Virginia woman seeks mother’s ashes after they were donated to Goodwill

A Virginia woman is seeking help in locating her mother’s ashes after they were accidentally donated to a Goodwill store in South Carolina.

Sarah Liberti told WTOC that her parents were living together in Sun City Hilton Head, an age-restricted community in South Carolina , before her mother passed away. Following her mother’s death, Liberti began the process of relocating her father to Virginia to live with her and hired a woman to help her move.

Liberti says the woman put her mother’s urn into a donation pile that was then given to Palmetto Goodwill, a thrift store located around 4 miles (6km) away from Sun City in Bluffton.

A manager from the Goodwill store said in a statement to WTOC that they may have sold the urn but no employees have any specific memories of it. The manager added that no customers have tried to return the urn and that the store will accept it, should it turn up again.

“We are devastated at the loss of my mother and her urn. We would do anything to get it back and we just hope that people can help us find her,” Liberti told the outlet.

A poster made by Liberti and published by WTOC showed a picture of the white and blue urn.

Related: ‘An unusual one’: human skull found in Goodwill donation box in Arizona

“My mothers urn was mistakenly donated to Goodwill at 509 Island Park West by the Toyota dealership. We are devastated and will give a reward to whomever returns the urn!!” Liberti wrote on the poster, adding that anyone who has the urn can contact her at (803) 465-0247.

In June, officials in Anderson, South Carolina, reported that a man discovered human bones while hiking and brought them to a Goodwill store instead of notifying the police.

“All of the bones were different shapes and sizes, and some were consistent with that of human bones,” officials said at the time, adding that two of the remains were probably animal bones, the State reported .

Those remains have yet to be identified.