joel - Photos - Goldprospectorsspace

After being buried for 25 years finally found my uncle's cremated remains. Took the 2 of us 6 months and 4 different detectors but located with AT Gold and 8.5x11 coil. Buried 13" in a brass box.

(FULL STORY)

Back in 1988 my Uncle Joel was killed in a motorcycle crash at the age of 27, survived by both parents and four older sisters. My Grandfather, being a hobby jeweler and metalsmith, made a brass box to hold Joel’s cremated remains (cremains.) In 1990 my grandparents found the property that they would live the rest of their lives. When they moved in they, along with their daughters, buried Joel’s cremains near the house. The family holidays, birthdays, and barbecues were held with him close. Over the years my Grandfather told me that when he is gone I will have to find and dig up Joel so he can be combined with him and informed me of the general area of Joel. About 4 years ago my grandfather passed away and with him the exact location of Joel was gone. About a year ago, my Grandmother’s health started to deteriorate and we knew she wouldn’t last a couple more years. Six months ago she went on hospice care. Knowing there was not going to be much time left, I started hunting the area but I was plagued with pull tabs, iron, and copper. Two months ago my grandmother passed and I felt like a failure, not being able to find Joel so she could hold him one last time. (Now I am getting choked up trying to write this.)

The estate was being prepped to sell and I was not going to let him be left behind. I talked with my Mother and aunts about where he was buried and narrowed the search area down to a couple hundred square feet. We called in the help of a good family friend, Andy, to help in the search and he used a picture of the property one of my aunts found and used the location of a small tree that was planted in the area of Joel. So the area was narrowed down to the size of a car, we broke out the detectors and the search was on, but we were still fighting bad targets. I had the most problems detecting near the small tree, which is now 23-24 years old, because of a tire ring around this tree. Andy and I decided to cut this tire out of the way and continue hunting while my family watched. Detecting around the tree we had better sounding targets which gave us hope. One target we dug was an older clad coin and I decided to check the hole with my AT Gold before we filled it back in. I had a faint high tone. It wasn’t enough to ID, but it was a solid tone. We continued to dig a bit deeper and pulled some iron, but the sound was still there. Again, scratching away more and more dirt, I throw my pin pointer in the hole and it sings, all around the bottom of the hole it chatters the tone of “you are close.” We stick in a probe and get a hollow thump. You could see the look on everyone’s faces; they knew the search was over. We thought the best route of excavation from there was to carefully scratch the surface and shop-vac the soil. A few minutes of this and I wiggled the box free. Once I got the urn out I handed my Uncle Joel to my Mother and one of my aunts. Right now Joel’s cremains in his brass box rest between his parents’ cremains on the mantle until the four sister are together to spread the ashes.

You need to be a member of Goldprospectorsspace to add comments!

Join Goldprospectorsspace

Comments

Christopher Russo November 9, 2015 at 2:04pm

After being buried for 25 years finally found my uncle's cremated remains. Took the 2 of us 6 months and 4 different detectors but located with AT Gold and 8.5x11 coil. Buried 13" in a brass box.

(FULL STORY)

Back in 1988 my Uncle Joel was killed in a motorcycle crash at the age of 27, survived by both parents and four older sisters. My Grandfather, being a hobby jeweler and metalsmith, made a brass box to hold Joel’s cremated remains (cremains.) In 1990 my grandparents found the property that they would live the rest of their lives. When they moved in they, along with their daughters, buried Joel’s cremains near the house. The family holidays, birthdays, and barbecues were held with him close. Over the years my Grandfather told me that when he is gone I will have to find and dig up Joel so he can be combined with him and informed me of the general area of Joel. About 4 years ago my grandfather passed away and with him the exact location of Joel was gone. About a year ago, my Grandmother’s health started to deteriorate and we knew she wouldn’t last a couple more years. Six months ago she went on hospice care. Knowing there was not going to be much time left, I started hunting the area but I was plagued with pull tabs, iron, and copper. Two months ago my grandmother passed and I felt like a failure, not being able to find Joel so she could hold him one last time. (Now I am getting choked up trying to write this.)

The estate was being prepped to sell and I was not going to let him be left behind. I talked with my Mother and aunts about where he was buried and narrowed the search area down to a couple hundred square feet. We called in the help of a good family friend, Andy, to help in the search and he used a picture of the property one of my aunts found and used the location of a small tree that was planted in the area of Joel. So the area was narrowed down to the size of a car, we broke out the detectors and the search was on, but we were still fighting bad targets. I had the most problems detecting near the small tree, which is now 23-24 years old, because of a tire ring around this tree. Andy and I decided to cut this tire out of the way and continue hunting while my family watched. Detecting around the tree we had better sounding targets which gave us hope. One target we dug was an older clad coin and I decided to check the hole with my AT Gold before we filled it back in. I had a faint high tone. It wasn’t enough to ID, but it was a solid tone. We continued to dig a bit deeper and pulled some iron, but the sound was still there. Again, scratching away more and more dirt, I throw my pin pointer in the hole and it sings, all around the bottom of the hole it chatters the tone of “you are close.” We stick in a probe and get a hollow thump. You could see the look on everyone’s faces; they knew the search was over. We thought the best route of excavation from there was to carefully scratch the surface and shop-vac the soil. A few minutes of this and I wiggled the box free. Once I got the urn out I handed my Uncle Joel to my Mother and one of my aunts. Right now Joel’s cremains in his brass box rest between his parents’ cremains on the mantle until the four sister are together to spread the ashes.

This reply was deleted.