Tucked away on a shelf at the PARC Thrift Store in Pinellas Park is and ordinary box with some extraordinary contents.
Two weeks ago, workers picked up some donated items at a condo in Kenneth City. Once they brought them to the thrift store processing center, they discovered one of the items was the cremated remains of Walter H. Hardin, according to the label on the box.
“When they realized what they had in their possession, at first I don't think everyone knew what to do with it,” says PARC spokeswoman Jackie Dryden. “But there was a little bit of research, there's some information on the box about who the remains belong to.”
Our research so far has revealed that Walter Hardin was 96 years old when he died on May 30, 2014 in Kenneth City.
According to the funeral home that handled his cremation, he has no family locally and a neighbor made and paid for the final arrangements.
“We’ve sort of hit a stand still about finding family members whom the remains would belong to, but we’re still working on it,” Dryden said.