BYLINE: Bill Sheets, Herald Writer
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Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Marysville, WA
MARYSVILLE — Someone, or possibly someone's pet, could wind up spending eternity in the evidence room at the Marysville police department.A man who lives in the northern part of the city recently found an urn on his property and turned it over to police. The urn is believed to contain cremated remains, but police have yet to establish who — or what — they are.
“We don't know that they are human remains,” Marysville police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said. “They could be someone's pet.”
No one has come forward to claim the urn.
Until someone does, “it'll just stay in our property room,” Lamoureux said.
No one has reported a missing urn to the Marysville police, he said. The department put out the word to other police departments in the area, and “we've heard nothing so far,” Lamoureux said.
The bluish-gray urn was discovered about 4 p.m. April 22 by a man working in his yard in the 10400 block of Shoultes Road. He found the urn on a slope leading to a ditch on the west side of his property, Lamoureux said. That part of the city was unincorporated until Dec. 30, when it became part of Marysville.
The urn stands about 10 inches high, has a screw-on lid and appears to be made of some type of ceramic material.
It can be hard to tell the difference between the cremated remains of a human or an animal unless the burning is for some reason not as thorough, said Carolyn Sanden, deputy director for the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office.
“Once in awhile there's a fragment of a tooth,” she said.
The case is reminiscent of an unrelated incident near Lake Stickney in December in which an urn containing remains was stolen in a burglary. After publicity about the crime, the burglar called the victim and agreed to return the urn for money. The victim called police, who arrested the burglar when he arrived at the agreed upon place and time.
Occasionally someone is burglarized and doesn't realize it until perhaps months later when they notice something missing, Lamoureux said.
Usually, however, they discover money or jewelry is gone rather than a larger item such as an urn, he said.
Anyone with information about the urn may call Marysville police at is 360-363-8300.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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