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Ring found
in Waikiki being
returned to family

Associated Press

WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- Hawaii and this Connecticut shoreline town have little in common, but they were key players in a little mystery that has spanned six decades and thousands of miles.

The latest phase of the mystery began more than a year ago when Richard Fernwalt, running his metal detector across the sands of Waikiki Beach, found a small ring.

"It's a real tiny ring, probably 14-karat gold, and has a black onyx stone. It's cracked on the band on the bottom, but it's in great shape," Fernwalt said.

The ring was heavily crusted with sand, but after cleaning it up Fernwalt was able to make out the words "West Haven High." It also bore the initials "M.T" and the year 1938.

Fernwalt said a friend hit the Internet for some information and found out that apparently the "only high school in the United States that's West Haven High" is in Connecticut.

Fernwalt called the high school and spoke to then-Principal John Karajanis. Karajanis looked up the initials in the 1938 yearbook and found that Mildred Thayer was the only student whose name matched them.

In March, Fernwalt got a call from Beth Denton, who works in the computer room of the high school library's media center.

"The guy wrote a letter to the school and the letter ended up in the library," Denton said. "Nobody really seemed to be interested and I said, 'Oh, isn't this interesting?' "

When Denton began to search for Thayer, she found a few people who knew her from high school, including former city official Donald Wrinn. She even found people who thought Thayer had gotten married and moved out west, but the information was old and the trail had grown cold.

"It was kind of like one of those mystery stories and it sparked my interest," Denton said.

Then last week, she found a couple of ex-West Haveners who had moved to California and stayed in touch with Thayer, who had, in fact, moved out west.

They told her that Thayer's married name was Kent. They said that she had passed away in 1994 but that her son, Kevin Kent, and his wife, Sandra, lived in Sunland, Calif.

Minutes later, Denton had found their telephone number on the Internet and was on the phone with Sandra Kent. Phone numbers have been exchanged to work out a return of the ring.

There is still another mystery lingering: Nobody knows how the ring ended up more than 5,000 miles away.