Days after she found cremated remains inside the storage unit she won at auction for $30, a Baldwin County woman discovered a fetus inside the unit.

Rebekah McManus has been on a mission to reunite the ashes with their families, but her goal was sidestepped when she returned to the unit and made another grisly discovery in the storage unit previously owned by a former funeral director.

“I found the fetus days later when I began unpacking the cremains to write down a list of their names. I thought it was a heart. In my head, I was thinking a heart like along the lines of what you see in science class. It was definitely not a heart and when I realized that, I freaked out a little,” the Robertsdale resident told AL.com

“It touches home for me, more than just a little. And I know that baby belongs to someone, but I’m unaware of the circumstances,” she said.

After getting in touch with Robertsdale police about the fetus, the department gave the fetus to Mobile police, who in turn gave it to the county medical examiner’s office to investigate, McManus said.

The cremated remains of 13 people who died between 1992 and 2019 were inside a plastic tote in the storage unit McManus won for $30. She said her initial surprise turned to determination in hoping to find the families of the deceased.

“I would hope that if it were my ashes in something like that, that whomever found them would do the same,” McManus said.

The Alabama Board of Funeral Service, which licenses and regulates funeral businesses in Alabama, said it had been informed of the incident and will investigate if the families of the people whose remains were inside the storage units file complaints.

“None of the families have reached out to us to file a complaint,” the board’s executive director, Charles Perine. told AL.com. “That business is no longer in business, and the individual at this time is no longer licensed by the state, so we are waiting to hear from the families.”

Perine said that Alabama law allows funeral homes to dispose of cremains in a “dignified, legal and humane manner,” if the family has not contacted the funeral home within 60 days.

Perine said because the business that held these remains is no longer operating, he did not have access to information about whether arrangements had been made with the families of the people found in the storage unit.

There may also be criminal violations associated with the storage of human remains in the storage unit, Perine said, but that would have to be determined by the law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office. The funeral board does not have an enforcement component.

“We deal with administrative, not with criminal things, and so it has to go through the proper law enforcement in that county as well as the DA office in that county,” Perine said.