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Long-lost class ring makes its way back to owner
May 12, 2010 (MATTOON, Ill.) -- At first she didn't want to give up looking for the lost ring.
But after days, weeks and months of trying periodically to find it, Gina Huckstead had given up the idea her Mattoon High School class ring would ever be found.
But, 23 years later, thanks to two completely different forms of technology -- a metal detector and the Internet -- the ring and the owner will soon be back together.
Huckstead, 40, who now lives in Wichita, Kan., recently learned that the ring lost in 1987 when it was being worn by her then-boyfriend is now safe and sound in Mattoon.
Brian Murphy, 42, of Mattoon said he found the ring using a metal detector about 15 years ago on neighboring property that he owned at the time. He kept the ring hoping someday he'd find its owner.
Huckstead said she is a Facebook user and it was suggested she make Murphy a "friend" in the social networking tool.
"Someone sent me a request to add him (Murphy) to my Facebook, because of mutual friends. We had no conversations, no contact. I only added him because his Facebook showed he graduated in 1985 from Mattoon High School, and I had graduated in 1987 from there, so I thought we might know each other," said Huckstead.
Murphy said his first clues came from his high school yearbook, when he first found the ring more than a decade ago. But he didn't know how to reach who he thought might be the owner.
"I pulled out my yearbook because I was in the (MHS) Class of '85. Looking at the initials on the ring, Gina was the only one with these initials and I thought it could be a match, but I had no way of getting ahold of her," he said.
Huckstead moved away from Mattoon when she was 19. The ring was lost when she was 17. She is now divorced and working as a cosmetologist in Wichita.
"He (former boyfriend/husband) wore the ring on a necklace, before we married. As a teenager he and his mother got into a dispute and the necklace got broken in their yard, at 2715 Western Ave.," she said.
Murphy lives at 2717 Western Ave. and while tinkering with a metal detector, found the ring and that was about 15 years ago.
He works for the information systems department for the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Care Systems.
He simply wanted to be sure it ended up with its owner.
"The ring was lost when I was 17. I was so upset. My mom was upset. She bought it fore me as a graduation present, so I didn't have it very long. We looked for weeks and weeks and couldn't find it. I figured it was gone forever," said Huckstead.
Facebook, the social networking website, allows the user to send messages, add information to their own profiles, add friends, and list schools and organizations with which the user is associated.
Through Facebook, Murphy sent a message asking Huckstead what her middle name was, as he hoped he had located the owner of the ring. He had little information about its owner, who, unknown to him, had left Mattoon more than 21 years ago.
The ring's engraving inside had the initials GDH. It also had "1987" and "Gina" on either side of the ring. Her middle name is "Diane."
She had taken her maiden name back after her divorce. It was all starting to come together.
"About three weeks after I added him as my friend, I got a message from him. He asked me what my middle name was. Then he asked if I graduated from Mattoon High School," she said.
Through Facebook, Huckstead shared her mother's address and Murphy delivered the ring to her in Mattoon.
"My mom has the ring now. We will be getting together at the end of May, and she will bring it to me," she said.
Her mother, Diane Cohoon of Mattoon, said she recalled when the ring was lost. She can't recall now how much she paid for the ring.
"When he brought it to me, I knew it was the same ring I bought. It so looked familiar. It is in real good shape," said Cohoon.
Murphy said: "She seemed pretty happy, and that is all I cared about was to get it back to the original owner."
Cohoon said Murphy delivered it to her for her daughter. Huckstead didn't want it shipped by mail, afraid it might be lost -- again.
"It was awful nice of that kid to keep it for so long. I'm surprised he didn't just try to sell it. He must be such a nice honest boy," Cohoon said.
Murphy said he only recently became a Facebook user because classmates were planning their 25th year reunion and this was a tool to find classmates.
"I was very shocked. I had given up on finding it. I never, not in a million years, thought I'd see it again," said Huckstead.
May 12, 2010 (MATTOON, Ill.) -- At first she didn't want to give up looking for the lost ring.
But after days, weeks and months of trying periodically to find it, Gina Huckstead had given up the idea her Mattoon High School class ring would ever be found.
But, 23 years later, thanks to two completely different forms of technology -- a metal detector and the Internet -- the ring and the owner will soon be back together.
Huckstead, 40, who now lives in Wichita, Kan., recently learned that the ring lost in 1987 when it was being worn by her then-boyfriend is now safe and sound in Mattoon.
Brian Murphy, 42, of Mattoon said he found the ring using a metal detector about 15 years ago on neighboring property that he owned at the time. He kept the ring hoping someday he'd find its owner.
Huckstead said she is a Facebook user and it was suggested she make Murphy a "friend" in the social networking tool.
"Someone sent me a request to add him (Murphy) to my Facebook, because of mutual friends. We had no conversations, no contact. I only added him because his Facebook showed he graduated in 1985 from Mattoon High School, and I had graduated in 1987 from there, so I thought we might know each other," said Huckstead.
Murphy said his first clues came from his high school yearbook, when he first found the ring more than a decade ago. But he didn't know how to reach who he thought might be the owner.
"I pulled out my yearbook because I was in the (MHS) Class of '85. Looking at the initials on the ring, Gina was the only one with these initials and I thought it could be a match, but I had no way of getting ahold of her," he said.
Huckstead moved away from Mattoon when she was 19. The ring was lost when she was 17. She is now divorced and working as a cosmetologist in Wichita.
"He (former boyfriend/husband) wore the ring on a necklace, before we married. As a teenager he and his mother got into a dispute and the necklace got broken in their yard, at 2715 Western Ave.," she said.
Murphy lives at 2717 Western Ave. and while tinkering with a metal detector, found the ring and that was about 15 years ago.
He works for the information systems department for the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Care Systems.
He simply wanted to be sure it ended up with its owner.
"The ring was lost when I was 17. I was so upset. My mom was upset. She bought it fore me as a graduation present, so I didn't have it very long. We looked for weeks and weeks and couldn't find it. I figured it was gone forever," said Huckstead.
Facebook, the social networking website, allows the user to send messages, add information to their own profiles, add friends, and list schools and organizations with which the user is associated.
Through Facebook, Murphy sent a message asking Huckstead what her middle name was, as he hoped he had located the owner of the ring. He had little information about its owner, who, unknown to him, had left Mattoon more than 21 years ago.
The ring's engraving inside had the initials GDH. It also had "1987" and "Gina" on either side of the ring. Her middle name is "Diane."
She had taken her maiden name back after her divorce. It was all starting to come together.
"About three weeks after I added him as my friend, I got a message from him. He asked me what my middle name was. Then he asked if I graduated from Mattoon High School," she said.
Through Facebook, Huckstead shared her mother's address and Murphy delivered the ring to her in Mattoon.
"My mom has the ring now. We will be getting together at the end of May, and she will bring it to me," she said.
Her mother, Diane Cohoon of Mattoon, said she recalled when the ring was lost. She can't recall now how much she paid for the ring.
"When he brought it to me, I knew it was the same ring I bought. It so looked familiar. It is in real good shape," said Cohoon.
Murphy said: "She seemed pretty happy, and that is all I cared about was to get it back to the original owner."
Cohoon said Murphy delivered it to her for her daughter. Huckstead didn't want it shipped by mail, afraid it might be lost -- again.
"It was awful nice of that kid to keep it for so long. I'm surprised he didn't just try to sell it. He must be such a nice honest boy," Cohoon said.
Murphy said he only recently became a Facebook user because classmates were planning their 25th year reunion and this was a tool to find classmates.
"I was very shocked. I had given up on finding it. I never, not in a million years, thought I'd see it again," said Huckstead.
