Steven Porter

sporter@jconline.com

Goodwill employees discovered a grave error Friday at the chain’s Daugherty Drive store in Lafayette.

Sorting through a sizable lot of donated household items they found two small, white boxes filled with cremated human remains.

Lafayette police Sgt. Grant Snyder said each ash-filled box was marked with a name and date that Officer Aaron Lorton used to reunite the dearly departed with their next of kin.

Snyder said there’s nothing apparently criminal about the incident.

“It was just an accident,” he said.

Store manager Paula Strong said one of her merchandise sorters found the white boxes inside velvet pouches inside a larger box.

“When she pulled them out of the red velvet bags, that is when she realized that they were from a crematory and what they were,” Strong said, noting that she immediately called police to ask about their protocol for dealing with misplaced remains.

It’s not uncommon for donors to drop off mystery items after cleaning out their relatives’ homes, but Friday’s discovery certainly ranks as the “strangest” thing she’s seen at her store, Strong said.

“I’m just happy that they did find the family,” she said.