Sunday, June 19, 2011
By robert guttersohn
rguttersohn@vindy.com
youngstown
Jesse Lavin never intended during a hike in Mill Creek Park to stumble upon one of the most sacred of family relics: an urn.
Lavin, 29, and four months into his year-long discipleship at Ohio Valley Teen Challenge, stepped into Mill Creek that runs through the 2,800-acre park. When he faltered, Lavin put his arms out to catch himself, and they landed in the water around a metallic object.
When he pulled it out, it was covered in dirt. After some wiping, he found it was made of copper.
“I really just didn’t know what it was at that point, but I brought it back to the (Teen Challenge) center,” Lavin said.
At first, he intended to sell it for scrap.
“Well it’s at least worth $30, but once it had a name to it,” Lavin said. “Once I knew what it was ... anything like that was out of the question.”
While cleaning, he noticed numbers etched into the side of the vase. After scrubbing away more dirt, Lavin saw the numbers were a date of birth and a date of death. He was holding an urn.
“All the guys were telling me, ‘You brought back an evil spirit,’” Lavin joked.
“Michael L. McBack, Nov. 22, 1955 to Aug. 19, 2007,” they first thought the vase read. But the etching was faint.
After realizing it was an urn, questions of its past were brought up. Was it stolen? Was it tossed into the creek intentionally?
Lavin passed it on to the pastor of the center, Kerry Dean.
“I went to Vindy.com and checked the obituaries and to the archives and didn’t find anything,” the Rev. Mr. Dean said. “I did a couple more of those types of web sites but didn’t find anything.”
Read the full story to find out the outcome Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.