PHOENIX — A Queen Creek man wants to know what happened to his sister. Somehow while trying to ship her cremated remains nearly 1,800 miles away, her ashes got lost.
Bob Severson said he has a lot of memories with his sister Joette. “She was just very straightforward,” Severson said. “I mean nothing, or nobody held her back.”
Severson said his older sister was lovingly referred to as ‘Joie.’ She became ill, and earlier in 2024, she passed away at the age of 71.
“We had a lot of fun together,” Severson said, remembering the days they spent together as teens. Severson said Joie was cremated, and her final wish was to be buried next to her close friend who now resides in Superior, Wisconsin.
Joie has a close friend who has land there, and she decided before she passed, she wanted to be buried with her friend.
“I asked her wishes, he was getting buried on his land, he was going to bury her where he was going,” Severson explained.
Severson said that on April 29 he shipped three packages from a Queen Creek United States Post Office. “One was going to Blaine Minnesota, Coon Rapids, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin,” Severson said. “I sent out a jewelry box of jewelry to my sister, that’s closest to me, Susie. And I sent another package to my other sister with some of her remains.”
The third package was Joie’s urn, a picture of her on display at her memorial service, and a check for $1,000 for Joie’s close friend.
Severson said his tracking receipt showed his package was supposed to be delivered on May 3 but never was.
The other two packages shipped that same day did arrive.
USPS does have a special process for shipping cremated remains. A special box, labels, and an overview of how to ship and package is available for use. A cremated remains kit is free but not required to ship, but Severson didn’t use one.
However, USPS requires a special label 139 on the remains package to help easily identify the box and ensure the importance of its contents. Severson admitted he didn’t ship it with the label.
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“I had no idea that I was supposed to send it special,” explained Severson.
Bob said if he knew there was a special way to send cremated remains, he would have done so.
“Nobody asked me, nobody told me,” said Severson.
Severson reached out to the postal service to report his package missing. He received a missing mail ticket, but after making several attempts he could not get answers, that’s when he emailed Let ABC15 Know.
We reached out to the USPS, they issued the following statement:
Our initial review indicates the urn separated from the box at some time from the initial drop off in Arizona to the final destination in Wisconsin. The Postal Service has instituted a nationwide search for this precious item, and we will continue the search to reunite the item with the family. Our deepest apologies go out to those impacted.
The Let ABC15 will follow up to find answers for Severson and his family.
