Metal detectorist finds lost locket containing owner's father's ashes

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts man combing a beach with his metal detector found a locket containing the ashes of the owner's father and was able to find the woman who lost it two months earlier.

Rich Bonanno of Scituate said he was using his metal detector on Nantasket Beach, trying to find a diamond ring lost by a South Shore Hospital nurse, when he came across a heart-shaped silver locket with the words "Miss You" printed on it.

Bonanno found what he suspected to be human cremains in the locket, and a call was put out on social media to attempt to find the owner.

Thomasina Holley-Lewis of Rockland said her cousin saw the Facebook post and texted her to see if the locket Bonanno had found was the one she had lost on the beach two months earlier.

Holley-Lewis recognized her precious item and called Bonanno.

"I called him and said, 'That's my locket,'" she told The Patriot-Ledger newspaper. "My father's watching over me like an angel."

Holley-Lewis said the locket contains the ashes of her father, who died of COVID-19 in November of last year.

Bonanno said his is mailing the locket back to its owner.

"It's about time we have some good news," Bonanno said.

Bonanno said he is still on the hunt for the nurse's missing ring.