Vandalism to cemetery baffles investigators

Posted on Friday, December 15 @ 21:41:17 CST

By RENI WINTER

FOWLER, INDIANA -- Law enforcement officers and members of the Fowler Cemetery Association can't understand why anyone would want to damage graves. A day after a Fowler resident visiting the cemetery found 21 crypt doors broken and 27 tombstones knocked over, the Benton County Sheriff's Department had no leads to discovering who did the damage sometime during the night Tuesday.

"We're thinking it's juveniles or young adults," said Deputy Jason Dexter, who is leading the investigation. "We're really relying on the community to help us out with this one."

Dexter estimates the cost of the damage to be about $20,000 or more.

"We absolutely will prosecute," he said.

Investigators believe several people were involved because of the amount of damage done and because of reports from a witness.

The witness "saw two vehicles there Tuesday night with spotlights," Dexter said. He is hoping those who committed the crime will talk to their friends about it and someone will turn them in.

Shirley Leonard, secretary-treasurer of the cemetery association, said she is appalled at the act of vandalism. She and the other two members of the association board all have relatives among the 2,800 people buried at the rural Benton County cemetery.

"This is not the first time the cemetery has been desecrated but it is first time the mausoleum has been destroyed," she said. "We have one mausoleum with 36 crypts, and 21 of the crypt doors were destroyed."

Leonard said the board will meet at the cemetery this morning to determine what their next step should be. If the weather is nice enough over the weekend, they may organize volunteers to help set up the toppled headstones, she said. The task of restoring the mausoleum doors will take more time.

"We're accepting our fate and dealing with it," she said. "I can't imagine how anybody can desecrate other people's property, especially in a graveyard, and think that's acceptable. It's not acceptable. It's totally unacceptable behavior, period."