An appeal has been launched after the ashes of a 12-year-old Holme Slack girl who died 46 years ago were found in a Southport park.

An oak casket bearing the name of Yvonne Harrison was found last June in the undergrowth at Hesketh Park by a local.

Yvonne died on 3 February 1977, and her body was cremated at Preston Cemetery.

Chris Brown from the cemetery has asked for the public’s help to discover what happened to Yvonne’s remains.

Speaking to BBC North West, Chris said: “We received a phone call from Southport crematorium.

“They asked if we had a record for this name. They gave me the date of death and all the information they had, and I found the deceased within our ledger.”

After Chris received the casket he cleaned the tarnished plaque to find it was engraved with the name Evyonne rather than Yvonne. However the authority card inside the casket confirms the name is Yvonne.

According to the Register of Cremations, the cremation application was made by a James Harrison. At the time he lived in the Holme Slack area with Yvonne.

Chris continued: “We really want to find the applicant, or a relative of the applicant.

“Any set of ashes should be in the correct hands, but in this case, with it being a child, I think it’s really important that the ashes are reunited with the family.”

Chris said it is unusual for ashes to be lost.

“I’ve been doing this job for 13 years and this is the first time it has happened to me,” said Chris.

“I don’t believe it has happened to anyone else – it’s unheard of really… just to find a set of ashes in a casket, in the middle of a park.”

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