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Woman says USPS lost her mother's remains
A woman is desperate to find the remains of her mother. She says her mom's ashes are lost in the mail.
CARROLLTON, Ga. - A metro Atlanta woman is on a mission to find her mother’s remains after she says they were lost by the United States Postal Service.
What they're saying:
"Imagine your mother being in a package and taking the grand tour of the United States instead of being with you where she belongs," Petra McDermott said.
McDermott says she will not rest until she has her mother’s remains.
Her parents lived in Germany, and her mother died in May. She was cremated, and the family decided to send the remains to Petra, who lives in Carrollton.
"I had no choice but to have my mother’s remains sent by mail. I couldn’t go over to Germany and pick her up and bring her on an airplane," McDermott said.
They were sent from Germany by DHL, then passed into the care of USPS. USPS is the only authorized carrier for shipping cremated remains.
"It was somewhere in Indianapolis, and nobody knew... It shows ‘in transit.’ The package shows ‘in transit,’" McDermott said.
Tracking information showed the remains originally arrived in Florida, then went to North Carolina, Atlanta, Cartersville, Nashville, back to Miami, back to Atlanta, back to Nashville, and then to Indianapolis on June 24. On June 30, it said "in transit to next facility" and hasn’t been updated since.
"It’s absolutely horrible and heartbreaking. This is my mom. It’s not an item from Amazon or a T-shirt. It’s disrespectful of the postal service to treat human remains like that. It’s absolutely ridiculous," McDermott said.
The other side:
Petra says she reached out to several people with USPS, and one postal employee at a facility sent her labels showing the package. Another email from someone in Washington, D.C., claimed the package label was hard to read. Petra wants to know, if that was the case, why not correct it and send it to the right place?
"That is completely 100% on the USPS. There is a flaw in their system, and they need to fix it," McDermott said. "Show some compassion. I’m just afraid the box is lost forever and I will not receive it."
The USPS released this statement in response:
"The Postal Service always strives to provide the best possible service to our customers. In this instance, we first wish to offer our condolences to the family and a sincere apology for the unintended delay in delivering this important package. We are keenly aware of the sensitivity of this matter and are focused on ensuring the package is located as quickly as possible. The Postal Service is taking every possible step to resolve this issue. We have been in contact with the customer and will continue to reach out to them to provide updates. We regret that the package has not yet been located, but we will continue our vigilance to resolve the matter.
"The Postal Service has a number of resources available to assist customers with properly shipping cremated remains. Customers can visit our website for more information. There is a special kit available specifically designed for shipping cremated remains, which can be ordered here: www.usps.com at the Postal Store."
The Source: FOX 5's Eric Perry spoke with Petra McDermott for this article. The USPS provided a statement.