Navy veteran from North Carolina reunited with class ring found in West Virginia 50 years later

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — A U.S. Navy veteran from North Carolina was reunited Tuesday with his high school class ring in Kanawha County after nearly 50 years.

Michael Pedneau was able to reclaim his ring at the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office after it was found during an investigation by deputies in the Cabin Creek area, according to the sheriff’s office.

The North Carolina resident said he was surprised when he got a call from the sheriff’s office earlier this year asking him if he was Michael Pedneau and if he’d graduated from Needham Broughton High School in 1965.

“I think I told him that I hadn’t done anything wrong in Kanawha County, but I was he and I did graduate [in 1965],” Pedneau said. “He said ‘well, I think I have your high school class ring.”

Detectives found the ring while executing a search warrant in a copper theft investigation in February.

Deputies seized the ring and began tracking down the owner. The ring was initially identified as a male’s ring from the 1965 class of Needham Broughton in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area.

Engraving on the ring showed the initials “M.P.” and the class list showed a student by the name of Michael Pedneau, according to a news release from the Kanawha Sheriff’s Office.

Pedneau told deputies he believes the ring was lost in the late 1960s or early 70s while he was in the Navy or possibly during a trip to Princeton, West Virginia.

Deputies said in February no charges were expected to be filed against the suspects who were in possession of the ring, however, the copper theft investigation was ongoing.

It’s unclear how the ring made it to Kanawha County.

Click here to view a gallery of photos from Pedneau's ring reunion.