Employees at historic Chicago cemetery dug up 100 bodies, threw them in a pile, and resold plots

[tj2001]

Four people have been charged after authorities discovered that dozens of bodies had been dug up at the historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip and the grave sites illegally resold. Each was charged with one count of dismembering a human body, a Class X felony. They were identified as Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39, all of Chicago, and Maurice Dailey, 59, of Robbins. They will appear in Central Bond Court at 11:45 a.m.

An arrest warrant was also issued Tuesday for a fifth person, a 45-year-old woman who was a secretary at the cemetery, according to Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Brittney Blair. But the woman was not charged after investigators became convinced that she did not profit from the scheme and was only carrying out orders from Towns, who was the office manager. "Carolyn Towns was the brains behind the operation, the one calling the shots," Blair said.

Detectives discovered a pile of bones -- from more than 100 bodies -- decomposed, above ground and uncovered in an overgrown, fenced-off portion of the cemetery, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

In addition, bodies apparently were double-buried in already existing plots, Dart told WGN-AM 720 this morning. Dozens of FBI agents are expected in Chicago early next week to help sift through the evidence at the cemetery, Dart said.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/07/sheriff-bodies-dug-up-dumped-at-cemetery.html

[nini]

1. this happens quite often

and it's disgusting.

[abumbyanyothername]

2. I never understood burial . . . .

I had elected cremation . . . .

Then I saw a History Channel piece on the Tibetan book of the dead where they carry the dead body to a remote place to be picked clean by other animals, a final gift to the universe, while the soul continues its trek through the realms of death to a new life. Cool, but probably not doable in the US.

Maybe the route my parents are taking of donating their bodies to science . . . essentially allowing medical students to cut them up to see how the body functions and what diseases have done to them.

In any event, God forbid the living should venerate my physical form after I am dead. Now its a different story if anyone wants to worship my body while I'm alive . . . .

[predfan]

3. A friend's mom donated her body to Vanderbilt.......after the research was done,

they had a ceremony and each student met with the family, and spoke about what the donation had meant. Very fulfilling.

[aquart]

4. If you get too old, they won't take your body.

My mom's best friend and her husband are/were body donors. When he died, they did not find his body acceptable so it went to the vets' cemetery.

[Lerkfish]

5. I intend to be cremated, I think burial plots are a waste of land

of course, I also think golf courses are a waste of land, but whatever.

[KansDem]

7. I intend to be cremated, too. And my ashes sprinkled in the Pacific Ocean.

Neptune Society

Then I heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and all the waste of plastic floating around there. I thought, "Great! Now my ashes will be clinging to old bleach bottles and used sandwich bags for the rest of eternity." But, I'm going through with it just the same! :D

[TornadoTN]

6. I witnessed this actually happening while visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico

My wife and I were sightseeing at Fort San Cristobal and there is a very old cemetery that shares it's borders just a bit away from the fort. We were marveling at the size of the cemetery and the old headstones that were there when we noticed a truck along one of the service paths. We scanned the area and noticed a group of workers that were digging up grave sites and using a hoist to pull the coffins out of the ground. Once they got them out, they just tossed them into the back of the flat bed like it was garbage.

We went on, kind of shocked, and later came back to the same spot. They had filled the back of the truck with coffins, some visibly destroyed by the years and from being tossed into a truck. We asked a local about it and she claimed that they removed the graves of people that no longer had any family or couldn't pay for the site any longer. Kind of confusing to us, so I'm not sure what the deal was here but it was just flabbergasting.

[dragonlady]

8. GWB cronies were doing this in Florida

One of the many Bush scandals involves SCI (Service Corporation International), a huge funeral home corporation. A Texas official investigating it was fired when she refused to drop the investigation. She sued SCI, its CEO (a Bush ally), and the state of Texas, and subponaed Bush in connection with the case. He wiggled out of testifying by filing an affidavit stating that he had never discussed the SCI matter, which was false, because he (the governor) had looked in on a meeting between SCI and his chief of staff and expressed his opinion on the matter. This of course has been hushed up.

SCI was also desecrating graves:

....Distraught families filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday in a state circuit court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, accusing Menorah Gardens and Funeral Chapels and its parent company, Service Corporation International, of desecrating graves and destroying human remains.

The lawsuit alleges that people were buried in the wrong graves at Menorah Gardens cemeteries in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach without their relatives' knowledge.

It said cemetery workers broke open some burial vaults and dumped the bodies in the woods, and crushed down other coffins to make room for new coffins on top of them.

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20011221Baker.html

[tritsofme]

9. And I didn't even know we had an election coming up.

I usually get a notice in the mail.