Florida man allegedly dumped cremated mother of four’s remains alongside 500 pounds of trash

A Florida man allegedly dumped a mother-of-four’s cremated remains and 500 pounds of trash on the side of a road late last month, according to reports.

Daniel Rolando, 26, was arrested and charged with one felony count for littering over 500 pounds of commercial or hazardous waste after Charlotte County Sheriff deputies discovered a massive pile of trash in Punta Gorda on Oct. 30, ABC7 reported.

Among the heap of waste was a labeled bag with human ashes, according to the outlet.

The cremated remains belong to 39-year-old Nina Monica Brown, who died of sickle cell disease in 2024, Gulf Coast News Now reported.

“It was a straight box and plastic bag from the funeral home, like you would pick her up. It wasn’t even an urn, nothing,” resident Heather Lemcool told the outlet.

“Her name, day to day, date of birth, and date of death, and the funeral home was all on this, ID card attached to the ashes,” she said.

After sifting through the 120 cubic foot pile of trash, police found mail belonging to a woman in Sarasota and contacted her, the outlet said.

She positively identified 80% of the discarded items as hers and told deputies that she had recently had two of her units at a local storage facility auctioned off after defaulting on her contract, the outlet reported.

But the woman was dumbfounded as to how her mail and trash ended up on the side of the road and had no clue how the cremated remains wound up in the pile, according to the publication.

Employees at the storage unit then confirmed to police that Rolando had purchased the two units at the auction.

He was arrested after returning to the trash pile to clean up with a friend, the outlet reported.

Rolando later confessed to purchasing the goods and dumping the ones he didn’t want, according to the report.

Precious Tunstall, a friend of Brown, described the woman whose ashes were carelessly dumped as a “walking miracle” who battled sickle cell disease far longer than doctors predicted.

“As growing up, they didn’t expect her to live past the age of 21. She wasn’t supposed to,” Tunstall told Wink News.

“They told her that she would never bear children. She had four beautiful children, two girls, two boys, and she did everything that she had to do to provide for those babies,” she said.

She is currently working with the police to retrieve Brown’s remains and return them to her children.

“It was very inconsiderate of him to just dump her on the side of the road,” Tunstall said.

“I would like to have her ashes back, her remains back, so her children can have her remains.”

Rolando was released from jail on Thursday on $2,500 bond, the Venice Gondolier reported.

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.