It took weeks to secure.

When the crew finally lifted the small casket out of the earth, I stood back under a tarp in the steady rain and watched three forensic specialists work.

They opened the outer casket.

Inside was the small metal urn.

And beside it lay a faded plush blue bear — a bear I recognized instantly, because I had handed that exact bear to Evelyn Hayes myself, in the week after the accident, when she told me, with tears in her eyes, that she thought the toy should stay with the poor child.

The specialists analyzed the contents of the urn.