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A DEVASTATED family has blasted the USPS for allegedly losing their loved one’s cremated remains in the mail and refusing to help find them.
Mary Woodrow, 77, died in December, but her ashes have still not yet reached her distraught daughter.
The box, labeled with large stickers reading “cremated remains,” was sent from Omaha, Nebraska to Stepheni Leguin’s home in Louisiana in early January.
But two months later, the package was nowhere to be found, and the USPS tracking link had completely gone cold, the family claims.
“How did they lose someone’s ashes?” Stepheni Leguin, the woman’s daughter, told CBS affiliate WOWT.
“I was promised two-day delivery, and now nobody knows where she is. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Leguin’s mother, Mary Woodrow, died in Omaha in December.
After the funeral, the mortuary mailed her ashes to Louisiana since Leguin had to return to work before her mother was cremated.
A photo was sent to Leguin confirming the box had been shipped with the proper label and address.
The USPS tracking information shows it was in possession of a post office in Omaha on January 7 – but that’s where the trail ends, Leguin says.
“It breaks my heart,” said the devastated daughter.
“I don’t know where my mom’s ashes are. How am I to grieve her if I don’t even know where she is?”
Adding to the heartbreak, Woodrow’s boyfriend of over two decades, Ron Westphalen, 82, says the loss feels like a second goodbye.
“They had to know this wasn’t just regular mail,” he said.
“This was something very important, so precautions should have been taken.”
“Someone has to be accountable for this,” Westphalen added.
What to do when mail is missing
Step 1: Check the Current Status
Before you begin your search, if your package or mail has tracking, check USPS Tracking to see its current status.
Step 2: Complete a Help Request Form
Complete the USPS online help request form before you start a missing mail search. Please use a desktop computer to submit your form.
Your request will be forwarded to your local Post Office facility to help locate any missing items.
Step 3: Submit a Missing Mail Search Request
If after 7 business days from when you submitted your online help request form your mail or package hasn’t arrived, submit a Missing Mail search request with the following information:
- Sender mailing address
- Recipient mailing address
- Size and type of container or envelope you used
- Identifying information such as your USPS Tracking number(s), the mailing date from your mailing receipt, or Click-N-Ship label receipt
- Description of the contents such as what it is and the brand, model, color, or size, if applicable
- Pictures that could help us recognize your item
Step 4: Start your missing mail search
Leguin filed a missing mail claim with the USPS but says she’s received little information.
Feeling helpless, she reached out to Louisiana Congresswoman Julia Letlow for assistance.
Letlow’s office confirmed it had filed an official congressional inquiry with the USPS to demand answers.
The US Postal Service has since released a brief statement confirming it’s “using every resource available” to track down the missing urn.
But so far, no new information has emerged.
“I know my mom always wanted to travel more,” Leguin said.
“But this isn’t how she would have wanted to do it.”
