MARYSVILLE — Marysville Police are looking for the owners of an urn that wound up in their custody last month.

The 10-inch-tall urn was found on the property of a Marysville resident in the 10400 block of Shoultes Road April 22.

The resident, who had lived there for approximately a year, was doing yard work on the west side of his property, away from the road, when he found the urn just before 4 p.m., in a ravine leading down to a creek. There are houses on the other side of the ravine.

Marysville Police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux noted that the presence of cremated remains had been established inside the urn, which has a screw-on top and is made of a heavy bluish gray substance that could be ceramic or plastic. He added that DNA testing is not possible with ashes, which means that it remains uncertain whether the “cremains” are of a human or a pet.

“There’s no markings or identification on it,” Lamoureux said. “We don’t know where it came from or how long it had been there.”

Lamoureux acknowledged that, on rare occasions, urns are stolen by thieves who mistakenly believe that they contain jewelry or other valuables, before being discarded. However, he pointed out that most urns are displayed prominently enough in homes that their owners are likely to notice once they’re gone.

The Marysville Police Department has received no reports of a missing urn, so they’re sending word out about this urn in hopes that its owners will reclaim it. In the meantime, Lamoureux said that the urn will remain in the police department’s property room indefinitely until it’s reclaimed.

“We can dispose of unclaimed property after 60 days, but in this case, we’ll hang onto it for a while,” Lamoureux said. “The most important thing is that we get it home to its owners.”

For more information, you may contact the Marysville Police Department at 360-363-8300.