The Los Angeles Daily News ran the following article by Staff Writer Angie Valencia-Martinez on February 20, 2005. It was headlined "Final resting place found for ashes after 11 years," but this editor would have chosen the headline "IAPE Board Member makes GOOD news!" instead.

Thanks to an intrepid police clerk, the cremated remains of a San Bernardino man that inexplicably showed up in a storage yard 10 years after his death will soon rest beside those of his wife at a Hollywood cemetery. The remains of Paul Walter Smith will be interred in a crypt at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery once San Bernardino authorities sign off on final paperwork.

It was the determination of Lori Tate, a civilian property manager with the Simi Valley Police Department, [and IAPE Board member. ed.] that led to the discovery of Smith's true final resting place. "I was on a mission to figure this out," said Tate, who spent months unsuccessfully searching for relatives of Smith, who died in 1994 at the age of 79. "How do you track down the relatives of a Mr. Smith? "I did not want to give up, but at one point I could not see how we could find where he belonged."

Actually, Tate had the answer all along. A reference to the Hollywood cemetery was briefly mentioned in a disposal certificate for the ashes, but Tate did not think it was relevant since Smith's ashes were obviously not there. When a detective looked at the certificate, he suggested Tate call Hollywood Forever, which confirmed that the Smiths had purchased a crypt in which to be buried - together. "She had been waiting for him for 10 years," Tate said. "It was a nice ending."

Tate confessed to being a little embarrassed by the oversight, but said she was pleased to have reunited Smith with his wife, Mary, who died in 1990. The mystery began last May at the West Simi Lock Up, where the contents of a storage unit went to auction because the tenant had failed to pay his bills. The person who purchased the contents found a heavy box and brought it to the storage company's manager, who turned it over to the Police Department.

There Tate launched a search for relatives willing to take the unclaimed ashes. She researched genealogical Web sites, ran DMV records in search of family, made countless calls in search of leads, but nothing. At one point, she discovered that Smith's remains were released in 1994 to a friend named Bettie, but that she had died in 1998. Tate called the crematorium, which was listed on the disposal certificate, but it had no information. After nine months with no leads, Simi Valley police were considering handing over the ashes to the Ventura County Coroner's Office for disposal.

That's when Tate got the tip from the detective to call the cemetery. Cases of forgotten ashes are rare, said Craig Stevens, senior deputy medical examiner. In fact, those cases are so unusual that in his 18 years with the Coroner's Office, Stevens said they've handled only six. "It happens on occasion. They are most commonly found in storage sheds. Sometimes there's a name on the urn or there isn't."

Still, a number of questions remain: How did Smith's ashes wind up in Simi Valley? Who were the Smiths? Why did no one ever claim his ashes? "It's still a great mystery," Tate said. "Some things we'll never know."

In a similar but totally non-related case, the Kansas City Star reported in a February 25, 2005, story by Christine Vendel and headlined "New plot for old ashes receives headstone" about the coordinated efforts to obtain a proper burial for Bernice L. Hickmon, who died in 1983 at age 58.

Her cremated remains, in a small metal box, had remained on a Kansas City Police Department property room shelf for almost 20 years after a woman found the urn in her apartment closet and turned it in. The officer who recovered the ashes was uneasy about discarding human remains, so the metal urn went to the police property room until the Good Samaritans went to work.

[In addition to serving on the I.A.P.E. Board, Lori Tate has served as Secretary of the Board for several terms. She was a primary editor of the Association's standards, and is known in Southern California as a great resource for other property professionals. ed.]