Nov 4, 2014: Shrapnel

[Carruthers]

One of the comments in the NY Daily News article suggests the following:

This makes much more sense. The shrapnel is probably the small chunks scattered here and there. The rest is from the casket.
I suppose that stuff is routinely removed by the cremation service before ashes are returned. In this case, since the family was requesting the shrapnel, the crematory simply sent along the whole pile, rather than sift through it for the relevant bits.

I have no wish to lessen what Mr Brown manifestly endured over the decades, but I suspect that there is a kernel of truth in the above comment.