ashes

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Vatican Bends Its Rules Regarding Ashes of the Dead

Families may request to keep a small portion, so long as the rest resides in a sacred space

(Newser) - The Vatican has slightly softened its stance when it comes to the ashes of the dead, saying Tuesday that Catholic families may keep a small portion of their relative's cremated ashes in a "place of significance" to them rather than in a church or cemetery. It's the...

Man Making Trek With Dad's Ashes Meets Tragedy

Texas' James Hendricks apparently died of heatstroke in Arches National Park

(Newser) - It was meant to be an emotional but meaningful journey from Texas to the Sierra Nevada, where Austin local James Bernard Hendricks intended to spread his late father's ashes. Instead, his family is now dealing with a new tragedy, after Hendricks is believed to have succumbed to heatstroke during...

Has Anyone Seen Bruce?
Has Anyone
Seen Bruce?
May 13, 2023 10:45 AM CDT

Has Anyone Seen Bruce?

Liz Atkinson is 'completely desperate' to find stuffed elephant with late son's ashes, lost in Florida

(Newser) - "I am completely desperate and hoping this blows up and we find our elephant!" So begins a May 6 Facebook plea from Liz Atkinson, an ER nurse from Iowa who's doing all she can to find a stuffed animal that went missing during a family vacation in...

Man Dies While Scattering His Father's Ashes

Lee Cemensky was in an ultralight aircraft that went down last Sunday in Minnesota

(Newser) - Leo John Cemensky died Aug. 7 in Fifty Lakes, Minnesota, at age 80 . His son died three weeks later, apparently during the process of scattering his dad's ashes. KLAS reports Lee Cemensky, 58, was in an ultralight aircraft piloted by Douglas A. Johnson that went down in a wooded...

In Former Nazi Camp, a Devastating Find

Burned remains of 8K bodies found as Poland continues to press Germany for WWII reparations

(Newser) - A mass grave containing human ashes representing an estimated 8,000 people has been discovered near the former Nazi concentration camp of Soldau in northern Poland. The country's Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates crimes committed during the Nazi occupation of World War II and the subsequent period of...

What She Realized While Traveling With Her Brother's Ashes

What Monica Corcoran Harel was looking for she found closer to home

(Newser) - Grief is complicated, but Monica Corcoran Harel's piece for the Cut on her older brother's death—and her travels with his remains—is as smooth as it is poignant. She explains that Robert never left the US during his life, though their dad went so far as to...

Funeral Home to Nearly 100 Families: Uh, Hello?

Hamilton's Funeral Home in Des Moines is trying to unload people's ashes

(Newser) - An Iowa funeral home is calling on families to pick up the unclaimed cremated remains of nearly 100 people that it has been keeping in a locked closet for years, some since the mid-1990s, the AP reports. Lanae Strovers, of Hamilton's Funeral Home in Des Moines, told TV station...

Man Heading to Trial Over a Flush
Man Heading to
Trial Over a Flush
May 15, 2019 3:47 PM CDT

Man Heading to Trial Over a Flush

Pittsburgh's Thomas Wells charged with abuse of grandparents' ashes

(Newser) - Asked to move out of his mother's house, a 33-year-old man allegedly flushed his grandparents' ashes down the toilet out of spite, prompting charges of abuse of a corpse. Thomas Wells of Pittsburgh had been living with his mother for a short stint prior to September when she asked...

In a Single Coffin, 6 Victims Finally Rest With 'Dignity'

Remains of Holocaust victims found in museum are buried in England

(Newser) - The remains of six unidentified Holocaust victims were buried in a solemn ceremony at a Jewish cemetery near London on Sunday after spending years in storage at a British museum. The Imperial War Museum found the ashes and bone fragments during a stock-taking last year, the AP reports. They'd...

At Disney Parks, 'HEPA Cleanup' Is Creepy Code
At Disney Parks,
'HEPA Cleanup'
Is Creepy Code
in case you missed it
Oct 28, 2018 1:10 PM CDT

At Disney Parks, 'HEPA Cleanup' Is Creepy Code

Wall Street Journal: It means that custodians need to clean up human ashes. Again

(Newser) - It's all fun and games until someone finds the ashes—which is disturbingly not that hard to do at Walt Disney parks. Confirming what Gizmodo says has been an urban legend for years, current and former custodians tell the Wall Street Journal that ashes of loved ones, often big...

