GUILTY IL - More than 100 bodies dug up at Burr Oak Cemetery, plots resold, 2009

[SuziQ]

July 8, 2009 (ALSIP, Ill.) (WLS) -- More than 100 graves were dug up in the historic Burr Oak Cemetery, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office.
Five people, including a cemetery manager, have been arrested for allegedly digging up the graves and then dumping the remains to make room for new bodies.
Heaps of cement - cracked open burial vaults - lie in the cemetery. In the weeds behind them, sheriff's police found bones, headstones and other evidence that the dead were dug up and discarded like trash.

More at link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6905349

• VIDEO: Bodies dug up at local cemetery
• VIDEO: Family members react
• Sheriff's Family Info Hotline: 800-942-1950

 

[ThoughtElf]

Greed amazes me. How do five people get together to conjure up a scheme for money making that is so gruesome?

So horrifying for the families and friends who'd laid their loved ones to rest at Burr Oak.

This is yet one more reason that I'm positive I want to be cremated.

 

[DollyPardonMe]

Wow! Reminds me of that movie, Poltergeist! Isn't that why they were being haunted? Graveyard had been dug up for a new housing development? Greed, deadly sin!

 

[SuziQ]

Videos mugshots and more at the below link

Up To 300 Bodies May Have Been Dug Up At Cemetery

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/burr.oak.charges.2.1078567.html

 

[Peculiar Petunia]

This is so horrible. I don't have any family there, and I'm still in shock.
I know they selected plots that were not visited often, but could you imagine going to visit Aunt Tillie, and running into someone in deep mourning over Uncle Arthur? Yeesh!

 

[Gracenote]

It makes the vigilante in me rise up. Those people are unspeakable. Just awful.

 

[Laurel]

This sure makes a person wonder what is wrong with our society.

 

[angeleleven]

This is very upsetting. Just think if it were your loved one buried there. How awful!!!

 

[Vegas Bride]

What's awful also are the families who had loved ones buried in the graves and now know someone else was dug up and discarded so these people could make money on them. They also have to feel violated.

VB

 

[SuziQ]

In various articles I've read that 30-40 FBI body identification specialists have been brought in to try to sort this out. The Feds are also looking into charging these people. What a horrible situation for the families.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I doubt they can come up with charges to adequately offset the horror in what they have done emotionally to the families. It is so sad some people who are paid to look out for our loved ones after they are deceased are so cold and calloused. Maybe there is another special place in Hell for those kind of people that will have them digging graves for eternity with toothpicks or something.

 

[wandering]

Videos mugshots and more at the below link

Up To 300 Bodies May Have Been Dug Up At Cemetery

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/burr.oak.charges.2.1078567.html

CBS 2 has learned that Towns is the administrator for the Emmett Till fund. Dart alleged at a Thursday news conference that Towns was pocketing money from that fund. She is listed as the contact person for the Till Historical Museum at the Burr Oaks Cemetery.


This woman is evil.

http://www.emmetttillmurder.com/Museum.htm

 

[Kristins1223]

LE also said on the news today that they went into some sort of garage type thing and found the original casket Emmett Till was in. When they opened it, there were animals living in it.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/emmett.till.casket.2.1080219.html

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=306047 - w/ picture of casket

 

[jantel74]

Disgusting. It says they made $300K total, I'm assuming. That's not nearly enough money for me to sell my soul to the devil. What is wrong with these people?

 

[SuziQ]

LE also said on the news today that they went into some sort of garage type thing and found the original casket Emmett Till was in. When they opened it, there were animals living in it.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/emmett.till.casket.2.1080219.html

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=306047 - w/ picture of casket

Omg, That'll bring anger out in people who don't even have relatives buried there. Emmett Till is a hero to many.

ETA: I see now that Emmett was buried in a new casket in 2005. I hope he is still in that one.

 

[Kristins1223]

I believe his old one was supposed to go to a museum.

 

[anneinchicago]

An entire section, called 'Babyland' where infants and children were supposed to be buried is missing.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1662030,burr-oak-funeral-cemetery-071109.article

And not only was Emmett Till supposed to be buried there, but Blind Willie Dixon, famous bluesman

 

[HesterMofet]

Emmitt Till is buried in Burr Oak, but I think even these idiots would know not to touch his grave. Or Willie Dixon. Or Dinah Washington. However, the casket that Emmitt Till was originally buried in was supposed to be being preserved by the cemetery for a museum that was being built for Till on the property. They found it rotting and rusting when they went to investigate the scandal.

Here's a cemeteries website with info on Burr Oak:

http://graveyards.com/IL/Cook/burroak/

 

[Peculiar Petunia]

Would there be genealogists in the area with duplicate maps of the cemetery? It seems very strange that the sole copy of the maps and records lay with the local management. I would think that either the LDS church or local African-American churches would have duplicate records.

 

[Disguiseduser0308]

No words. Just none. Well, I do have one for the people responsible but I think I'll avoid the time out for now.

Prayers to all the families having to deal with this now.