Class Ring Lost In Portland, Turns Up 47 Years Later In Finland

This article was originally published in 2020, but we are still fascinated by how it happened.

The original story follows...

According to the Bangor Daily News, a class ring lost in Portland in the fall of 1973, recently turned up in Finland.

Debra McKenna, who resides in Brunswick, had been given the ring by her boyfriend Shawn, in 1973. At that time, they were both students at Morse High School. Debra would eventually go on to spend her life with Shawn. Marrying in 1977, they remained together until Shawn passed away from cancer in 2017.

McKenna said she believes she lost it at a Portland department store. She had taken it off to wash her hands after using the bathroom and forgot to put it back on. When she realized what she had done, she returned to the store, but found that it was gone.

Fast-forward over four decades... A man named Marko Saarinen found it while he was using a metal detector at a forested city park in a Finnish town named Kaarina. He was able to make contact with Debra thanks to a Morse High School alumni organization.

How the ring ended up in Finland remains a mystery. Debra revealed that Shawn did spend some time in Finland, but was nowhere near where the ring was found. On top of that, by the time he visited the country, his class ring had been missing for two decades.