Message in a bottle returns to Kentucky man 37 years after tossing it into ocean

By Madeline Carter

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    MOUNT WASHINGTON, Kentucky (WLKY) — Troy Heller of Mount Washington was just 10 years old when he took a trip to Vero Beach, Florida, and did something he’d never done before.

He put a message in an old Pepsi glass bottle and threw it into the Atlantic Ocean.

But he never imagined his message from 1985 would find its way back to him in Kentucky 37 years later.

On Nov. 13, in the aftermath of Hurricane Nicole, Heller’s message in a bottle washed up on shore in Sebastian, Florida, about 13 miles north of the very pier where he once threw it in the water.

After nearly four decades, it ended up in the hands of two teachers, who noticed the bottle that Sunday morning while cleaning up debris from the storm. But when they saw Katie and Annie Carrmax walking in the area with their two young daughters, the teachers said they were compelled to give the message in a bottle to the family.

“We just feel really special that we ran into two wonderful teachers picking trash up after the hurricane,” Katie Carrmax told WLKY.

“For it to be found is pretty wild,” reflected Katie’s wife Anna. “I just wanted to know what it said.”

With the help of their daughters Kylie and Emmy, the Carrmax couple took the message in a bottle home, smashed the glass, and retrieved the message from inside.

They unfolded the worn sheet of looseleaf paper to find the name “Troy Heller” written alongside a phone number and address in Louisville.

At the bottom of the fragile page read the following sentence: “P.S. Whoever finds this, call me or write to me.”

That’s when the Carrmax family set out to find him.

Using Heller’s name, old phone number and address, they searched the internet and eventually wound up with a lead in Mount Washington.

Heller recalls having lunch one day and ignoring a phone call from a Florida number. Then, he received a text from that same number that changed everything.

“As soon as I saw it, I remembered writing it,” he said.

That text message contained a picture of the letter Heller put in the glass bottle 37 years ago.

Heller said he was blown away that the bottle stayed intact for so long.

“I’m just surprised it didn’t break,” he said.

Amazed by their discovery, the Carrmax family posted a video about the message in a bottle on TikTok. They then decided to mail the original letter back to Heller.

The letter is now framed and hanging on a wall in Heller’s home in Mount Washington, to remind him of the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

“It’s something you never thought would happen,” he said. “I thought I’d just throw it out in the ocean and just see where it went, you know? It’s just amazing that it finally found its way back.”

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