he had the teddy bear, but the memoir box and blanket had been donated to Goodwill.
Heather Steeves is a regional spokesperson for Goodwill and said, "Every single employee is on the lookout for these items. We wanted them returned to the family."
Steeves said it is likely the items are still in their stores in Maine or their regional warehouse.
Goodwill shared a post on Facebook to get the word out. It has been shared more than 12,000 times at the writing of this report.
Lizotte said the memoir box is white and has two baby footprints inked on the inside cover.