TEMPLE, Texas — A really loud beep. That's how 9-year-old Giovanni Ortiz described the moment he found a high school class ring that was lost by its owner decades ago while metal detecting with his dad in Temple, Texas.
"I was by a creek on the countryside," Ortiz, a 4th grader at Thornton Elementary School, said. "I was scanning the dirt and I heard this really loud beep. I never heard a beep like that before."
Ortiz and his dad had no clue a ring was underneath. When they dug it up, they saw the ring was a little dirty, but was still in good condition.
"I get really messy when I'm digging it," Ortiz recalled. "The ring had mud in it, then it fell out."
The father and son saw that the ring was a 1996 Rogers High School class ring with the name 'Autumn' on the side.
"I feel like if I don't really own it, then I should give it back to the people that originally had it," Ortiz told 6 News.
Ortiz then turned to his mother, who knew just what to do.
"He goes, 'Well how would you find them?' and I told him, 'Well, I can put it on Facebook,'" Ortiz's mother Shasta Lynn said.
Lynn posted to Temple City Watch, a Facebook group for Central Texans. It wasn't long until strangers and friends helped find the ring's home.
"I saw the pictures, and I literally, literally, I teared up because the ring that I had was almost like that, almost exactly like hers," said Amber Gonzalez, the twin sister of the ring's original owner Autumn Entrop.
Gonzalez said she and Entrop were born only four minutes apart and that they were each other's best friends growing up.
"I think about her every day," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said Entrop was murdered by her husband back in 2013.
"They were in the middle of a divorce when he broke into her apartment in the middle of the night," Gonzalez said. "I don't know what he was looking for. He didn't find anything. He didn't even get any money from her. He just stabbed her to death. He's currently serving a life sentence somewhere in Texas."
The ring was just one piece left of Gonzalez's sister. Now, 20-some years later, it's back home.
"That's a sign from my sister," Gonzalez told 6 News.
It can be a sign for other people too.
"Please, please, please reach out," Gonzalez said. "Just tell somebody. I don't want anyone to end up like my sister did."
If you or someone you know needs help getting out of a domestic violence situation, call the Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.
There's also a Bell County nonprofit called Priceless Beginnings that helps domestic violence victims. To learn more, click here.
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