'Relief' as lost suitcase with fiancé's ashes found

A woman says she is "unbelievably relieved" that a suitcase containing the ashes of her late fiancé has been found after a stranger mistakenly took them on a train.

Laura Bayliss, 42, from Oxfordshire, was travelling to Cornwall on Friday to spread her partner's ashes at Holywell Bay, a place they used visit on holiday.

After discovering the suitcase was missing, Bayliss posted an appeal on social media, shared by 5,000 people, and eventually discovered on Monday that Juliana Friend, 62, had her precious belongings.

She said: "It's been quite a process to feel able to spread the ashes and to not achieve that was emotionally draining."

Bayliss now plans to meet Friend at a garden centre to collect the suitcase and then return to Cornwall to spread his ashes.

Bayliss said it took her five years to feel ready to spread her fiance's ashes after he took his own life following a struggle with living with long Covid.

She was also carrying the ashes of their two dogs, Ralfy and Jed, which she planned to spread in Holywell Bay.

"He [Gavin] wanted to be scattered at Holywell Bay, where we used to go on holiday," Bayliss said.

"We did a lot of walks down to that beach...It just felt right that all of them [Gavin and the dogs] sort of go together.

"It was a place filled of happy memories."

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Travelling with her sister, Bayliss had planned to keep the suitcase with her, but the train was so busy with passengers that she felt she had to leave it in a luggage rack.

When they went to get off at Par, Bayliss said she noticed her case appeared dirtier than before.

"I picked it up and I thought, 'that's awfully light', and I was like, 'that's not mine'," she said.

"I found myself starting to panic and get all shaky."

The suitcase was picked up by Friend, a civil servant travelling back from Newcastle to Bristol Temple Meads station with a colleague who has accessibility needs.

While Friend was helping her colleague get off the train, she picked up a similar looking black bag.

After realising what she had done, three days later, Friend said: "I just knew the whole thing would be very traumatic."

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