Spartan Echo

Police in a south Alabama town say a mystery solved itself when a man, alerted by news reports, stopped by the station to claim a small pine box containing his father’s ashes, found beside a country road with a neatly folded and framed American flag.

Publicity about the mystery led the man to pick up the remains late Tuesday, Florala Police Chief Sonny Bedsole said in an email. The man — whom he didn’t identify — told police he had built the small pine box that held his father’s ashes.

The man had moved out of the family home in nearby Lockhart, Alabama, about three weeks ago during “bad divorce,” the chief said.

“Without being specific, this person had removed all his personal property from the marital home when he left except for a few items, this box with ashes and the presentation flag being left behind temporarily,” Bedsole said in an email to The Associated Press.

Bedsole said the man then moved to Crestview, Florida, about 25 miles south of Florala.

A power line crew working in Florala found the box, the flag along the road about four weeks ago.

The man’s friends alerted him to news articles they’d seen about police searching for the owner, prompting him to show up at the police station late Tuesday to claim the remains, the chief said.

But one mystery remains.

“No real explanation was given as to how the items were put beside the road,” Florala police said in a separate statement.

Florala, a town of about 2,000 people, sits just north of the Alabama-Florida line.