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Man, 29, stumbles upon funeral urn in Mill Creek
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A resident of Ohio Valley Teen Challenge in Youngstown returned an urn he found in Mill Creek to Pastor Kerry Dean, above, academic dean at Teen Challenge. Etched on the urn, they believe, is: “Michael L. McBack, Nov. 22, 1955 to Aug. 19, 2007.”
Anyone who may have information on the funeral urn found in Mill Creek is asked to call Ohio Valley Teen Challenge at 330-743-9030.
Quest to find family fruitless so far
By Robert Guttersohn
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 [OVTC] center,” Lavin said. OVTC is a residential Christian-based discipleship and recovery program for men 18 and older.
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 it, 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 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 a 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.”
He contacted Sgt. Chuck Swanson of Youngstown police and a board member at Teen Challenge.
“I may have a lead, will you be [at the center] tonight?” Swanson told Mr. Dean Thursday.
That afternoon, he entered Mr. Dean’s office with a death report in his hands. Under neon light, they examined the markings on the urn closely to see if they matched the name and dates on the incident report.
Eventually they determined the name on the urn is Michael Helback, matching the name on the report.
“Ah, this is it then,” Swanson said excitedly. But the excitement was short lived.
The names matched, the dates of birth matched, but the dates of death were off by almost two years.
The report in Swanson’s hand read the man’s body was discovered Feb. 6, 2005. Swanson left the pastor’s office hoping one last call to a number on the report would finalize everything.
But on Friday, the number never answered and there was no voicemail to leave a message.
So the mystery continues, and the urn sits on Mr. Dean’s desk. Regardless, Lavin will ensure the urn is in its rightful place, whether that be in the hands of family or again buried in the creek in Mill Creek Park.