During a recent home renovation, a Newton, Iowa, couple made quite the discovery behind one of their walls. Tucked away near the fireplace, Kevin Brannen found an old bottle with a sheet of paper inside. He told his fiancée Kristina Hokanson that he’d found treasure.
Brannen told KCCI 8 News that he had high hopes for the mysterious jar, “I was just thinking that this could be a gold mine.” It was no gold mine or old family relic; rather, it was a letter, but Brannen insists he wasn’t disappointed. The letter was penned on July 18, 1933, and the author was then 13-year-old Catherine Anne Bradley, presumably a former resident at the Iowa home.
“I’m placing this bottle in here because I have read about them doing such things in mystery stories,” Catherine explains in her letter. At the end of a letter came a request: Upon its discovery, Catherine wanted the finder to reach out to her.
Unfortunately, Catherine had passed away in 2014, but Brannen and Hokanson have reportedly been in touch with her children.
Renovators take note. You never know what may be lurking behind your walls.
