All Blog Posts from Crimesider

CHICAGO - Four workers accused of digging up corpses at a historic Chicago-area cemetery as part of a scheme to resell plots have been indicted on a host of felony charges, including desecration of human remains, conspiracy to dismember human bodies and theft, prosecutors said Thursday.

The four, who were all charged early last month with a single felony count of dismembering a human body, stood quietly as the prosecutor announced the additional charges.

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ALSIP, Ill. - “What a mess!” That is was authorities must be thinking as they begin the daunting task of trying to identify remains in each of the approximately 100,000 graves at a suburban Chicago cemetery where four former workers allegedly dug up bodies in an elaborate scheme to resell the plots burial plots.

20 agents have joined Cook County investigators at Burr Oak Cemetery. The cemetery has been closed and declared a crime scene.

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Video Courtesy of ABC Station WLS-TV

COOK COUNTY, ILL. (CBS) The body count may rise at a Chicago cemetery, where police have already found hundreds of desecrated graves, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's comments during a Friday press conference.

"We're expecting a lot more families today, especially coming up this weekend. We're pleading with them for patience, because we had about 3,000 people here yesterday," Dart said.

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ALSIP, Ill. Six feet under. That’s where fellow inmates may want to put the four people accused of digging up hundreds of bodies for cash in a historic black cemetery, according to a law enforcement official who said the suspects were under threat from other inmates.

According to a WGN Chicago Radio interview with Sheriff Tom Dart, the suspects were relocated to a special section of Cook County Jail to avoid “serious injury” from other inmates.

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Video Courtesy Of CBS Affiliate CBS 2 Chicago

ALSIP, Ill. - Three hundred. That may be the number of bodies that were dug up from a historic black cemetary near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that their funeral plots could be resold, authorities said.

Four workers were charged Thursday in an elaborate and ghoulish scheme to profit from others' sorrows that may have gone on for years, say police.

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ALSIP, Illinois - 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.

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