06:26 AM PDT on Wednesday, September 1, 2004

By TERESA BELL, kgw.com Staff

FOREST GROVE, Ore. -- A Wash. family flying over Forest Grove in a small plane accidentally dropped the cremated remains of a loved one onto a home.

KGW Officer Mike Hall shows reporters the bag filled with a powdery substance.

The bag fell on Barbara Vreeland’s home, smashing through her roof and leaving behind an eight-inch hole.

"The house just vibrated, you could just feel the impact,” Vreeland recalled.

Inside the home, investigators found a bag and 14 pounds of powdery material scattered all over the attic insulation. They later determined that the substance was the cremated remains of a 46-year-old man who died of natural causes last June.

The man apparantly wanted to have his ashes scattered over Mountain View Memorial Gardens, a cemetery near Vreeland's home, Forest Grove police Capt. Aaron Ashbaugh said Tuesday.

Family members told police the bag of ashes slipped as they were circling the cemetery in a small plane they had hired for the day.

KGW Barbara Vreeland's house now has a hole in the roof that needs to be repaired.

"It was a first for us," Ashbaugh said. "Initially, we didn't know if it was an intentional act or a reckless act."

Vreeland's roof is being fixed and the man's family is paying for the damage.

"I understand the man wanted to be with his (deceased) relatives," Vreeland said.

"I feel for those people. But I think some of their relative is still in our attic."

(KGW reporter Jane Smith also contributed to this article.)