Daughter's lost bracelet containing her mom's ashes returned
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An Arizona traveler on a mission to return a unique item she found while visiting Houston has found it's rightful owner thanks to the power of social media.
Desiree Encinas traveled from Phoenix, Arizona to Houston to visit her sisters. While at the airport, she said she was in a restroom when she stumbled upon a bracelet with a thumbprint, and a deal that may have ashes in it.
When she found it, Encinas said she knew she had to find the owner.
"I knew it would be important to someone," Encinas said in an interview with ABC13.
Shara Fisher, the rightful owner of the bracelet, said a whole day went by before she realized she had lost her bracelet.
"I didn't realize I had lost the bracelet until the next morning because I usually have a watch on," she said. "And the next morning I went to take my watch off and realized my bracelet was gone."
Encinas told ABC13 that it was late when she found the bracelet and the lost-and-found at the airport was closed. She couldn't leave it there so, she decided to turn to social media in hopes that the owner will claim something so dear to them.
The bracelet was found on Jan. 28, and Encinas made the post the following day. She said her post gained traction fast and was shared by many people from all over the world.
Encinas said she wasn't sure if the owner of the bracelet lived in Houston, so posting on Facebook was the best thing to do.
"I figured, with the power of Facebook, as well that we can share it all over the world and see if we can get it back to its owner. I'm sure it means a lot to them," Encinas said.
WATCH: "I'm sure it means a lot to them," said Desiree Encinas
Fisher said she and her daughter, Amber Crabtree, talk on the phone every day. It was in the middle of one of their phone calls that Crabtree was scrolling on Facebook and shouted, "They found your bracelet!"
Fisher said she was driving when her daughter told her the good news.
"I was so emotional, I had to pull over on the side of the interstate because I was just crying terribly," she said.
Crabtree, who lives in the Houston area, sent Encinas a message on Facebook and they connected.
Fisher said she and her mother were very close before she passed away last Christmas Eve. The bracelet holds her mom's ashes and has her fingerprints engraved.
Fisher called all of this ironic. She said her mother had always wanted to live in Arizona, where Desiree is from, so she said it's fate that someone from Arizona found the bracelet. She said her mother also wanted her ashes scattered there.
She now has plans to fly to Arizona next week to pick up the bracelet and hopefully scatter her mother's ashes in Sedona.
