Local News
A preservation box, a Facebook post, and a 15-year mystery — Kathleen Shea Dunleavy is hoping to be reunited with her wedding gown.
A Methuen woman is hoping to track down her wedding dress after discovering she had been holding someone else’s gown for more than 15 years.
The mix-up came to light when Kathleen Shea Dunleavy recently opened a preserved wedding dress box she believed contained her own gown. Instead, she found a dress belonging to another bride from Salem, New Hampshire.
“I opened it, and it was wrapped in so much plastic — I was just in shock,” Dunleavy told WCVB. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is not my dress.’”
After sharing the story publicly on Facebook on Wednesday, the rightful owner was quickly identified and reunited with her gown. But Dunleavy is still searching for her own dress, which she believes was mistakenly swapped years ago at a Methuen dry cleaner that has since closed.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Dunleavy shared photos of herself wearing the ivory gown and asked for help tracking it down.
“The wedding dress saga continues,” she wrote. “Today, the rightful owner of the wedding dress that was accidentally given to me in 2010 … came and picked up her dress. I’m so happy it found its way back to her. Because social media made that possible, I’m putting this out there one more time — even if it’s a long shot — in hopes of finding my dress.”
Dunleavy said that in November 2010, her father picked up her preserved gown from Deluxe Cleaners on Merrimack Street in Methuen after it had been processed by Prestige Preservation. She never opened the sealed preservation box at the time because the dress was carefully wrapped in layers of plastic and stored in an attic.
She said she doesn’t know what ultimately happened to her gown, but is sharing her story in case it was opened and donated, brought to a bridal consignment shop, or is still sitting in an unopened preservation box. She is also hoping someone may have information about who owned Deluxe Cleaners during that period.
The missing gown has several distinct features. It has buttons running down the back from top to bottom, a flower appliqué detail in the center, and the initials “KS” embroidered in blue inside the dress.
Dunleavy is asking anyone with information to contact her through social media.
“Please continue to share — this worked once, maybe it can work again,” she wrote. “At this point, this feels like the making of a Hallmark movie … maybe it will be a Christmas miracle after all.”
Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
