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'A little piece of my heart': Southie woman searches for late father's missing dog tags

BOSTON - A South Boston family is asking others to help them search for the lost dog tags that belonged to their father, who died ten years ago.

Lyndsay Picciano first posted about the missing dog tags on Facebook hoping the community could help locate them. And while she says she’s been overwhelmed by the support from strangers, they still haven’t been found

“It’s something that’s just me, they’re the only necklace I’ve worn for the past ten years since I lost him,” Licciano explained.

The weight of her father’s dog tags around her neck is as familiar as the feel of her wedding ring. The things that make us who we are.

But now, a piece of her and a piece of her father is missing.

“I felt like a little piece of my heart dropped a little bit,” Picciano said. “Most things can be replaced, this one can’t.”

Two weeks ago, she was walking through her neighborhood with her children. When she got home, she realized the dog tags were missing and the chain around her neck was broken.

“They were his original dog tags from when he was in the military in the early 60s,” said Picciano.

Marine James Reynolds, a reconnaissance paratrooper, recorded 129 jumps with those tags hanging around his neck.

A man Picciano’s children never got to meet after he died from cancer in 2008.

She hoped to pass this physical link of her father on to them.

“It’s something that’s priceless to our family,” she said.

Picciano and others have searched the area exhaustively, hoping to spot the dog tags. But they haven’t had any luck.

Even as the days stretch on, she maintains hope. Saying she lost them once before and they were found.

“I think I always have in the back of my head, they’ll come back to me someday,” Picciano said.

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