Stranger finds Lehi woman’s sentimental object 20 years after it went missing

TOOELE — A sentimental item lost two decades ago brought two Utahns together. 

Lindsay Boulter now lives in Lehi, but she grew up and attended college in Texas and then went to college in Idaho. 

Recently, she was thinking about her missing high school class ring, until a stranger messaged her. She told KSL TV the way her ring was returned is a story worth sharing. 

“High school was a really great time for me,” Boulter said. “I loved my high school years. I had a lot of friends. I was involved in a lot of activities. And getting class rings was something that was really common for my high school, and I wanted to pick one out that really represented me, I didn’t want a generic ring.” 

Ring marked a milestone

She said she was excited to pick out her ring to mark the milestone, and she wore it proudly until one summer, it went missing. 

“While I was at school, my parents had ended up moving from Texas to St. George, Utah,” Boulter said. “That’s when I ended up finishing school, moved to St. George, and then about four or five years later, moved up to the Salt Lake area.” 

Boulter lived with her parents during the summer of 2004 to help them move out of state. 

“They had rented a condo in a small suburb of St. George called Bloomington, that’s when I’m pretty sure I lost the ring,” she said. 

She would think about that class ring for the next two decades. 

“Every time they move, I’m like, oh, maybe they’ll find it, they never did,” she said. 

Miles away from Boulter, Erda’s mother and school employee Aubrey Smith prepares for school to start back up. 

“I am what’s called a refocus mentor,” Smith said. “I help kids who are in class, maybe having a hard time focusing or managing their behaviors.” 

In her off time, she’s sorting through her late grandparents’ belongings. 

“Cleaning out and sorting through all the memories I think has been pretty bittersweet,” Smith said. 

An unknown ring

Buried in boxes of jewelry, she and her relatives came across a class ring they didn’t recognize. The name, colors and mascot on the ring didn’t line up with any local schools. 

Smith saw a name engraved on the back of the ring and went to Facebook to find its owner. 

“The first Lindsay that popped up, I sent her a messenger message and said, ‘Hey did you lose a class ring?'” she said. 

Boulter saw the notification that same night. She didn’t recognize Smith’s name and was wary about her message. 

“She said, ‘hey, I’m going through my grandparents’ things, I found a ring, a class ring. Did you lose one? I have one that says Lindsay Boulter on it.’ And I was like, ‘Is this real? Like, this feels weird,'” Boulter said. 

Boulter wrote back, describing the ring’s features. 

“She wrote back in all caps, ‘YES, this is it. We have it.’ And I was like, is this serious? Is this real? I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, like, now send me $500 and then…whatever the catch is, right? Because unfortunately, that’s the world that we live in,” Boulter said. 

Worried it was a scam, Boulter hesitantly made plans to meet. Her brother accompanied her for safety. 

“I asked her, ‘Where are you located,?’ thinking she might be in Texas or somewhere further away,” Boulter said. “And she said, ‘Oh, I’m located in Tooele County.’ And I was like, I’m sorry, what?” 

The meeting

 When they met in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley the next day, Boulter said she was immediately at ease when she saw Smith. 

She was in this bright pink T-shirt that says, ‘Be kind,’ right on the front,” she recalled. “And I was like, okay, this lady is legit.” 

Smith said Boulter immediately slid the ring on her finger and it fit perfectly. 

‘We established that it probably got lost in St. George when she made that move,” Smith said. 

Through talking, the women learned Smith’s grandparents had a condo on the same Bloomington street where Boulter’s parents lived. 

“Through piecing things together, pulling out Google Maps, all of the things, her grandparents owned a condo in Bloomington…My parents rented a condo for the summer in Bloomington,” Boulter said. “We’ve determined that my parents either rented their unit or the unit right next to theirs…. that I lived in for that summer.” 

Boulter guesses the ring fell behind a couch cushion or another spot that was overlooked when her parents moved out of the furnished condo. 

Doing the right thing

Smith said returning the ring to Boulter was worth the extra work. 

“Her family said, ‘Don’t, you’re never going to find the person,'” Boulter said. 

Smith said this story teaches a good lesson for both families to teach the generations to come. 

“Do the right thing and to help even when it’s inconvenient or if it’s time consuming because you can’t beat that feel-good when you do the right thing,” she said. 

She’s happy this ring reunion is tied to both of their families. She wishes her grandmother could’ve witnessed it. 

“I think she would be more amazed at the technology and how easy it was to find the right person,” Smith said. 

Boulter wears the ring for different reasons now. 

“I’m more inclined to wear it from time to time as a reminder of nothing’s ever really completely lost,” she said. 

There are so many more Aubreys than I think people know or that are sometimes covered and broadcast, and I think the world deserves to know who she is, and then maybe they’ll be able to see the Aubrey in their own life a little bit better.”