ST. ALBANS, Vt. -
Jean Kelley visited the Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans Monday morning to check on generations of family members.
"Just wanted to make sure they were not tipped over," she said.
Late Saturday night, or early Sunday morning, vandals damaged 50 headstones.
"Totally disgusting," commented Kelley as she drove away.
Some toppled, others destroyed.
"Those are scattered into 3 pieces, whether we can get that back or not I don't know," said Greenwood Cemetery Sexton William Crocker.
Some of the headstones in the cemetery date back to 1802. The vandalism spree comes after caretakers just spent the past two years refurbishing 400 headstones. Crocker called the crime "sickening".
"Especially right after we just got done all this work to make this cemetery look half way decent," he wanted on to say.
The damage is so extensive, some of the headstones won't be fixed until next year, because heavy equipment will be needed. Repairs won't be cheap. The cleanup bill, which hasn't been finalized, is already at several thousand dollars. The St. Albans Cemetery Association will cover most of the bill.
"Some are old, once you've lost it, you've lost it, there's no relatives left to replace it so the cemetery has to do what they can," said Crocker.
Right now police do not have any leads, but due to the damage, they believe several people were involved. Investigators are also looking into whether this is connected to a similar incident at the cemetery three weeks ago when eight head stones were toppled.
"We are hoping citizens will call with any information they have, if they hear anything, see anything on Facebook or any social media channels," said Sergeant Joseph Thomas of the St. Albans Police Department.
For now, all Crocker can do is try and put the cemetery back together.
"We'll do them again, hopefully these people won't come back," he said.
