73-year-old man and friend dig up grandma’s grave to move remains, Missouri cops say

Jennifer Rodriguez
·2 min read

Officials in Missouri have charged two men after police say the men were caught digging up a woman’s grave, local news outlets report.

The two 73-year-old men were each charged with one count of attempting to destroy or deface cemetery property, according to KMOV.

Police were called out on Aug. 22 to the Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, a suburb of St. Louis. When officers got there, they found the two men “actively trying to exhume a grave site,” KMOV reported.

One of the men was seen throwing dirt from the grave site, while the other was seen covered in dirt nearby, talking on the phone, the Riverfront Times reported.

One of the men told police that he was digging up his grandmother’s grave so he could relocate her remains, and that his friend was helping him. He said the two had been digging for a couple of days, according to KSDK.

Concerns have grown around the state of the cemetery, which has “fallen into a state of severe neglect,” according to the Riverfront Times.

“Burials are actively being dug up in broad daylight on a busy street due to the lack of oversight and accountability of these sacred grounds. Descendants are now taking matters into their own hands,” a Facebook post from Saving Washington Park said on Aug. 22.

Kevin Bailey, who has owned the cemetery since 2009, told KSDK that the man “bought the plot, owns it and can do whatever he wants to it,” the outlet reported.

McClatchy News reached out to Bailey on Nov. 9 but did not immediately hear back.

Berkeley Police Chief Art Jackson, however, said the man would need a state order, which he did not have, to exhume his grandmother’s remains, KSDK reported.

A website called “Saving Washington Park Cemetery” describes the property as a “historic African American cemetery.”

“This is a multi-year effort to restore this sacred grounds and ancestral repository for these former St. Louisans, their families and descendants to come,” the website says.

Both men are due back in court on Dec. 12, KMOV reported.