Wedding rings, baby pictures, graveside memories: Lost objects found far from Nebraska's tornado zone

Their memories were written in a journal tucked in a zip-close bag inside a sturdy black plastic tote at his gravesite at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Elkhorn. A picture of Aspen, who drowned when he was 3, was on the front of the tote.

The tornado that blew through Friday knocked down his 10-foot gravestone and scattered some of the items around it.

“I went out to the cemetery the day after the storm and tried to look,” Seemann said. “The damage is so substantial. It’s kind of an overwhelming thing to even start looking.”

Seemann posted about her search on the Nebraska/Iowa 2024 tornado lost and found Facebook page.

Scores of others are doing the same. One family was searching for a baby blanket, another for a cross-stitch picture. Others, like Seemann, are missing urns and grave markers.

Jacy Zawodny of Mapleton, Iowa, said so many people were finding pictures and other mementos in her area that she started sharing them on her Facebook page.

Interest was so high that Bryce Jensen of Moville, Iowa, started the lost and found page. So far, 60 people have been connected, and she and Jensen are doing some investigating to find the owners of even more.

If someone posts a cheerleading photo, they’ll try to figure out the school and contact an alumni group. A yearbook photo yields other clues they’ve chased down.

Zawodny says it’s personal for her after experiencing the devastation of a tornado in Mapleton 13 years ago.

“We had that tornado here, and people showed up in droves,” she said. “I was really emotional that night when people were posting baby pictures and wedding pictures. I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something.’”

People have been amazed at how far things have flown after the storm.

Austin Hazard of Oto, Iowa, was walking outside to feed his horses and cows Friday evening when something floated down in front of him.

It was a picture, which he’s since learned flew all the way from Blair, nearly 70 miles away.

Hazard posted the photo on his Facebook page. It was shared many times. Within 24 hours he'd found who had lost it.

“I had an overwhelming response,” he said. “It’s already in the mail.”

Haley Hayworth found a canceled check at her parent’s house on Rock Branch, about 90 miles from Blair. It belonged to Dan Lehan, as did a baptism certificate that an acquaintance found. They also are being returned to the family. 

Austin Wilcox is still looking for the owners of pictures he found in his yard and cornfield in Anthon, Iowa, that he had posted on his Facebook page.

“Hopefully, someone sees it,” he said.

Some items have landed near damaged homes and are being turned in at the Relevant Center in the Elkhorn area. Three tables there are filled with pictures. The more expensive items are being kept in the offices.

“People just started bringing in stuff,” lead pastor Ronnie Rothe said. “For someone to find their valuables, it’s a needle in a haystack.”

There have been successes, he said. A couple came in looking for some lost items and were overjoyed to find someone had turned in one of their wedding rings and some credit cards.

“They lived right across the street,” Rothe said. “Their house was destroyed.”

Seemann said she understands that the journaled memories of her son may not seem as important as someone losing their home. But that journal had cherished entries.

Losing a child is the worst imaginable tragedy anyone can suffer, she said.

"It would mean everything for me to find it," she wrote on her Facebook post.