Remains of cremations washing up on Gasparilla beaches

Two times in the last few months, beachcombers in Boca Grande have found evidence of recent beach or water burials, where families have put their relatives at rest at sea, and did not know what to do with the remnants.

Just last weekend, resident John Parish found a wooden cremation box on the beach at the north end of the island, of the late Chuong Kim Phan, who died in December of 2021. Last December, resident Lisa Guirl found a plaque with the name of the late Donald and Alice Morrow. Alice Morrow died in 2000 and Donald Morrow in 2017.

In each case, the issue put a stranger in the middle of a very personal family tragedy.

“We reburied the plaque on the beach,” said Guirl, who did an extensive hunt to find out about the family. The two cases are different from when a body or skull is found on the beach, where a coroner needs to be called. In these two recent situations, they were no cremated remains, only what amounts to a marker.

When Guirl found the plaque for the Morrows on the beach, she at first did not know what to do, and whether the plaque had come off the wall of one of the island’s church columbariums. She found out through a newspaper obituary that the Morrows’s final resting place would be here on the island, however.

Apparently, the family, who no longer lives here, said that the plaque had been buried on the beach. The fall hurricanes had apparently washed it up. Guirl kept the plaque until some friends of the Morrows came. The friends found a place, “fairly high up so it will hopefully stay safe for many years.”

In the recent case of Mr. Phan, Parish found the funeral home and then tracked down the family. He said that the ashes had already been scattered, and that the family had hoped that the box would sink. It did not. The family said that they did not want the box back.

Chief C.W. Blosser of the Boca Grande Fire Department said that this was the first case he had heard of finding memorials on the beach. During this last weekend, he said, the only thing lost was a cellphone, and it had been reunited with its owner. Blosser said that Florida was a popular place for leaving cremated remains, and that Disney was one place that had a particular problem with families leaving ashes at different rides and resorts.

A Thrillist piece from August 24, 2024, stated that Haunted Mansion was one of the popular indoor sites for Disney cremation remains. Apparently, Whoopi Goldberg had left her mother’s ashes in It’s a Small World and at the front garden of Main Street while pretending to sneeze. When Disney learns of cases like this, they call for HAZMAT and the guest can be banned.

Holly Coleman from the Lemon Bay Funeral Home sent the Beacon the Environmental Protection Agency’s page for disposing of cremated remains. Their rule is that they must be scattered at least three miles offshore. There is a simple EPA form that needs to be filled out. The EPA permit is under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, which covers full-body burials and the release of cremated remains.