Brad Bailey and Chad Fredette have come across some strange items in vehicles during their years in the car-repair business, but this one is the capper.
A 1994 Saab 9000 left behind about 18 months ago at their business – Dolpin Radiators and Automotive Repairs on Gladys Avenue in Abbotsford – was being cleaned out to get it ready for sale or salvage, when they came across a brown container in a plastic bag.
A label on the container listed the name “Ethel Maie Rendall Sloan,” as well as the names of a funeral home in West Vancouver and a crematorium in Vancouver.
The canister, it turned out, was holding human ashes. The death certificate inside indicated that Sloan died on April 4, 2010 at the age of 95.
“Very, very strange,” Fredette said of his reaction to the discovery.
They have tried contacting the Abbotsford woman who dropped off the car to get a new radiator, but the phone number she provided no longer works.
They contacted the crematorium and the funeral home, which encountered the same issue.
Online searches also produced no results.
Bailey said the woman did not pay her repair bill, but they did allow her to drop by a couple of times and remove items from the car. They question why she didn’t take the ashes.
They are at a loss over what to do with the remains and hope that going public will alert another relative who might want the ashes and isn’t aware they are out of the family’s possession.
Anyone with information is asked to call Dolphin Radiators at 604-556-3600 and ask for Brad or Chad.