Her late daughter's wedding gown disappeared. 17 years later, a bride-to-be found it

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Set us as preferred It had been 17 years since Sue Webber-Brown had seen her late daughter’s wedding dress after it was misplaced by a wedding dress preservation company.For Webber-Brown, a former investigator with a Northern California narcotics task force, the A-line white gown — with a medium-length train, minimal sparkle beading and thin straps — is more than just a memento of her daughter’s marriage on May 19, 2007.

It’s a reminder that Webber-Brown’s daughter Heidi Webber McClellan is still watching over the family.The gown’s sudden reappearance is a marvel wrapped in a mystery, she noted.

Its return is the result of an astute observation by a Chicago bride-to-be — a woman she calls a guardian angel — who now needs to find her own missing heirloom gown.McClellan, who had been ill, died Oct.25, 2009, at the age of 28 after her body rejected a bone marrow transplant.

Within a couple of months of her daughter’s death, Webber-Brown said her son-in-law asked her for assistance in sorting through McClellan’s clothes and other items in their home.“When we were doing that, we came across her filthy wedding dress, and I mean filthy,” she said.

“It looked like somebody dragged her through a field with a tractor and in the mud with cow pies.”In between small bouts of laughter, Webber-Brown described her daughter as someone with a bold personality: “Nothing got her down.” McClellan was “super happy.”And she embraced life.The stains, her mother remembers, were caused by chocolate syrup from a chocolate fountain, strawberries, tequila, catered Mexican food from their favorite restaurant — all from the wedding reception.

“It was a great night,” Webber-Brown said.Upon finding the dress, Webber-Brown said she decided to get it cleaned.

She drove to a David’s Bridal in Chico with a friend...