Local woman calling out to community to help find rightful home for four urns

NAPPANEE, Ind. -- Becoming the caretaker of an unknown life story, or stories, was not part of the plan when Nappanee resident Bailey Fiandt went out to do some garage sale shopping a few weekends ago.

“We heard Nappanee town wide garage sales were starting so we decided to go take a look and see what there was to see, what kind of treasures we could find,” said Fiandt.

She did stumble across treasure, but not the kind she was looking for, “I knew they were urns immediately, I love true crime and things like that, I knew immediately, but I had assumed they were probably empty, that like, maybe they had bought them in anticipation for something, and I picked it up, opened it, and to my surprise, they are all completely full,” said Fiandt.

Gray ashes with little white shards are what Fiandt saw inside. The urns had no price tags or labels.

“I asked, you know, where they had come from and they said they had bought a storage unit that had lapsed in payment, so it had gone on auction, and they bought it,” said Fiandt.

Fiandt said the sellers didn’t tell her which storage unit facility it was and said those facilities do not release person information.

“So, the minute I saw them, I knew they were coming home with me. No question, immediately knew, and I was going to figure out where they go,” said Fiandt.

Fiandt paid one dollar. 25 cents apiece.

“…just the lack of empathy made me sad, but the minute I see something like that, I was always taught whether you create a problem or not, you should, we should all take on the responsibility to fix things if we see them being wrong, whether it was our fault or not,” said Fiandt.

Wasting no time in her mission to find the rightful owners, Fiandt started by calling a local funeral home, “to make sure I couldn’t turn them into them… that they wouldn’t take the ashes and do something with them, but they said legally no funeral home can take them back home once it has been signed out by the family,”.

They were able to tell her the ashes seem to be human remains in keepsake urns, which tend to not have any identifying information on them, inside or out. Fiandt turned to the community next, putting the word out, receiving a sea of suggestions.

“I’ve thought about if I don’t find the family, at first, I was thinking, you know, I would bury them, but after hearing some community opinions, I think if enough time has passed, I will spread them somewhere. That won’t be soon, I would never want to, you know, make it so a family couldn’t have their loved one back,” said Fiandt.

Since the day she first found the urns, it’s been a personal mission for Fiandt because she knows what it’s like to lose a loved one.

“Whether it looks like it or not anymore, this is still a person to me, and it is the last form of respect we can kind of give someone. I lost my brother two years ago in May, he was 17. I have his ashes upstairs and it just made me think… what if that was Logan and how upset I’d be. I could never, I mean, that is so precious to me I barely touch them…carry them so softly,” said Fiandt.

Fiandt is honoring the four urns while they’re in her care, just as she would for Logan.

“I don’t know where they’ve been for a while or what they’ve gone through, but I know that once I’ve gotten them, they have not ever even fallen on their side… they’re in a cute little container where they sit upright and I move them very, very carefully… I treat them the way I’d want my family to be treated, so they will be safe, they will be safe,” said Fiandt.

If you or anyone you know has any information on these four urns, email ABC57 NightTeam’s Blake Parker at [email protected].