When artist Alison Byrnes opened a package she had mailed to herself two years earlier, she was expecting to find a sealed box of her prints - but that's not what was inside.

The United States Postal Service had made a rather serious mistake. Instead of artist prints, USPS delivered a little blue urn -- containing the ashes of a total stranger. 

Attempts at finding the family of the deceased failed, and the cremated remains of Jennings L. Heffelfinger sat abandoned and forgotten, year after year.

That is, until 2019, when intrepid reporter Sophie Bearman took over the case. Determined to solve the mystery, Bearman embarks on a personal and professional journey to get the urn back where it belongs. But how much help is too much? Amid a pandemic that forces us to ponder mortality incessantly, Episode 7 offers a refreshing and unexpected take on life and loss.

Spain has one of the highest number of forced disappearances in the world, second only to Cambodia. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, fascist troops killed tens of thousands of people and threw them into mass graves.

For decades, few people knew this ? and no one in Spain talked about it. But in the year 2000, a man in the middle of an identity crisis began digging into his family's past, searching for a grandfather who had gone missing in the war.

What Emilio Silva discovered not only changed his own life - it inspired a social movement to recover Memoria Histórica, or historical memory, throughout Spain.

In episode 6, audio producer and writer Isabel Cadenas Cañón (De eso no se habla) reveals the cultural transformation of a country through the personal transformation of one man.

When three friends went on a rum-fueled rampage one night deep in the Nevada desert, they never expected the trouble they would find themselves in a week later.

The men broke into a remote unit of Death Valley National Park known as Devil's Hole ? a mysterious flooded cave that happens to be home to the one of the rarest fish on Earth, and one that's critically endangered too.

This episode, based on Paige Blankenbuehler's High Country News feature, is a bite-size crime story starring an obscure species of tiny fish, and some hedonistic humans who stepped a little too far over the line, and suffered some big consequences.

Last Seen host Nora Saks dives into the fraught relationship between humans and nature, and the long arm of the law intended to protect our most vulnerable species.

In 1960, dubbed "The Year Of Africa", a pair of bold leaders fanned the flames of hope for a brighter future in the Belgian colony of Congo. But by the following year, that hope had been dashed by outside forces.

Using traditional griot storytelling, writer Brenton Zola transports us to a turning point in Congo's path to independence, and remembers the future that almost was.

Every school kid learns that there are exactly eight planets in our solar system. But what if we told you there might be a ninth? A world that may be six times the size of Earth and take 12,000 years to orbit the Sun. The only thing is, while some scientists are convinced Planet Nine exists, no one has seen it. Yet.

Science journalist and WBUR producer Dean Russell (Endless Thread) traces the lives of two astronomers, separated by a century, bound by their thirst for finding that missing planet. This Last Seen story of obsession reveals the unexpected reward when one astronomer gets it wrong ? and the fallout when another gets it, seemingly, right.

Freeports are the most expensive and secretive warehouses in the world, which now hide some of the world?s cultural treasures from the public eye.

Join Ben Brock Johnson as he traces the path of one lost Modigliani painting, "Seated Man with a Cane," and attempts to catch a glimpse inside these high-tech storage dungeons.

In 1964, Jack Murphy, or "Murph the Surf," pulled off the biggest jewel heist in New York City history only to be caught 48 hours later.

Amory Sivertson traces the enigmatic life of this folk hero and examines why men like him continue to be idolized.

The new season, coming out Feb. 1, has 10 new true-crime mysteries that you don?t want to miss.

WBUR?s popular true-crime podcast returns, with mysterious tales about people, places, ashes, planets, endangered species, feelings and much more.

Listen to the trailer for "Anything For Selena," a new podcast from WBUR and Futuro Studios coming in January 2021. Subscribe now so you don't miss it!

About The Show:

On March 31, 1995, nine-year-old Maria Garcia came home to find her mother glued to the TV, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. The phone kept ringing. Relatives in Mexico and the States wanted to know if Maria?s family was watching, too. American networks and Mexican programming aired the same top story. Selena Quintanilla, the Grammy-winning ascending Mexican American popstar had been killed ? swiftly, violently ? by the president of her fan club.

The story shook the country and changed Maria?s life.

In "Anything For Selena," host Maria Garcia goes on an intimate, revelatory quest to understand how Selena has become a potent symbol for tensions around race, class and body politics in the United States.

The series weaves Maria?s personal story as a queer, first-generation Mexican immigrant with cultural analysis, history and politics to explore how, 25 years after her death, Selena remains an unparalleled vessel for understanding Latino identity and American belonging.

"Madness" is a new investigative series from our fellow WBUR podcast, Endless Thread. Told in 5 parts, "Madness" unravels the shocking history of CIA-funded mind-control experiments.

In the first episode, Endless Thread presents powerful accounts of abuse at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, and introduces the renowned doctor who conducted these disturbing experiments on his unwitting patients.

Last Seen's sister podcast, Kind World, recently produced a special series featuring stories of kindness and compassion at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Last Seen fans, here's a story about one of the greatest missing treasures of all-time, The Amber Room, from our friends at WBUR's Endless Thread podcast.

The Amber Room was a treasure of kings and an architectural marvel before being stolen by Nazis and lost to history. So?what happened? It all depends on who you ask.

"Infectious: The Strange Past and Surprising Present of Vaccines ? and Anti-Vaxxers" explores the weird, winding story of scientific innovation, medical disasters and online virality that radicalized new parents and created a movement that threatens to send us back to the disease-ridden dark ages.

Subscribe to Endless Thread wherever you get your podcasts.

Last Seen wants to tell you about another great podcast: Kind World

We?re back in your feed to share a project we think you?ll love. There will be more from Last Seen in the new year. Until then, we wanted to share another mystery with you: an episode of the great WBUR podcast, Endless Thread. This story focuses on a young man who was last seen? in 1995. If you like it, subscribe to Endless Thread wherever you get your podcasts.

A behind-the-scenes conversation about how we investigated the most sensational unsolved art heist in history.

We follow a mobster's tip to excavate a lot in Orlando.

After a parallel heist gone wrong, did Brian McDevitt succeed at the Gardner Museum?

Was the world's greatest art thief the inspiration, or actually the mastermind, of the Gardner heist?

This is a story about how to plot an art recovery, and then blow it entirely.

We trace the art's possible path from Boston to Connecticut to Philadelphia.

Were George Reissfelder and David Turner involved in the Gardner heist?

Was the heist planned in the belly of Boston's criminal underworld operating out of a Dorchester auto body shop?

On the night of the heist, security guard Rick Abath made the critical mistake of letting the thieves into the museum. In this episode, we ask if it was indeed a mistake.

In 1990, two thieves stole 13 irreplaceable artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. We take a closer look at what happened that night.

A look into the largest unsolved art heist in history: the theft of 13 irreplaceable artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. "Last Seen" begins Sept. 17.