Owner of memorial bracelet found after Facebook campaign

Fort Lauderdale couple to return lost bracelet to brother of service member

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Fort Lauderdale couple has located the owner of a memorial bracelet engraved with the names of four fallen American service members.

The couple found it in the sand near their home while walking their dogs.

Bill and Yasmine Todhunter posted a photo of the bracelet on Facebook on Saturday. Early Monday, after their story aired on Local 10 News, the caption was updated:

"Thank you to the over 118,000 people that shared this picture. The great news is the owner has been found! The brother of Matt Kelley lost his bracelet two years ago while in Florida and we are working with family members to get the bracelet back to him! Again, thank you to all!"

The bracelet is engraved with the names of four American soldiers who died in Iraq on Jan. 25, 2009: Phil Windorski, Matt Kelley, Josh Tillery and Ben Todd. Memorial bracelets are given to the family members of fallen soldiers.

When Yasmine posted the photo to Facebook, results came quickly. By Sunday evening, more than 96,000 people had shared the photo and more than 2,000 people had left comments on it.

One of them was Tillery's mother, who wrote, "Joshua Tillery was my son. He was 31 years old. (He) left behind four sons. You can mail the bracelet to me and I will do my best to find the rightful owner, or you can keep it as a reminder that your freedom is indeed not free."

On a Facebook page dedicated to Tillery, Mike Peterson wrote, "It belongs to Matt (Kelley's) brother Chris Kelley ... he is not on (Facebook) but is a friend of mine."

As of Monday morning, the original photo the Todhunters posted has been shared more than 131,000 times.