Hunt grows for missing ashes in Southsea as daughter pleads 'please hand it in'

Distraught Amy O’Keeffe lost the treasured memory in Southsea after visiting the Rose Garden and South Parade Pier areas on Monday, July 20.

But she was devastated when she noticed she had lost the silver necklace she had made after her 78-year-old dad Stephen O’Keefe died two years ago.

The heartbroken Fratton-based assistant practitioner turned to Twitter for help – with Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine and broadcaster the Rev Richard Coles sharing her appeal. Her tweet has since amassed a combined near-60,000 retweets and likes.

Today Amy, 39, has been out with her sister Siobhan Hall, 48, hunting for the silver jewellery, which carries the inscription ‘always with me’ on the back.

Amy had tweeted: ‘I lost my necklace containing my dad’s ashes in Southsea, Rose Garden, pier area on Monday.

‘Devastated doesn't come close! Desperate to find it. Please, please retweet, I don't have many followers.’

Portsmouth City Council workers in the Rose Garden even spotted Amy searching today and said they had been briefed to keep a look out for the missing necklace.

Amy told The News: ‘It’s on a long chain and it sits on my heart. Losing it – I’m absolutely heartbroken.’

She added: ‘He was a very special man, he was very dear to us as a family. We were very close, it’s really tough.’

When her Midlands-based jeweller father died two years ago his ashes were formed into two items of jewellery for Amy and her sister to keep.

Amy’s daughter Betsy was born a week before her grandfather died, meeting him just the day before he died from cancer. Stephen had been diagnosed just three months before his death.

The two-and-a-half year old often holds the pendant and ‘talks about her grandad when she sees that,’ Amy added.

Hundreds of messages of support flooded in on Twitter. Amy said: ‘Thank you everybody so much from me and my family. We’re really overwhelmed.’

She added: ‘If anybody has found it and taken it home with them and is wondering what to do - if they can hand it in to the police I’d be eternally grateful.’

Anyone who finds it can also contact Amy, who works at St Mary’s Treatment Centre, on twitter.com/amyok1980

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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