A high school class ring has traveled more than a thousand miles to its rightful owner 26 years after it went missing. The mystery is how the ring, lost in Phoenix, Arizona, wound up in Dyersville, Iowa. Sandra Neuhaus found the ring last month in her yard while digging up a shrub.

She called her daughter, Amanda Kennedy, to help track down the ring’s owner. “(The ring) said Trevor Brown High School, 1985, and it had these initials in it and it had the first name engraved of Cindy,” Kennedy said. An online search led Kennedy to a class picture from 1985 and a cell phone number for Cindy Herzner, who was shocked to hear her class ring had been found in Iowa 26 years after it was lost.

“I was elated, I was happy, I had tears of joy. It really was truly something I thought I would never see again,” Herzner said. “This is crazy, one you found my ring. That in itself was a miracle. Two, where you found my ring…that was just mind blowing.” Herzner has never been to Iowa.

So how did her class ring she once wore in Arizona make its way to Dyersville? Neuhaus says that question will likely go unanswered.

“It’s a mystery. How did the ring get here? We have no clue,” Neuhaus said. The white gold, engraved piece of jewelry is finally back with Herzner, who says she doesn’t plan to wear the ring for fear of losing it again.

By Nadia Crow, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids