How did a Georgia woman's ashes end up in the bay at Ocean City?
OCEAN CITY - Paulette Eva Rose Tricoche died last summer at age 71 in Macon, Georgia.
The woman’s body was cremated in Reidsville, Georgia, and her ashes placed in a purple urn, etched with her birth and death dates, along with a simple message: "In Loving Memory Mom."
On Oct. 7, that urn washed ashore in Ocean City, more than 800 miles away.
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Ryan Leonard, 39, said his kids found the urn in some sea grass outside their home on Friday, days after heavy rains and tidal flooding soaked the region in the aftermath of what had been Hurricane Ian.
Jackson, 7, and Reid, 3, were sifting through "sea grass that had washed up in the storm," Leonard said.
It was found with other random things like small bouys and a flip-flop.
The family lives right on the bay and is familiar with things washing up there, "mostly things that drop off a boat into the lagoon — tags and surfboards, that kind of stuff," but never something as odd as an urn.
Leonard found an obituary for Tricoche online, but couldn't find anything about a family.
On Saturday, Oct. 8, Bradley B. Anderson, of the Bradley B. Anderson Funeral Home said a check of his records indicate Tricoche was originally from Cape May Court House, but was living in Macon when she passed.
Her remains were shipped to a family member in Cape May County last summer, said Anderson, whose funeral home is also a regional, low-cost crematorium.
“What it sounds like to me is, she tried to do a burial at sea and it washed up,” he said.
Anderson said he was attempting to put the family member in touch with Leonard so they could figure out the next steps.
For now, the Leonards are storing the urn in their garage.
"We didn't open it, but the lid is on tight," Leonard said.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Ocean City NJ: How Georgia woman's ashes ended up in bay
