SJ family desperate to find father's ashes after USPS delivered them to wrong address

Zach Fuentes Image
Thursday, January 30, 2025
SJ family looking for father's cremated remains after delivery mistake
A San Jose family is desperate to find their late father's remains after the U.S. Postal Service delivered them to the wrong address.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A San Jose mother and son desperate to get his father's cremated remains after the U.S. Postal Service said they were delivered to the wrong address.

Fifty-four-year-old Michael Voorhees's life was cut tragically short by an aggressive form of cancer. Heartbreaking to all who knew and loved him.

"He battled skin cancer and it came back a year later and it was metastatic and it completely just, we were not expecting that," said Anna Garcia who shares a 23-year-old son with Voorhees.

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Voorhees died last month in Arizona, his ashes were to be divided and shared among four loved ones.

Garcia and her son who are in San Jose were to get theirs delivered directly from the cremation service via certified mail.

The USPS tracking number showed that the ashes were delivered on Jan. 18 in the afternoon but Garcia and her son never received them.

"We investigated and we found out that USPS had delivered the ashes but to a different address," she said.

The news was devastating.

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"My son is the one who's really distraught," Garcia said. "We're having a celebration of life for him and then we're not going to have the ashes."

Garcia said the remains were to come in a big bubble-wrapped envelope with a large orange label that said: "Cremated remains."

ABC7 News reached out to the U.S. Postal Service who sent this statement Wednesday:

"The station has sent multiple representatives to the location where the item was delivered. Unfortunately, no one answered the door during those attempts."

The matter has been escalated to the Inspection Service, who will be making efforts on Wednesday to assist in the recovery of this package.

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"We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused. We acknowledge the sensitivity of this mis-delivered item and will continue to pursue efforts to recover it," said the postal service in the statement.

Garcia acknowledged that the postal service has been working with them, but both she and her son are desperate to get his father's remains.

She's posted on Nextdoor and also reached out to ABC7 hoping to get the word out.

"I'm hoping that someone, might see it and they don't know," Garcia said. "If they can just return it back to the post office. So that we can get my son's dad's ashes back."

Garcia set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with funeral expenses. To find out more, click here.

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