Salvation Army Seeks Your Help In Finding The Relatives Of A Deceased Man Whose Urn Turned Up At Their Store

The Salvation Army thrift store in Portsmouth, NH found something odd in a recent box of donations: an urn containing someone's ashes!

According to Seacoast Online, the urn, which was dropped off at the store last week, contains the ashes of Richard L. Pettengill.

Their hope is to return them to the late Mr. Pettengill's descendants.

The urn is about 10 inches tall and measures about 5½ inches at its widest point. It’s bronze in color and engraved on the bottom is “Richard L. Pettengill 1929-1981".  according to an attached plate, it was made by Gorham Co.

An obituary for a Richard L. Pettengill ran in an Exeter NH newspaper in October of 1981. The obituary described him as a brick mason who served with the Army in Germany and Korea. At the time of his death, he was survived by a wife, five children, five brothers and two sisters.

If you have any information, you can call the Salvation Army at 603.427.8267.  And, of course, feel free to share this story.