Auctioneers looking for deceased airman’s family

Published October 21st, 2006

A California-based auction house is trying to locate the family of a deceased airman whose headstone turned up on a North Carolina roadside in 2005.

PropertyRoom.com assumed possession of the stone — which bears the inscription “James Harold Brown, North Carolina, A2C US Air Force, Korea, July 2 1931 — July 12 1972” — after police in High Point, N.C., where it was found, gave up trying to find an owner.

The stone was picked up by trash collectors on June 19, 2005.

Lt. Ken Steele, a spokesman for the High Point police, said the department’s property desk tried to locate family of Brown, but came up empty. Brown is a common name in the area, he said, but no one connected to the man whose name is on the headstone turned up.

For now, PropertyRoom.Com is holding off from auctioning the headstone while it tries to locate any family of the deceased airman.