Cops: Cookies With Human Remains Possibly Doled Out at School

The treats may have contained the ashes of a California student's grandparent

(Newser) - It's Halloween season, meaning candy corn, Mallomars, pumpkin spice everything, and ... cookies with human remains? That's the snack that at least one California student reportedly brought to Da Vinci Charter Academy High School in Davis, per the San Francisco Chronicle , containing the not-appetizing ingredient of a grandparent's...

High School Shop Class Gives Veterans a 'Dignified' End

Gino Perez's shop class has crafted 18 urns

(Newser) - More than 40,000 veterans spend their nights homeless, per Department of Housing and Urban Development numbers. A high school shop class in New Mexico is making sure 18 such veterans' eternal rest is a dignified one. CNN profiles the wood and metal shop class led by Gino Perez at...

As Brothers Try to Spread Dad's Ashes, a Double Tragedy

1 dead, 1 paralyzed in Friday crash in Hanson, Mass.

(Newser) - An Army National Guard pilot is dead, and his brother paralyzed from the waist down, after the plane they were hoping to use to scatter their late father's ashes crashed into a Massachusetts pond. On leave from a tour of duty in Kosovo, pilot Scott Landis, 34, had taken...

Woman's Ashes Reportedly Thrown at LAPD Chief

Suspect is aunt of Wakiesha Wilson, who died in jail

(Newser) - "That's Wakiesha! She's gonna stay with you!" a relative of a woman who died in police custody shouted at a meeting of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners Tuesday, moments after throwing what appeared to be ashes at Police Chief Charlie Beck. The scene erupted...

Dad Blasts Cop for 'Uncalled For' Handling of Baby's Ashes

Anthony Butler says deputy spilled infant's cremated remains all over his car during traffic stop

(Newser) - Anthony Butler says he knew he'd get a ticket when a cop pulled him over March 11 for not having a front license plate on his vehicle. What he didn't expect was to lose most of his infant daughter's cremated remains. "Almost all her ashes are...

Man Drowns While Scattering Father's Ashes

Robert Louis fell out of a boat Sunday on Lake Superior

(Newser) - A family tragedy was compounded this week in Michigan when the body of a 59-year-old man was found Monday, a day after he fell out of a boat while scattering his father's ashes on Lake Superior. WLUC reports Robert Louis' father died two weeks ago after a battle with...

Family Puzzled After Missing Cremains Turn Up on Beach

And not even on a beach in the state where they went missing

(Newser) - Authorities and relatives are at a loss to explain how the cremated remains of a Georgia woman mysteriously washed up on a Florida beach, the AP reports. The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that a box containing the ashes of an Atlanta-area woman was found by a man...

Man Honors Childhood Friend ... by Flushing His Ashes

Tom McDonald has flushed Roy Riegel's ashes at 16 MLB ballparks

(Newser) - "I went to the bathroom, and I was like, I know what to do," Tom McDonald tells the New York Daily News . Roy Riegel, McDonald's childhood friend and fellow New York Mets superfan, died in 2008 at the age of 48. McDonald kept Riegel's ashes in...

Lawsuit: Depp Spent $3M on a Cannon for Writer's Ashes

He also blew $30K a month on wine, former managers say

(Newser) - Johnny Depp spent more than $3 million on a cannon to blast Hunter S. Thompson's ashes over Aspen, Colo., spent $30,000 a month on expensive wines, and apparently just wasted much of the rest of his income, according to a lawsuit filed by his former managers. The lawsuit,...

Burglars Stole Boy's Ashes, Demanded $5K Ransom

Parents handed over cash for 6-year-old's remains

(Newser) - It would be an insult to the bottom-feeders of the animal kingdom to compare them to burglars police are seeking in Humboldt County, Calif. Police say they're investigating the theft of an urn containing the ashes of Ryan Wagner, a 6-year-old boy who died from cancer in 2011, the...

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