Cremated remains of Ohio woman lost in mail

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The cremated remains of an Ohio woman that were supposed to be delivered to her husband didn’t arrive as scheduled or in time for her funeral, and now the U.S. Postal Service is trying to figure out what happened to the package.

Eighty-year-old Barbara Kirkendall died Nov. 5 at a Cleveland hospital, apparently because of a blood infection, and her remains were sent to her Columbus-area home after the autopsy and cremation, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Norman Kirkendall was supposed to receive his wife’s ashes by noon Saturday under a money-back, Priority Mail Express 1-Day guarantee. He told the newspaper he waited for hours, but the package never showed up.

“I feel like I’ve lost her,” he said of his wife of 61 years, whom he met at an Air Force base in Mississippi when he was an instructor and she was among his students.

Her remains had been shipped to Columbus and signed out for local delivery, the newspaper reported. What happened after that is a mystery.

A Postal Service spokesman, David Van Allen, said a “vigilant search” is being conducted.

Kirkendall’s family attended a memorial service Thursday without the remains, but her husband said the planned military burial in Dayton is postponed until the ashes are found.