PALM HARBOR, Fla. — It has been more than a month since Frank Miksits passed away and during that time, his ashes were lost in the mail, but as of Saturday morning, they have been returned to his family.

“We want him home,” said his daughter Liane Miksits.

She says the United States Postal Service lost her father’s cremated remains on their way from Palm Harbor to Pennsylvania.

It has been weeks and they have yet to arrive until Saturday morning when they were hand-delivered to her by the USPS. 

She said she believed the Spectrum Bay News 9 TV story on Friday night helped in getting her father back, but before his ashes were returned, she said it was a terrible time for her family.

“It’s like torture,” said Frank Miksits’ granddaughter Kate on Friday. “It could possibly be the worst mental torture we’ve ever gone through.”

Frank Miksits and his wife Patricia Miksits were snowbirds and had a winter home in Palm Harbor. 

He suddenly passed away on March 12, at age 79. He was cremated at Curlew Hills Memory Gardens. The family opted to have the remains shipped because they needed to return home quickly to Pennsylvania.

By law, cremated remains have to be sent via USPS. 

Curlew Hills CEO Keenan Knopke says he personally delivers all remains to the Palm Harbor post office, in a specially marked USPS box.

“You can see it says cremated remains on every side. The end. The back. Even the bottom,” Knopke said.

In his decades in business, he says he has never seen one package lost.

He has been trying to track this package down himself, asking anyone he can and even driving to the USPS distribution center in Tampa looking for answers.

“When I tell them what I’m asking about. It’s that gasp of ‘Oh my gosh. This doesn’t happen.’ You hear it in their voice,” Knopke said. 

In response to this story, USPS issued the following statement: 

“The Postal Service always strives to provide the best possible service to our customers.  In this instance, we first wish to offer our condolences to the family and a sincere apology for the unintended delay in delivering this important package.  We are keenly aware of the desire to locate the parcel as soon as possible.  We regret that, to date, the package has not been located.  We are committed to an ongoing and vigilant search and will continue working with the customer to resolve this matter.”

However, as of Saturday, his ashes have been found.

Miksits’ wishes were to be left with his wife of 55 years. His family wants to see that through.

“This could have been time for healing,” Liane Miksits had previously said. “Instead of a nightmare loop of losing him over and over every day. Because we can’t fulfill his very last wishes.”