North Highlands Woman Says Postal Service Lost Cremated Remains Of Father, Grandmother
NORTH HIGHLANDS (CBS13) — A North Highlands viewer says the Postal Service lost the remains of her dad and grandmother. After months of waiting, she decided to call Kurtis.
After Kimberly Jackson's father passed away in September, her stepmother mailed the cremated remains from South Holland, Ill. The package also included an urn holding the ashes of Kimberly's grandmother. It was supposed to arrive on October 16, but she's still waiting for it.
"I can't get closure," said Kimberly. "And the only thing it's doing is putting a lot of stress on me."
Initially, she was working with the post office to locate the package, and says she was told it was likely at a mail recovery center in Atlanta, Ga. But a glance at the tracking number shows the last place the package was seen was a shipping center in Richmond, Calif.
"I don't want 76 years to go by, and I'm no longer on this earth, and the urn shows up and my granddaughter gets it," Kimberly said.
Her situation is similar to one we covered in 2017, when the Postal Service lost the remains of Candace Brooks' father, Jessie Cotton. After we got involved, the package was found at the mail recover center, damaged and with loose ashes that ended up covering her fingers and countertop.
That got us wondering what the best method is to ship cremated remains.
Turns out, USPS is the only way you can legally ship them. The remains must be in a container, sealed in an addressed plastic bag, which is then placed inside a cushioned box marked with the words "cremated remains."
In fact, the Postal Service offers free kits for this, including a box with cushioning and labels.
In Candace's case, back in 2017, the packaged was labelled correctly, but we found the Postal Service had covered it with tape.
Kimberly's family says they did not mark the box cremated remains, although they claim they told the Postal Service what was in the box.
We reached out to the Postal Service with Kimberly's case more than a week ago. And while a representative apologized for the distress caused to the family, they are still working diligently to find it.
