Daughter says USPS lost her mom’s cremated remains: ‘Nobody knows where they are’

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT/Gray News) – A daughter is looking for answers from the U.S. Postal Service after she says they lost her mom’s ashes in the mail.

Mary Woodrow died in Omaha, Nebraska in December at the age of 77. But now, her loved ones are dealing with the loss of her remains.

Her daughter, Stepheni Leguin, grew up in Omaha but now works in Louisiana, where she had to return after her mother died but before she was cremated.

So, the mortuary in Nebraska sent Leguin a photo showing the urn had been mailed to her Louisiana address in early January. Leguin says it has yet to arrive.

“How did they lose someone’s cremated remains?” Leguin said. “They were sent with tape on all sides of the box stating they were cremated remains, and I was assured they would be received in two days, and nobody knows where they are. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Leguin filed a missing mail claim with the U.S. Postal Service.

WOWT learned that the mortuary properly boxed and addressed the urn. The tracking information Leguin was given shows that her mother’s remains were in possession of a post office in Omaha on Jan. 7.

Leguin says now, two months later, the tracking number trail has gone cold. Somewhere between Nebraska and Louisiana, her mother’s ashes got misplaced or diverted.

“It breaks my heart,” she said. “I don’t know where my mom’s ashes are. How am I to grieve her if I don’t even know where she is?”

Woodrow’s boyfriend, 82-year-old Ron Westphalen, said his goodbyes to her in late December, but he is now living with an unsettling feeling knowing her ashes are missing.

“They had to know this was not just regular mail,” Westphalen said. “This was something very important, so precautions should have been taken.”

He added, “It’s a human being. They need to have respect for that and somehow, someone has to be accountable for this.”

Leguin is now getting help from a Louisiana congresswoman in pushing USPS to locate the missing urn.

A spokesman for Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow says that a congressional inquiry has been submitted to the postal service and her staff will continue to advocate for Leguin in locating the lost urn.

A USPS public relations official told WOWT the service is using every resource available to remedy the situation.

“I know she [my mom] was wanting to travel more, but this isn’t the way she would have wanted to do it,” Leguin said.

Copyright 2025 WOWT via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.