Greensboro widow seeks help finding husband’s missing urn

Frances Cabe is asking Greensboro for help finding the urn that held her husband’s ashes after it disappeared from her renovated home, sending her to thrift stores, Goodwill locations and police channels for any clue.

The urn was no ordinary keepsake. Cabe said Gerald’s ashes were kept in a colorful pottery urn made in Seagrove, about 20 inches tall and personalized with initials, birth dates and the couple’s wedding date on the bottom. She said the urn was meant to hold Gerald’s remains and eventually her own, giving it deep sentimental value beyond its appearance.

Gerald Franklin Cabe’s obituary says he graduated from Southeast High School in Greensboro in 1971, served in the U.S. Navy and received an honorable discharge on Aug. 30, 1975. He retired after 37 years from Gilbarco-Veeder Root in 2017. The family had already endured the death of their daughter, Christina “Christy” Cabe Kimbro, who died April 13, 2022, after battling breast cancer.

Cabe moved into the newly renovated Greensboro home in May. During the renovation, the house was empty and contractors had access through a keyless front-door lock, she said. She moved the urn into a closet only three days before she last saw it. About two weeks later, when she went looking for it, the urn was gone. She filed a police report and has been trying to track it down ever since.

The case is drawing attention because a personal heirloom can slip into ordinary circulation if someone does not recognize what it is. A missing urn can leave a family searching not just a home, but donation bins, resale shelves and secondhand racks for something that cannot be replaced.

North Carolina law defines cremated remains in statute and sets out required documentation before cremation can occur, a legal framework that underscores how closely the state treats ashes and the containers that hold them. Greensboro police have an online crime-reporting and police-report request process, and the department’s official newsroom is the city’s public channel for releases if the case develops further.

More than 10,000 missing-person reports reach the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons each year, a reminder that local agencies are built around recovery efforts and fast public alerts. For Frances Cabe, the search is far more intimate: she wants the urn returned safely and is asking anyone who may have seen it or bought it to contact Greensboro police.