Grief, Outrage over Grave Desecrations

(CBS)  It's an alleged scam to make your skin crawl, one that can break your faith that a loved one's final resting place will remain final.

Police say four workers at a cemetery outside Chicago dug up and dumped as many as 300 bodies so they could resell the funeral plots. Cynthia Bowers reports from where grief has turned to outrage.

Hundreds of shell-shocked families descended on the suburban Chicago cemetery today, demanding answers.

In what is being called a real life horror story, Burr Oak cemetery workers are accused of digging up as many as 300 graves, dumping bones and decaying bodies into piles, and reselling plots to an unsuspecting public.

"This crime is a whole new dimension that shows what people would go through for financial gain," said Cook County, Ill. state's attorney Anita Alvarez.

That financial gain amounted to as much as $300,000 dollars over the last four or five years. The scheme, uncovered only after guilt-ridden workers alerted the owners, targeted older isolated graves with no headstones.

Linda Foster says it's like losing her dad all over again.

"I've got the marking so there's no mistaking where he was and he's not there," she said. "It's awful, God awful."

Gwendolyn Hicks, who can't find her son Christopher's grave, says she suspected for a long time something was wrong in this 64-year-old cemetery.

"Where are they putting the bodies? The place never expands," she said. "Where are they putting the bodies?"

This is about much more than profound personal pain. This is also a desecration of black history, because for years this was the only cemetery around Chicago where African-Americans could bury their dead.

Lynching victim Emmett Till's body lies here as does singer Dinah Washington, and boxing legend Ezzard Charles as well as thousands of lesser known, but no less loved.

"I have my grandmother and my uncle buried there. I don't know what to tell my mom," said relative Teresa Glover.

So far, four employees have been charged in the scheme and face up to 8 years behind bars.

"These folks here, nobody deserves anything like this to occur to them. We're trying to bring closure but it's gonna take a long time to do it," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Investigators worry they may never be able to figure out which remains came from which grave, which means many families may have a long wait before they can rest in peace.

[november20]

Many of my family members were interred at Burr Oak Cemetary and we are incensed that something of this magnitude could happend. This had to take place over a period of time. It seems that no one have taken any responsibility there for a long time. Everyone involved with Burr Oak Cemetary should be prosecuted to the fullest.

[horse3farm]

I believe part of the problem in this country is morality. So high and mighty about the dead. Your loved one wasn't in that grave. A pile of bones are. Your loved one is supposed to be in heaven. Guess you religious people just see it your own way.

[IronfootMcGurk]

It has for thousands of years been a common practice to remove the bones from the grave to an ossuary after the flesh has decayed. It was so in Jesus time and happened in Elizabethan England--remember Shakespeare's request "For Jesus' sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here...blest be he that spares my bones and curst be he that moves these stones"?

What happened in Chicago is a minor cime, a trespass to property rights, but no more. And these reporters and supposed victims are schmaltzing up the story.

Think for a minute: this had been going on for a while. If a grave was regularly visited, it would have been immediately noticed that the marker or stone had been moved. What we have here are people who had not visited the grave for years complaining about the shock to their emotions. Ridiculous. They are milking this in hopes of a profitable lawsuit.

[ABM_21]

You know, the more I listen to conservatives, the more convinced I am of just how dumb and hearltess they really are. "This is a 'victimless crime'? "Cemetaries are a 'waste of space'? Just how stupid can you get? When some idiot just 'trying to make a buck' made a comic book depicting the murderss of Jeffrey Dahmer, I'm quite sure some idiot conservative wished he's thought of that idea before this clown. The fact of the matter is, there is nothing 'disgusting' about honoring the life of a loved one who is now deceased. I guesds this clown would spare himself the expense of buying a casket for his parents, and just throw them into a hole in the ground. How sad.
One even mentioned the spectacle that was Michael Jackson's funeral. Was it his fault he was so popular? Was it his fault he had millions of adoring fans around the world? If LA wouldn't have done something to at least supervise this frenzy, someone would have gotten hurt. That is not a 'waste of money'; it's called being responsible. Add to that this callousness may have something to do with the skin color of the deceased. Racist even when blacks are dead, are you? What bigots some people are...

[wasrinrime]

I don't care what lame excuses people try to come up with, this is horrific and very sick. Here is to hoping that these clowns 8 year prison sentence (which is way to little)is filled with a living hell. The cemetary most likely gave the go ahead even though they will deny, deny, deny.

[ABM_21]

Here's hoping they give these clowns 20 year prison sentences apiece.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

Did you notice the suspects are black? Yet they STILL had to bring up the race issue. Do you think the black suspects are being called on that? It just goes to show that race plays SUCH a ridiculous role in the media. Imagine if the suspects had been white? The headlines would have been, "Racial Graveyard Horror" or something like that. I wish the media would see all this BS for what it is. Notice the swimming center story is a racist one since the owners are white and the people whining are black. Some things never change.

[Kintari]

Throw the book at these creeps...desecrating graves and voter tampering.

[stn_sage]

To IrishWench01:

It is what these acts represent that make them SO vile and why they deserve consideration for more aggressive punishment!

First, it's a heinous act! It's like choking a cat or molesting a child, only a sick and twisted mind would do it!

Second, and a person with a mind like that will continue to be lurking around society somewhere, until they grab you IrishWench, and carve your heart out with a tablespoon! And, I for one, would feel bad about that, because we'd miss your commentary on this board!

Third, it's a huge FINGER to law and order and civility in society, it's a repudiation of everything we SHOULD be standing for!

Fourth, true these occupants of the plots are dead, but shouldn't they and their contractual rights be acknowledged and protected? I think so!

Fifth, what about the trauma induced in the relatives of these people? I don't want to over-estimate that, but I don't want to downplay it, either!
A lot of these folks ARE going to be immensely traumatized as a result of this!

Finally, you're an intelligent person, 'Wench'! I believe if you consider the matter, at the least, you'll see why I think it's so important!

[whereisgrandad]

Perhaps you should take an interest in cemetery practices in Dryden, NY. My grandfather's grave disappeared about 3 weeks after he was buried there. The interred have apparently been moved all over various cemeteries serving the Dryden region--or their burial plots have simply disappeared. The time period I'm referring to is, if I remember correctly, late fifties? Long time passing, but you will find that interested parties are still trying to locate the whereabouts of their dear departed remains.

[ajjaxtheleast]

Regardless of respecting employees that "take their work
home with them,,lets check out Anna Nichol Smith's plot.

"Grave diggers" didn't have that much to spare
but now this pretty much removes even
that little tad.

Time to see about ALL cemetaries!!

It's doubtful that this is the only "bad" cemetary around.

How many others are setting up nighttime shops in
pitch black cemetaries digging up caskets, shinning a
light,,,"oh yes!,,This ones a keeper, whatta'ya think, Ned"?.

No matter what one's job is, at night before sleeping, your
successes and failures of the day are recounted and
mental images there-of flash through your mind,,,
to say that these dudes were of a different
cut is a gross understatement.

[riddelup]

These people do not look like the masterminds in this affair. Is there more?