What was claimed
Facebook users in locations across the UK are seeking help returning a necklace containing cremation ashes to its owner.
Our verdict
These posts are hoaxes. The item pictured appears to have been found in the US state of Wisconsin and returned to its owner earlier this year.
Posts on multiple Facebook community groups falsely claim that a necklace containing cremation ashes has been found in various locations across the UK.
One such post, published in a community group for those living in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, says: “Hey guys, it’s been 3 days since I found this necklace in Radcliffe. It has ashes inside and is engraved with the name Malichael Patrick . This is clearly something deeply meaningful to someone, and I’d really love to get it back to its rightful owner.
“Please share this post and help spread the word—someone out there is missing this. Let’s get it home. [sic]”
The same photo, with similar text but a different location, has been shared in local groups for Liverpool, Cardiff and Aberdeen, among many others. We’ve also seen multiple examples of the same post in groups based in locations across the US.
The image appears to have originally been shared in a Facebook post for a community group in Dane County, Wisconsin, after the necklace was found in March this year. It appears to have been quickly returned to the family of the deceased—a man named Michael Fitzpatrick who died in February 2023. The family has since published an alert on his obituary page, warning about the hoax posts.
We’ve written before about similar posts falsely raising the alarm for wanted criminals, elderly people, abandoned infants and injured dogs in Facebook community groups. Our 2023 investigation into these types of hoax posts found they’re often edited later to include links to surveys, freebies or cheap housing.
Hoaxes can damage people’s trust in local community news, because groups can become overwhelmed with false information. As a result, genuine posts may be ignored or dismissed as false.
In February, we found these hoax posts continue to be an issue, with at least 47 communities across the UK being victim to nine different hoaxes we fact checked that month. We wrote to Meta for a second time asking it to take action.
You can find out more by watching an episode of BBC One’s Rip Off Britain in which our investigation is featured. Our guide also offers some tips on how to identify such hoaxes.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the necklace pictured has not been found in the UK locations referenced in the posts, and appears to have been returned to its owner in the US weeks ago.
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