{"id":447182,"date":"2026-09-25T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447182\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:44:10","slug":"a-silver-us-army-ring-missing-since-2006-was-found-in-another-soldiers-footlocker-after-a-three-year-search-a-fort-worth-woman-finally-returned-it-to-its-original-owner-20-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447182\/","title":{"rendered":"A silver US Army ring missing since 2006 was found in another soldier\u2019s footlocker; after a three-year search, a Fort Worth woman finally returned it to its original owner 20 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A A silver US army ring that had been missing for two decades is back with the soldier who once wore it, completing a promise a Fort Worth woman made about three years ago. In 2023, when Mary Thelen found the ring, she told NBC 5 Responds that she would keep looking for its owner.<\/p>\n

A mystery ring<\/p>\n

She had found the possession tucked inside an old footlocker belonging to her son, Douglas, who served four tours in Iraq. Douglas did not remember exactly where he found it, thinking it might have been overseas, either in a truck or somewhere in the sand near Baghdad.Finding the owner was made a tad bit easy with the clues on the ring itself. Texas, four aces, the nickname ‘T-Bone’ and most importantly a name engraved on it: Terry Sheppard Jr. When the outlet shared Thelen’s story first in February 2023, it attracted plenty of attention. Online sleuths began contacting a man by that name.\u201cI had a lot of people messaging me on Facebook, just randomly,\u201d Sheppard recalled. \u201cOne of my coworkers told me about a story they\u2019d seen, and they were like, \u2018You think that\u2019s yours?\u2019\u201d For a while, it seemed the mystery had been solved, but Sheppard and Thelen never connected and the ring remained in her care.But Thelen did not calm down in her efforts and kept searching for the ring’s rightful owner. \u201cI can see that this ring belongs to a person who really wants it back, and I really want to meet him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Back to the owner<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

Sheppard shared that he had not seen the ring since 2006. Image credit: NBC 5 Responds<\/p>\n

Then, during the summer of 2026, Sheppard reached out to NBC 5 seeking help recovering his ring. A few weeks later he and Thelen met each other. \u201cSee if you remember that,\u201d Thelen said as she handed him the ring. \u201cOh, my goodness,\u201d Sheppard replied. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen this in forever.\u201dSheppard shared that he had not seen the ring since 2006. He ordered it after completing basic training. The design was a personal snapshot of the young soldier he was at the time, featuring his name, his Texas roots and his nickname, ‘T-Bone’. \u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s back where it belongs,\u201d Thelen told him.While the owner was revealed, what still remained a mystery was how the ring reached somewhere in Iraq. Sheppard never deployed to Iraq, meaning Douglas could not have found the ring there. Moreover, Sheppard added that he had only worn it once or twice. \u201cThe last place I can remember having my ring would be Fort Bragg, North Carolina, 82nd Airborne Unit,\u201d he said.It turns out Douglas was also stationed at Fort Bragg during that period. Both men worked in the same area. Sheppard believes he may have removed the ring while working. Douglas likely found it and forgot about it, until his mother uncovered it many years later.Whether Terry and Douglas ever crossed paths remains unknown. \u201cI just never thought I\u2019d actually see this again,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A silver US army ring that had been missing for two decades is back with the soldier who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[154149,154150,154147,116,118,117,154144,154148,154145,24054,154146,94817,154143],"class_list":["post-447182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-douglas-iraq-footlocker","tag-engagement-ring-story","tag-fort-bragg-history","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-fort-worth-woman-reunited","tag-mary-thelen","tag-missing-ring-found","tag-nbc-5-responds","tag-terry-sheppard-jr","tag-us-army","tag-us-army-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}