Many of us don’t even want to imagine the pain of losing a child. But one Georgia mother experienced this loss not once but twice, with the same child. Tangenika Lee went to UPS to ship her son’s ashes to a family member. But the company lost the package. Now, Lee has taken it upon herself to find her son’s remains because UPS says there’s not much it can do.
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Lee mailed her son's ashes in early January.
In early January, Lee traveled to a UPS store in Hiram, Georgia, to send her son Deontray’s boxed ashes and some other gifts to her sister in Connecticut, KFVS12 reported. The package was set to arrive on January 10.
After weeks had passed, the package still had not been delivered. Lee went back to the UPS store to see if they could locate the package, but they weren’t much help.
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UPS said there is nothing they can do about it.
“I went inside of the store and pulled cameras from January the 8th, and they came back out to tell me that that package actually had left their facility, and it was nothing that they could do about it,” Lee said.
As a consolation, UPS sent her a $135 check as compensation. Lee is refusing to cash it. “I just lost it. I started crying,” Lee said. “He ain’t here. He not here. I don’t know where he at.”
The package was last tracked at a distribution center in Connecticut.
Lee says she told the employees that the package contained her son’s ashes. But in a statement, UPS said that the company does not ship human remains. They claim Lee declared the package contained clothes.
Now, Lee is planning to go to the facility in Connecticut where it was last tracked to see if she can locate her son's ashes. She also contacted the police about the matter.
'It’s just like a repeating nightmare,' Lee said.
Lee said the whole ordeal is like losing Deontray, who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2020, all over again. She was shipping his remains to her sister who was making a custom urn.
“If you ask me, it’s just like a repeating nightmare,” Lee said. “I cremated him because I had not seen him in seven whole years. So, I cremated him, so that he could be right here with me, and we could travel together and do things together — and he ain’t here.”
In its statement, UPS said, “Unfortunately, the package was lost … We extend our deepest sympathy to the family and our heartfelt thoughts are with them during this time.”
