'Looks like I’m not the only one': Gravestone maker faces dozens of small claims lawsuits

BLOOMFIELD  —  Not long after Gail Batchelor died in August of 2022, her husband ordered a black granite headstone to mark the 71-year-old’s grave in Mitchell Cemetery. He paid $1,800 in advance to Austin Memorial Arts in Bloomfield.

“It’s a single stone, with her name on it and pictures of her favorite things – flowers, seashells and a cat. She loved her cats,” Jim Batchelor said. “Then I had them put her boy’s name and her great-grandson’s name on the back.”

He’s seen the finished product, not at his wife’s burial site, but propped up outside a workshop at Austin Memorial Arts, just west of Bloomfield. “I can’t find anybody to tell me what’s happened,” the Mitchell widower said.

It’s been a year since Jim and Joan Thompson ordered a headstone from Austin Memorial Arts for Jim’s brother. John David Thompson died April 1, 2023, a week before his 77th birthday. He had prostate cancer but died unexpectedly in his sleep.

He had wanted his grave marker in place before he died. So his brother and sister-in-law used their debit card and paid $1,305.40 for one with four symbols from the veteran's life carved into the surface representing the U.S. Air Force, American Legion, Freemasonry and the Odd Fellows.

The stone was never delivered. The Thompsons want to know where it is. “How would they feel if this happened to a veteran in their family?” Joan Thompson asked.

David and Carolyn Voorhies went headstone shopping last June at Austin Memorial Arts. Caroline had heard good reviews about the business when she lived in Bloomfield in the 1990s.

“We looked around the showroom and picked out what we wanted, a dark, gray-colored stone,” Carolyn Voorhies said. “They didn’t have any catalogs where we could pick out the engraving, so we went to the cemetery and looked around. We decided on just our names, dates and some flowers in each corner.” Their nine children’s first names would be engraved on the back.

She paid in full with a $3,300 check. The stone was to be set in Springville Cemetery, where her husband’s ancestors are buried, by November. It’s still not there. “Whenever we were in Bloomfield, we’d stop in to ask about it, see what’s going on.”

The doors to the business were locked, the phone disconnected. “We decided we had to do something. Just think how hard this is for people who have lost loved ones," Carolyn Voorhies said.

Unhappy customers seek help in small claims court

The Voorhieses paid $97 and filed a small claims lawsuit, one of 49 initiated since Jan. 8 that now crowd the Greene County Superior Court docket. Everyone paid a $97 filing fee.

Magistrate Luke Rudisill already settled one case with a $2,190.83 judgment, plus $125 in court costs, against Austin Memorial Arts.

The plaintiffs, Linda and Roger Evans of Springville, filed the first of the small claims suits. Neither Richard King, the business owner, nor a lawyer representing him, showed up for the Feb. 7 court hearing.

On Feb. 12, the couple filed a motion asking that they be allowed to retrieve their monument, which is finished, from Austin Memorial Arts; a March 13 court hearing has been set.

Thirteen small claims lawsuits against Austin Memorial Arts were filed last week. The total amount being sought for payments made for gravestones not delivered is nearly $127,000. Eight of the 49 lawsuits don’t list the amount of restitution being sought, so the total is higher.

The plaintiffs are mostly from Greene County, although they range from Morgantown to Odon. Ten live in Monroe County.

The claim amounts range from Worthington resident Michelle Welsh’s request for $454.75 to Jerry Fuller of Worthington seeking reimbursement of $10,694.65 he said he paid for a cemetery monument that was never delivered.

'We just want to know where our stone is'

Disgruntled customers have been trying to track down Richard King, the owner of Austin Memorial Arts, without much success. They stop by the business when they see his pickup truck parked outside, but no one responds to knocks on the door.

Telephone service to his business at the intersection of Ind. 54 and County Road 250 West has been disconnected. A desk inside the locked, glass-front building has papers, legal pads and pens askew. Unwatered potted plants are withering.

Outside the showroom building and the workshop next door, and in an expansive graveled area west of the buildings, sit dozens of headstones. Some have names and dates of birth and death engraved into the surface while others are blank or feature designs and scenes but no names of the departed.

On Feb. 20, a note taped to the front door by a customer asked when his wife’s gravestone would be placed at the cemetery. He left a phone number, hoping for a call.

