Twisted Plot: Did Cemetery Workers Dump Bodies to Resell Gravesites?

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

ALSIP, Illinois (CBS/AP) More than 100 bodies that were supposed to rest in peace at a historic suburban Chicago cemetery may have been dug up instead, and dumped into a mass grave -- in a scheme by employees to profit by reselling the burial plots.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Wednesday that his office was questioning five employees of Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. The workers are accused of conducting off-the-book burials and pocketing the cash.

Dart says the workers allegedly dumped bodies, and some caskets, in an unused rear area of the 150-acre cemetery. He says the scam may have been going on for about four years.

Dart says his office began investigating six weeks ago when the cemetery owner reported one employee began feeling guilty and revealed what allegedly was going on.

No charges have been filed.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Prominent African Americans including civil rights icon and lynching victim Emmett Till, and blues musicians Willie Nixon and Dinah Washington, are buried at Burr Oak Cemetery.

Video Courtesy Of CBS Affiliate CBS 2 Chicago

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by tmn July 9, 2009 2:48 PM EDT: Recycling at its worst...; Reply to this comment


by John_Merritt July 9, 2009 2:21 PM EDT: I am surprised no one has mentioned where it happened? Chicago. Go figure, who would have ever thunk?; Reply to this comment


by credibility2 July 9, 2009 1:48 PM EDT: This is a tragic story. This has occurred before down south and I believe the laws only considered this to be a misdemeanor and those responsible got very short sentences, small fines and also lost their licenses. Here we're talking about the cemeteries owners claiming they knew nothing of the situation, which I find doubtful. The laws need to be made tougher, by severely punishing the perpetrators for what they've done, which included desecrating a burial plot and human remains, and be punished for the anguish they're now causing the families of the disinterred and for the families who were buried in previously occupied grave sites.; Reply to this comment


by stillwaters6 July 9, 2009 11:55 AM EDT: Bernie Madoff best exemplifies capitalism and the love of money at its finest.

This story represents a timeless principle:

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER; BUT MONEY IS THICKER THAN BLOOD!

Everybody is trying to make ends meet...; Reply to this comment