Leslie Soyland, of Norwalk, knows grief all too well. Her son Johnny was killed on Oct. 3, 2014, at the age of 27. Now, over a decade later, Leslie feels a renewed absence after losing a special necklace that contained his ashes.

“We cremated him, and I had ashes in this tiny little teardrop with a heart inside. So that's where his ashes are, and I wore that every day for the past ten years. It was just a way of keeping him close,” Leslie explained.

Johnny died in a car crash on Beach Road, leaving behind a young son at the time.

“He was the best father bar none. He was amazing. He could tell you you were doing something wrong without insulting you and making you mad. It was a unique quality of his,” Leslie said with a laugh.

Leslie brought Johnny’s ashes with her everywhere including her walks at Calf Pasture Beach. Every day she walks three miles there on the sidewalks and pier, moments of reflection often filled with thoughts of Johnny.

“He'd love today because it's windy, and he was a sailor,” she said Friday when she met News 12 at the beach. “He was down here a lot. He really, really liked it.”

But during her walk Wednesday, Leslie lost the necklace.

“I took off my sweatshirt, and my necklace was outside my sweatshirt, I think. And I took it off over my head, and I think it probably came off at that point,” Leslie said, explaining she was on the sidewalk near the playground at the time. “But it could’ve gotten caught in the sweatshirt and fell out further down.”

Leslie didn’t realize the necklace was gone until she got home.

“It's monetarily not worth much, but sentimentally, it’s everything,” Leslie told News 12. “I've searched high and low. The first day I think I walked six miles walking back and forth just searching for it to no avail.”

Leslie’s husband joined her at the beach with his metal detector but also came up empty.

“The first day, I'm like maybe Johnny’s telling me it's time to let it go a little bit more. So, I tried to be OK with it,” Leslie recalled. “But I've felt off. I've felt naked without it because it went everywhere with me.”

Leslie posted about her lost necklace on Facebook. What happened next was something she never expected: people sharing the post and offering to help in any way.

“There's been just such an outpouring. I am overwhelmed. I feel so blessed,” Leslie said tearing up.

Strangers even went out to look. Leslie and News 12 ran into one of them by chance at Calf Pasture Beach Friday, who explained he'd seen the post.

“I thought with my metal detector, I could scope out the area and see if I could help,” explained Nicholas Cullen, who was three hours into his hunt. “I just want to do the right thing and like see if I could find it and return it.”

Selfless gestures like that have been the silver lining for Leslie.

“Out of everything bad, something good happens. And the something good is so many people have reached out and so many people have shared things on Facebook and said, ‘Keep your eye out for this. It needs to get back to her.’ That's touching. That's an amazing thing,” Leslie told News 12.

Anyone who finds the necklace can contact Leslie at 203-219-2994.