A man and woman in a white SUV pulled into the lot about 2:30 that afternoon, hoping to speak to King. They were in their 70s and said they have been trying for months to find out the status of the double headstone they ordered for themselves, for which they paid $2,300. Has it been made? Is it on the premises? When would it be delivered to Mt. Nebo Cemetery?

“We just want to know if our stone is here,” said the man, who wouldn’t give his name. “He told us when we bought it that it would be ready in the fall. Last fall.”

He said he has known King for years and has been keeping an eye out for his pickup truck, hoping to have a word. He said King’s cell phone number also has been disconnected so he’s not sure how to proceed.

The Herald-Times couldn’t track King down either, by phone, email or in person.

Other than a $4,631 judgment against the monument company from a 2011 collection suit filed by a Georgia granite supplier, King’s business doesn’t appear to have any previous financial issues that landed in court.

The Better Business Bureau has no rating for Austin Memorial Arts, but the agency’s website lists several complaints from customers claiming they were ripped off, paying for tombstones they never received.

“According to information in BBB files, it appears that this business is no longer in business,” the site says.

A look at Google and Facebook reviews reveals a slew of complaints from unhappy customers demanding to know when they can get their gravestones, or their money back.

Cemetery monuments in demand

While many businesses struggled to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic, cemetery monument suppliers were in great demand. There were stones for those who died, and for people who during that time realized they should get their end-of-life plans in order.

A 2021 NPR report focused on a Vermont manufacturer whose tombstone backlog had doubled since the pandemic began, in part because of what are called “pre-need” orders. A New York woman who sold granite headstones said pre-need sales had increased 30%.

The situation grew more dire in 2022, CNN reported, when shipping troubles delayed for months the arrival of supplies such as granite from China and India as well as stone saws and rubber stencils from Europe.

Holt Monument Works is located on the western edge of Bloomfield, a few miles east of Austin Memorial Arts. Visitors are met by a sign on the door making it clear Holt employees have no information about the other gravestone maker down the road.

“If you are inquiring about what is going on at Austin Memorial Arts, I don’t know any more than you do,” it reads. “I suggest you contact the police department.”

Like other headstone suppliers, the pandemic brought Holt a surge in business and a backlog of orders.

Co-owner Robin Ammon is the lone stone carver at Holt, which opened in 1957. He and his wife bought the business 20 years ago. Ammon acknowledged the increase in orders the past few years and the challenge of keeping up with demand.

In recent months, troubles at Austin Memorial Arts have brought people to his business seeking help. “We try to help out when we can, but it’s a lot on top of the customers we already have,” Ammon said.

The Thompsons, from Bloomfield, went to see Ammon when it became clear they might never see the stone they bought from his competitor for their loved one’s grave.

“We went down to Holt’s about two weeks ago and bought a smaller stone and paid $400 more for it,” Joan Thompson said. “He said they’d try to get it done and placed by Memorial Day, and by Father’s Day for sure. The man said he knew what we’d been through."

On Feb. 8, the Thompsons filed the 15th small claims suit against Austin Memorial Arts. During their March 6 hearing, they will ask that the bronze grave marker the U.S. Air Force provided to the business for installation with the granite stone at Solsberry Cemetery be returned.

'Waited and waited and waited'

Gail Marie Batchelor died at Indiana University Methodist Hospital on a Friday in August of 2022. She and her husband, Jim, had been married 24 years. She had retired after 30 years working at General Electric.

She enjoyed motorcycle rides, camping and Goodwill-store shopping. This month, her husband traveled alone to Florida, which was Gail’s favorite place to be in winter.

Before he left, he tried to find out why his wife’s gravestone, ordered in the fall of 2022, hasn’t been placed. Richard King is a family friend who made monuments for his stepson and others he’s known. He knew King's work and trusted him.

“They told me last September when I went in there, and it had already been a year, that there had been some confusion,” he said. “Then they called me back in October and said they had the headstone done. I said OK and that I would check back to see when they had the concrete laid to put it in place.”

Nothing happened. “I waited and waited and waited. Then I went out there last week to the office and there wasn’t nobody there. The door was wide open, and I went in and called out. I left a note on the door telling him to get back to me. They never did.”

He walked around outside and found his wife’s gravestone.

“It looks good, it really does," Batchelor said. "It’s sitting there outside the building, with several others that are carved but have no bases. I said, ‘Well, it looks like I’m not the only one.’”

Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Customers sue Austin Memorial Arts for failing to deliver headstones