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Last Thursday, a woman from Iva, SC said she made a disturbing discovery.

Faye Whitfield said the urn that she now owns clearly wasn't meant for daisies or roses, and she's trying to find out how and why she was able to purchase someone's remains at a thrift store.

The urn is engraved with the word "Mother," with a date "7-13-1942."

Whitfield said she was shopping near a couple at the Anderson Salvation Army Thrift Store on Thursday and was surprised to hear their reaction to an urn they picked up.

"I looked up and when I did I saw dust, and that's when I looked over there, and the guy said, oh my goodness, he said, I think I dumped out someone's remains."

Whitfield says the three showed it to a store worker, but when she returned the next day, she says she saw the urn sitting back on the shelf, missing its lid. She says most of the ashes inside were gone.

Whitfield bought the urn, hoping to return it to its rightful owner.

"I've got faith. I'm hoping… somebody will recognize it and come forward, that's all I want for it to go back to the family," said Whitfield.

It may not be that easy. She's searched online and called local funeral homes for advice.

"The man from the funeral home says that the cremations weren't done much in the South back in the 1940's," said Whitfield. "Cremations were very rare anywhere back in the United States, and it may have come from a family that lived up north, possibly overseas."

We asked the Salvation Army how the urn made it to their shelves, and why it was put back after Whitfield brought it to the workers' attention.

We received this statement from Major Bryan Patterson: "The clerk who sold it thought it was a flower vase. There may have been residue inside the vase, but it would be common in the bottom of a used flower vase."

(This report courtesy WHNS and FoxCarolina.com)