Woman’s ashes go unclaimed

Held in police room for 15 years

— The Little Rock Police Department’s property room is meant to be a way station of sorts for thousands of pieces of evidence that find their way to police custody.

The items are documented and logged in to the room in the basement of the Little Rock District Court building. There, they’re held for safekeeping until it’s time to go to court or to their rightful owner. If something goes unclaimed after 60 days it can be tossed in the trashor sold on propertyroom.com. Cash goes to the city’s general fund.

The point, though, is that the stuff has to go somewhere. The property room has about 60,000 items now and the department logs in about 2,000 more every month. Space is limited and turnover is critical. The place is not designed to be a final resting place for anything.

Charlotte Helen Anderson notwithstanding.

When Anderson’s son James was arrested in 1995 ona larceny charge, Little Rock police found his mother’s ashes in a box in the 1987 Toyota Tercel he was driving. The car was impounded and the ashes were stored in the property room for safekeeping.

After he was released from prison in 2001, James Anderson never came back to claim his mother’s ashes, and police have held on to the box, not quite sure what to do.

“Lord, I ain’t throwing her in the trash,” said property room manager Carri Frederick. “I don’t have the heart; I just can’t throw her out.”

Frederick, who started in the property room in 1999, has worked to track down a next-of-kin willing to come pick up Charlotte Anderson’s ashes, but she hasn’t had much luck.

Sometime in 2009, a property room employee reached James Anderson, who was living in Fort Smith. He expressed a desire to come get the ashes, but never did.

According to Sebastian County Coroner Terry Campbell, James Anderson died in July of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Campbell added that he could not find any family for James Anderson and that nobody had called looking for him. Should no one come forward soon, his ashes will be buried at Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith in a space designated for the deceased who go unclaimed.

Frederick said other members of Charlotte Anderson’s family have refused to come get the box, possibly concerned with the costs associated with memorializing her.

Now that Little Rock police know that James Anderson has died, they hope someone will come forward and claim Charlotte Anderson’s ashes.

According to her obituary, which was published in theThe Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs and found in the archives of the Arkansas History Commission, she died at an area hospital on Jan. 17, 1993. At the time of her death she was survived by her husband, James T. Anderson, and two sons, James Ronald Anderson of Hot Springs and William Benoit of California.

“She was a hair stylist, former co-owner of Burchwood Bay Cottages, Grocery and Beauty Salon and the retired owner of Charlotte’s Beauty Shop,” her obituary reads.

On Jan. 21, 1993, she was cremated by Gross Funeral Home in Hot Springs.

After that, the story of the Hot Springs woman’s ashes is unknown, at least until they entered the Little Rock property room in May 1995.

According to a police report taken on May 5, 1995, James Anderson was arrested in connection with a burglary at 9 Newstead Drive. The report states that Billy Eason, who was 82 at thetime, was selling his house and let James Anderson inside to look around. After he left, Eason’s wife noticed that her watch and rings were missing, and the police were called.

Billy Eason managed to get James Anderson’s license plate number, enabling officers to catch up with him a short time later.

Along with finding a dog and a power drill in the car, police found the box containing Anderson’s ashes. The dog was left with a friend, while the power drill and the ashes went to the property room.

Today, the box that holds Charlotte Anderson’s ashes sits on the dusty top shelf near the front of the property room, next to confiscated pellet guns and a backpack waiting for someone to claim it.

“I try to do right by ‘Mama,’” Frederick said. “She usually has the top shelf all to herself, but we’re running out of space. ... She’s kind of the property room mascot.”

Frederick still expresses shock that someone would leave his mother’s ashes in his car while burglarizing a house, but she is even more shocked somebody would let them sit in the property room for more than 15 years.

“How could you do that?” she said. “You know this isn’t where she wants to be.”

The whereabouts of Charlotte Anderson’s husband and other son could not be determined. Records from Gross Funeral Home burned up in a fire in 2003.

Kim Thibodaux, who is director of operations for the Arkansas market of Stewart Funeral Homes and Cemeteries, which oversees Gross Funeral Home, said that if nobody comes forward, Charlotte Anderson’s ashes could be placed in an ossuary at the Pine Crest Memorial Park in Alexander.

Thibodaux said if Charlotte Anderson is placed at the cemetery, a bronze plaque with her name on it would be placed on the wall outside the ossuary. She said that all the police would have to do is write a brief letter explaining how long the ashes have been in the property room and Pine Crest would take them.

“Bless her heart. She’s just an innocent in the whole thing,” Thibodaux said. “That is not right. After all this time let’s just make it right.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/28/2011

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