A Robertsdale woman whose discovery of human cremated remains and a preserved fetus inside a storage unit made headlines earlier this month says she is now being evicted from the very facility where she made the find, with no explanation given for the sudden move.
Rebekah McManus purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction in Mobile and later moved the items into a unit she leased at Highway 59 Storage in Robertsdale. While sorting through the boxes, she discovered the cremated remains of 13 people, along with the remains of a fetus preserved in a small jar. The items had reportedly once belonged to a funeral home in Mobile that is no longer in business.
“He wasn’t full term,” McManus said of the fetus. “He fits in the palm of your hand.”
McManus said she immediately began trying to identify the cremated remains and locate surviving family members so the ashes could be properly returned. Her efforts drew local media attention, and law enforcement became involved after the discovery of the fetal remains, which were turned over to authorities as part of an investigation.
According to McManus, the timing of what happened next was hard to ignore. One day after a news report aired describing the discovery and the police investigation into the fetus, she received a letter from the storage company’s corporate office in Connecticut informing her that she needed to vacate her unit by the end of the month.
“She told me she didn’t have a reason,” McManus said of the notice. “It’s not fair for her to evict me like that. I’ve never been late for rent, and never had a breach of contract. I feel like it’s unfair.”
A copy of McManus’s lease agreement does not appear to list any cause for the termination, and she has since consulted an attorney about her options. Mobile-area attorney John Beck, who has been advising McManus, said the abrupt nature of the eviction raised red flags from the outset.
“You start legally with, if it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t,” Beck said, “and then you let the lawyer kick in and figure out the best cause of action.”
McManus has since moved her belongings out of the Robertsdale unit and relocated them to another storage facility. Despite the disruption, she said her priority has not changed: continuing to search for the families connected to the remaining cremains in her possession.
“I still have five of the cremains left,” she said, referring to the sets of remains she has not yet been able to match with next of kin.
Attempts to reach the Connecticut-based property management company that oversees the Robertsdale storage facility were unsuccessful. The company has declined to give a reason for the eviction or otherwise comment on McManus’s situation.
The case has drawn attention to the handling and disposition of unclaimed cremated remains left behind at defunct funeral homes and self-storage facilities across the region, an issue that estate attorneys say can leave families searching for years without knowing what became of a loved one’s remains.