Wedding rings lost in Texas tornado found amid miles of debris


Just three months after their wedding, a tornado destroyed Ariel and Justin Duke's Canton, Texas, home. Their personal items were lost in the debris that stretched for miles.
Ariel's wedding and engagement rings were among the missing objects, and after searching for eight days, the Dukes made a final plea online, posting a photo of Ariel's rings and asking anyone who might come across them to please return the precious jewelry. Nathan Wright, a hobby metal detector, saw the photo and joined the search. "It's pretty hard to detect somewhere like that because there's so much debris and metal spread everywhere," Wright told Good Morning America. "Their place wasn't even recognizable that a house was there. It was just broken wood and debris scattered over about 100 yards." After three hours and "doing some heavy praying," Wright found Ariel's engagement ring, and then 30 feet away, her wedding band. It was "unreal," Wright said, and Ariel "screamed and bulldozed into me with a big hug."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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