A Minnesota man has been reunited with his wedding ring nearly a decade after losing it at the bottom of a lake, thanks to an unexpected discovery by his 9-year-old niece during a family vacation.According to the Pioneer Press, Stephen Meyer lost his wedding ring in 2016 while swimming with his son in Lake Belle Taine, where his family owns a cabin. The ring slipped off his finger and disappeared beneath the water, prompting years of unsuccessful searches by Meyer and his relatives.Despite returning to the lake every summer, Meyer was never able to recover the ring. His family also spent years trying to locate it, using magnets and even dredging the sandy lakebed in hopes of finding the missing band.“I looked a lot. I go swimming every night,” Meyer’s mother-in-law, Malana Johansen, told the Pioneer Press. “We’ve spent a lot of time looking for that ring. We were dredging the sand. My neighbor gave me a big magnet. We could not find it.”
Nine-year-old niece finds wedding ring by chance
The breakthrough came on July 20 when Meyer’s 9-year-old niece, Harper, visited her grandmother’s cabin for the first time since she was a toddler. Unaware that a wedding ring had been missing for years, Harper was standing near the shoreline when she noticed something sparkling in the shallow water.“She just picked it up and said, ‘There’s a ring!'” Johansen recalled.She explained that lower water levels caused by drought had exposed part of the shoreline, making the ring easier to spot.“The lake has gone down probably about 30 feet since last fall due to drought conditions. It was still in the water, but she didn’t really have to go in the lake to reach it. It was just there,” Johansen said.
Family left speechless after decade-long search
Johansen said the family was stunned that Harper had found what they had been searching for over the past 10 years.Even more surprising was the condition of the ring after spending nearly a decade underwater.“It just needed a little cleaning, but it looks gorgeous,” she said.After losing the original ring, Meyer had purchased a replacement. He is now wearing both wedding rings.
Discovery brings joy after difficult year
Johansen said the discovery meant even more because Harper and her family had endured a difficult year. Their home in Sierra Madre, California, was destroyed during the wildfires in early 2025.“She has gone through quite a lot in the last year. To have this exciting thing happen, I think it’s just wonderful,” Johansen said.She jokingly suggested Harper could make a career out of finding lost valuables during her summer breaks.“She wants to be a teacher, and she is going to be a fabulous teacher. But I told her, ‘Then in the summertime, you should just offer to find things for people,'” Johansen said.Reflecting on the remarkable discovery, she added, “This is going to be family lore from now on.”
