OB’s Own Halloween Story – the Case of the Unclaimed Cremated Ashes of Henry Lefebvre

Screen capture from Channel 6 News of Henry Lefebvre’s box.

Ocean Beach has its very own Halloween mystery: the case of the unclaimed cremated remains of Henry Lebebvre.

You may have heard by now, that a locked  metal box with cremated ashes with a label reading: “Henry Lefebvre” and dated April 30, 1995, was found about six months ago in a bay of an OB carwash facility, the OB Suds, on Voltaire.  The carwash owner saved the box thinking that someone would show up and claim it, but no one has.

So on Monday, OB Suds owner turned it over to the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association for safekeeping. It sits on a table at the OBMA’s office.  Denny Knox, executive director of OBMA, told the media:

“We would like to return it to a family member.”

Today’s U-T San Diego reported:

California death records show a Henry Renaud Lefebvre was born on Oct. 30, 1900, in Arizona and died April 30, 1995, at his home in Dana Point.  He was survived by his wife, Barbara.

The container is sealed and appears that it has not been opened, Knox said. She also said it was very heavy. No one at the association has looked inside the box, Knox said.

I did speak with Denny Knox this morning about this case. She told me that their OBMA office has been fielding calls from all over about the missing relatives of Henry Lefebvre, as genealogists have been offering advice – they even received one call from a niece of his in Australia.

Knox told me that, apparently, Henry Lefebvre was a Halloween baby, as he was born on Oct. 30th.  “He would have been 112 years old – this month,” she said. He had no children, and his second wife died in 1997. Possibly – since she passed away just two years after him – she never was able to get the ashes interned.

Yet, the search for relatives continues.  Denny said that Henry had no immediate relatives, it seems, but her office is hoping to hear from relatives in Douglas, Arizona, or some from Orange County.  Anyone with information can call the OBMA at 619-224-4906.

Although this is not a scary Halloween story, it still is a story about a man born very near the holiday over a hundred years ago, whose remains remained unclaimed.  Someone left the box at the carwash and it would be gruesome not to deliver it back to the family.