Boy killed by falling tombstone was helping dad

This undated photo provided by the family via Park City Medical Center shows Carson Dean Cheney, 4, who died July 5, 2012 after a large tombstone fell and hit the boy while he and his family were visiting a historic cemetery in the Utah ski resort town of Park City. / AP Photo/Park City Medical Center

(AP) A 4-year-old Utah boy was helping his father by trying to make other children smile for a picture when a 6-foot-tall tombstone that weighed hundreds of pounds fell on the boy and killed him at a historic cemetery, family members and friends said.

Carson Dean Cheney was with his family in the resort town of Park City on Thursday evening when the headstone toppled onto him after some metal connecting it to its pedestal broke, his grandmother Geri Gibbs told The Associated Press.

The boy's father, Zac Cheney, does photography in his spare time and was taking portraits of another family at the Glenwood Cemetery, said Curtis Morley, a co-worker and family friend. They chose the old cemetery because of its extensive landscaping, he said.

Boy dies after tombstone falls, hits him in Utah

Morley said some of the children being photographed were not being responsive, so Carson tried to help his dad by pretending to be leprechaun and making them laugh. The boy went behind a tombstone and was poking his head out from behind it when it fell on him.

"Carson passed away while trying to make others smile," said Morley, who works with Zac Cheney at a professional services firm in Salt Lake City.

Gibbs said it took three men to pull the heavy slab off the boy, and rescuers "did everything they could possibly do."

The child suffered injuries to his head, chest and abdomen and was taken to the nearby Park City Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Gibbs said the boy and his family were visiting from Lehi, about an hour away.

She said Carson was just about to enter kindergarten, loved to ride his bike and was "full of life."

"There's still so much disbelief and sorrow and anguish," Gibbs said. "We just keep waiting for the door to open up and Carson to come through, a happy little boy."

Park City police Capt. Phil Kirk said Friday an investigator was at the cemetery probing the incident. Kirk did not immediately return phone calls Saturday.

Police Chief Wade Carpenter said the coarse headstone that fell on the boy marked the grave of someone who died in the 1800s.

Bruce Erickson, president of the Glenwood Cemetery Association, said the private, five-acre cemetery around the corner from the Park City Mountain Resort was founded by a society of silver miners in 1885, and many of the tombstones are at least 100 years old.

The cemetery is open to the public and still accepts burials of people connected to the mining society. No funerals were held there Thursday.

Erickson said new burials happen maybe once a year, and families are responsible for maintaining the headstones.

A funeral for the boy is set for Tuesday. Morley said a memorial fund has been established at Zions Bank.

[knewsteerrrrr]

A 4-year-old Utah boy was helping his father by trying to make other children smile for a picture "

Sure made me and innocent wildlife out there smile :)

[ralphing]

Now I'm wondering if these were a group of metal thieves, stealing bronze plaques and bracing when the accident occurred.

[enlightenu]

You should change your name to Wonderer.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

by treymack July 7, 2012 10:29 PM EDT
Who are you going to sue? the dead person?
---
"Erickson said new burials happen maybe once a year, and families are responsible for maintaining the headstones."

You don'r appear to read very well - your answer is in the article.

[erasmus111]

You don't appear to think very well. Maybe that dead person doesn't have any more family alive, to be responsible for maintaining the headstones.

[rondivoo]

Cemetaries should be off limits to people like this.... the only people who should be there are the relatives of the deceased. Not a place to frolic or use as a backdrop for a photography business.

[hypnotoad72]

Just because the guy let his son out to help him??

This photographer was not committing vandalism in the place.

But you're also right, cemeteries are not places for children to frolic in. Especially children left unsupervised...

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

by erasmus111 July 7, 2012 11:03 PM EDT
Do you feel like the ******* you are?
---
Typical moronic drivel from erasmus.

I take to task those who wrongly judged this kid and erasmus, being intellectually limited, responds with a personal insult.

Must be tough being you.......

[erasmus111]

I just respond to "moronic drivel" with "moronic drivel" because I think that's the only thing you comprehend.

And seeing as how you don't KNOW this child, or his father, you have no idea whether he was a Holy terror or not. You have no idea if the father was a good father or not. It's all just speculation. If you can speculate, so can others.

[erasmus111]

Now, you might say that I'm only speculating when I say you are an ignorant ass, but I have your words to prove it. I also have proof by how many others respond negatively to your posts. And how many times you have to change your name.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

by pak31 July 8, 2012 12:07 AM EDT
Those people were basing their opinions on an earlier story that the boy was off playing on the tombstones.
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Those people were assuming facts not in evidence and judging this poor kid as a little monster.

In other words, shooting off their yap while having no clue as to the truth whatsoever.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

So much for all the ***** who automatically assumed this was an out-of-control child who got what was coming to him.

I hope they feel like the ***** they are.

[erasmus111]

Do you feel like the ******* you are?

[rwsmith29456]

Sounds more to me like he was a kid that was acting like a kid.