Port Charlotte woman reunites with husband’s ashes

A Port Charlotte woman has been reunited with her husband’s ashes after struggling with the U.S. Postal Service to find them.

Friday morning, Stacie Claytor, told WINK News the Port Charlotte Post Master dropped off the package containing her husband Ron’s ashes just before 9 a.m.

Claytor told WINK News a package containing her husband’s ashes should have arrived at her home last week, but it never came.

For nine days, she has been contacting the postal service about the missing package, with little to no help.

In a last-ditch effort, she contacted WINK News about her story, and we decided to investigate.

After pressing them for answers, USPS began looking into what happened.

WINK News also reached out to lawmakers in Washington D.C. for their help.

Claytor expressed her relief after finally receiving the package. “Can you not tell I kind of am so relieved. I’m relieved. The family’s relieved. Our friends are all relieved,” she said.

Friday morning, she received a welcome notification stating her package had been scanned in Fort Myers.

“I oddly slept really well last night, and maybe somewhere I knew that, you know everything was going to be okay this morning,” she said. “So I woke up. I usually always check my phone first thing, and I saw that notification, and I actually was just filled with joy, and honestly, you were the first person I contacted this morning,” Claytor said.

Shortly after, she received another notification that the remains were on their way. “My doorbell rang and I walked out, and it was the postmaster of Port Charlotte, and he was just very nice and so handed me the package. Apologized, obviously,” she said.

Claytor blames the USPS for misplacing the precious package. “I was absolutely livid,” she said. She reached out to WINK News early on when USPS employees weren’t responding. “It is just sad that it did have to go to this level to get some attention,” she said. “I cannot thank you enough for what you have done.”

“I think there’s still a lot of unanswered questions, and I would like to see what the final report ends up being,” she said.

She hopes this incident might prompt changes within the Postal Service. “It would be really good to see if this maybe is something that causes some change or creates some change within the Postal Service,” she said.

Claytor said that Ron’s wish was to be cremated and that was the last thing as a family they wanted to do for him. “This was just not how we thought the very end was going to be. But everything has come to fruition, and I know I and everybody else is filled with joy that we have him back.”

The exact whereabouts of the package during its disappearance remain unclear, with conflicting answers from USPS officials. The most plausible explanation suggests it may have been at the Page Field/Fort Myers Post Office location the entire time, though it could have also ended up in Tampa.

USPS officials say the box the ashes were in is smaller than normal however, the box was still labeled as “cremated remains.”

The situation has raised questions about why the package wasn’t scanned and whether an investigation will follow. WINK News is actively seeking answers.