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Urn, ashes of Delaware man found in junkyard by Philadelphia mechanic

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Published  January 18, 2024 6:54pm EST
Heartwarming News
FOX 29 Philadelphia

Urn, ashes of Delaware man found in junkyard by Philly mechanic

A Philadelphia mechanic found an urn with a man’s name, picture and ashes inside a car at a junkyard and, after some digging, he found the man’s family, with a reunion in the works.

PHILADELPHIA - You never know when a precious discovery will be made in a most unusual location.

Lynwood Lanier is a Philadelphia-based mobile mechanic and he’s always on the hunt at various city junkyards. However, he says his best find yet, on Passyunk Avenue, is more precious than any car part.

In a beat-up sedan with Delaware plates, Lanier says he spotted an urn with a man’s picture, a plaque with the name "John B. Brown Jr.," and the dates May 18, 1941-November 11, 2012. Inside the urn, there appeared to be a bag of ashes.

"The car was crashed up and it had a lot of their belongings in it, their clothes," says Lanier. "I thought about leaving it there, but said, ‘No, he would want to go home to his family.’ Somebody left it there, so I took it home."

For more than a month now, Lanier held onto the urn and says he tried to track down John B. Brown Jr.’s family.

An obituary matching the name, birthdate, and death date, showed up at Congo Funeral Home in Wilmington, Delaware. Lanier says he had several phone conversations with them to try to get in touch with a family member, but did not have any luck.

FOX 29 visited the funeral home and they provided us an address for Brown Jr.’s family member. It eventually led us to Brown Jr.’s son, John B. Brown III, in Middletown, Delaware.

"I was relieved and very, very happy about that," says Brown III.

Brown III says he made the urns for himself and six of his siblings after his father’s death, and he had no idea that one was missing, nor did he have a clue as to how it ended up in a Philadelphia junkyard.

In a phone conversation with Brown III, Lanier shared his motivation for saving the urn. Lanier says his own mother, Marilyn, went missing 21 years ago in North Philadelphia.

"For someone to not tell me where my mother is, it’s heartbreaking, and for me to not tell the family where this person is, it’s the same thing, I can’t, so I have to turn these ashes in to the family," says Lanier. "This was meant to be, this is a sign from my mom telling me to do right."

Brown III says he is forever grateful. "God bless him, that just shows that we have good people in the world today, amongst all these other things that take place."

Brown III says he will drive to Philadelphia to meet Lanier and thank him in person with either dinner or a gift card, before bringing his father back to Delaware.