July 16, 2009 8:01 PM
- Text
Cemetery Workers Dug Up Children's Graves
(CBS)
Most people thought the story of grave desecrations in Chicago couldn't get any worse. But today comes word that the four cemetery workers accused of reselling burial plots targeted the graves of infants and children.
Now investigators are left with a gruesome puzzle, where even the cemetery's owner says he's a victim, as CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports.
Burr Oak cemetery is now a 150-acre crime scene - relatives locked out while forensic investigators from around the country sift for evidence.
Some 55,000 requests for information have been filed on more than 100,000 grave sites, but with cemetery records rotting in aging filing cabinets, even the FBI is at a loss on how to identify the remains.
An FBI spokesperson said doing so at this point will be difficult - if not impossible.
Particularly heartbreaking is the desecration of an area called Babyland, where thousands buried their young.
Linda Foster's infant cousin was buried in Babyland, one of 10 relatives at Burr Oak.
"You are helpless. You're hopeless. There is nothing you can do about it but wait and see," she said.
The president of the company that owns the cemetery, read a statement saying he noticed financial irregularities earlier this year, but claims he knew nothing about the dumping of bodies.
"I also have family members buried at Burr Oak Cemetery and have the same outrage (about) the conduct of the individuals," said Melvin Z. Bryant, president of Perpetua Inc.
The horror story that unfolded there has focused attention on laws governing cemeteries nationwide. Regulations that require visual cemetery inspections vary from state to state, and many believe there needs to be more oversight to make sure this doesn't happen somewhere else.
"This is something that I think finally has a human face to it," said Cook County, Ill. Comptroller Dan Hynes. "We need to step back and assess the entire death care system."
Foster agrees, and thinks the owner's president should be held accountable.
"As far as I am concerned, he should be jailed and not put into protective custody," she said. "Put him out there with the general public and let it take care of itself."
Foster believes Burr Oak should be made into a memorial garden, kept sacred once and for all.
Now investigators are left with a gruesome puzzle, where even the cemetery's owner says he's a victim, as CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports.
Burr Oak cemetery is now a 150-acre crime scene - relatives locked out while forensic investigators from around the country sift for evidence.
Some 55,000 requests for information have been filed on more than 100,000 grave sites, but with cemetery records rotting in aging filing cabinets, even the FBI is at a loss on how to identify the remains.
An FBI spokesperson said doing so at this point will be difficult - if not impossible.
Particularly heartbreaking is the desecration of an area called Babyland, where thousands buried their young.
Linda Foster's infant cousin was buried in Babyland, one of 10 relatives at Burr Oak.
"You are helpless. You're hopeless. There is nothing you can do about it but wait and see," she said.
The president of the company that owns the cemetery, read a statement saying he noticed financial irregularities earlier this year, but claims he knew nothing about the dumping of bodies.
"I also have family members buried at Burr Oak Cemetery and have the same outrage (about) the conduct of the individuals," said Melvin Z. Bryant, president of Perpetua Inc.
The horror story that unfolded there has focused attention on laws governing cemeteries nationwide. Regulations that require visual cemetery inspections vary from state to state, and many believe there needs to be more oversight to make sure this doesn't happen somewhere else.
"This is something that I think finally has a human face to it," said Cook County, Ill. Comptroller Dan Hynes. "We need to step back and assess the entire death care system."
Foster agrees, and thinks the owner's president should be held accountable.
"As far as I am concerned, he should be jailed and not put into protective custody," she said. "Put him out there with the general public and let it take care of itself."
Foster believes Burr Oak should be made into a memorial garden, kept sacred once and for all.
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