Who are the man and woman pictured and how did their photos get left in the locket? And what is it about destiny that led Christina Rome to find it at a Concord flea market?
"I didn't expect to find black and white photos staring back at me," Rome said. "And they were staring at me."
Rome is a stay-at-home mom and an collector of lockets because of how they keep loved ones close to your heart.
"If I lost a locket, I would want someone to give it back to me," Rome said. "It's not theirs, it's mine. It's somebody else's family."
Rome paid $10 and then took pictures of the locket and its contents and sent a message to ABC7 News' Facebook page. Then Martha Pierson saw them on our sister station I Houston.
"It looked like my mother was the woman in the locket," Pierson said.
Amelia Metroff died in 1991. She had a favorite uncle, Karl Plebanek, who disappeared while prospecting for gold in Northern California in the 1930s.
"And my uncle told us if he was ever found, he would have a picture of her with him in a piece of jewelry or a wallet," Pierson said.
ABC7 News put the two women in direct contact.
"I have pictures of his brothers and parents," Pierson said.
It might have been a picture of Karl, or one of his brothers. We don't yet know.
"You don't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from," Pierson said.
A mystery, locked up. Now opening.
"I just want it to go back to who it belongs to," Rome said.
