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May 22, 2023

Taylor police working to locate family of ‘beloved wife

Discarded boxed cremains were found in an old Taylor cemetery late last month.

Discarded boxed cremains were found in an old Taylor cemetery late last month.

Then two gravestones were found near the Meijer bus stop by someone passing by the area.

Taylor police Sgt. Frank Canning said these are quite unusual discoveries for Taylor and officers continue to work to locate the families connected with all three of these deceased individuals.

The boxed remains, which had the name Michael J. O’Brien written on what looked to be a receipt-like slip of paper, could not be found in any of the city's records.

The boxed remains eventually were accepted by Our Lady of Hope Cemetery in Brownstown Township, where they were placed in a vault containing unclaimed urns and carefully handled in the event a relative emerges.

According to Canning, City Clerk Cynthia Bower was able to locate a member of the family in connection with one of two gravestones found near Meijer late last month.

Police still do not know how the two gravestones got there, but were happy to make a connection with the family of one of them.

That has left one final gravestone unaccounted for — that of Laura B. Johnson.

According to her gravestone, she was a beloved wife and mother.

She was born on Aug. 25, 1957, and died on June 13, 2007.

"We have no active tips on this one," Canning said. "There is no record of it in the database."

To have three discoveries like these is quite unusual for the city, according to Cannon.

Efforts are still being made to get the gravestone back where it belongs.

A picture of it was posted on the department's social media page.

It was shared by hundreds of accounts.

After no members of her family came forward, those who saw the post came up with a theory of their own.

Several wondered if the gravestone isn't actually missing after all.

In fact, they believe it might actually have been made and discarded due to a production error.

There is a hyphen in between the words "wife -mother" written on the stone with the hyphen flush against the word mother.

Perhaps, some have wondered, the family might not have wanted this version of the plaque and it just wasn't discarded properly.

No matter what the situation, Taylor police are giving this yet another push in hopes of locating family members.

Michael J. Yost posted on the department's social media account that he did a search of his own of obituaries on Legacy.com and could not find that name.

Several residents like Yost took it upon themselves to do some research on Johnson, but all have come up empty.

One woman, who said she resides in south Florida, read about the gravestone and shared the story there, saying, "You just never know."

Searches were also conducted on Ancestry.com. and Findagrave.com.

Anyone with information on the gravestone is asked to contact Taylor police at 734-287-6611. The case number to reference is 23-11229.

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