Woman’s donated remains to be reunited with family

Vancouver police are reuniting relatives with a wooden box containing cremated remains that was found among items donated to a Goodwill store last month.

Police announced Tuesday that they were contacted by a relative of the woman whose remains were inside the box.

“It appears items from inside a storage unit were donated to Goodwill and the urn was among the donated items. It was inadvertently donated,” police said in the announcement.

The remains turned up Jan. 7 at the Goodwill at 6425 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., after an employee going through donated items found the box.

The worker checked and found that the trapezoidal box contained cremated remains. It appeared the box was donated mistakenly, police said. The box is made of a darker wood, has a handle and latch on one end and two wooden letter M’s attached to its face, with the name Michelle Miller written on the letters.

Police had distributed information about the find and thanked the media and public for their assistance in reuniting the woman’s remains with her family.

Police said the department’s evidence unit will return the remains to the relative, who lives in Tacoma.