Mystery urn containing ashes found outside Barrie, Ont. home

A Barrie woman is on a mission to reunite a family with their loved one's remains after finding an urn nestled under a tree outside her home.

"I thought, no, this can't be real," said Monique Bennett.

Bennett says she discovered the urn filled with cremated remains near her front door after the snow had melted.

She initially thought it was a patio light.

"But when I looked at it, I thought, whoa, okay, we got someone's ashes here," she says.

An urn filled with someone's ashes is nestled outside Monique Bennett's home in Barrie, Ont., home on Wed., May 10, 2023. (CTV News/Alessandra Carneiro)

The urn dates back nearly two decades, engraved with Marketa Baruta (or Boruta), 1939 - 2005, propelling Bennett into a determined quest to find the relatives.

"I called just one funeral home, not knowing if it was the right one, and a person called me back and he said to check to see if there is a metal tag on it, and it will give you an indication of who to contact," she says.

Bennett checked over the urn, but no such tag was present.

Monique Bennett holds an urn with cremated remains inside outside her Barrie, Ont., home on Wed., May 10, 2023. (CTV News/Alessandra Carneiro)

Next, she contacted the previous tenants in hopes they could shed some light on the urn's origin, but they knew nothing of it.

Finally, Bennett turned to the power of social media, hoping someone somewhere might have information on the mysterious woman who now shares her home.

So far, no one has come forward to claim it.

As she continues her search to reunite the urn with its rightful family, Bennett says it will have a place in her garden for as long as necessary.

"We all experience loss in our life. I've experienced lots of loss, and so has my husband, and we just thought, it's not up to us to decide what to do with it," she says.