4 charged with digging up graves, reselling plots

ALSIP, Illinois (CNN) -- Four people face felony charges after authorities discovered hundreds of graves had been dug up at a historic African-American cemetery near Chicago, Illinois, authorities said Thursday.

More than 300 graves may have been dug up in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, about 20 miles south of Chicago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

He said earlier that workers at the cemetery allegedly dug up the caskets, dumped the remains, resold the plots and pocketed the cash.

On Wednesday, he estimated the disinterred caskets at more than 100, but that number tripled Thursday.

The sheriff's department identified those charged as Carolyn Towns, Keith Nicks, Terrance Nicks and Maurice Daley.

Each has been charged with dismembering a human body, the sheriff's department said.

The sheriff's department has scheduled a 1 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) news conference to provide further details.

Authorities began investigating Burr Oak Cemetery -- where lynching victim Emmett Till, blues legend Dinah Washington and some Negro League baseball players, among others, are buried -- about six weeks ago after receiving a call from its owners.

The owners had concerns about possible "financial irregularities" regarding the business, Dart said earlier this week. Police went to the cemetery to investigate a financial crime and found much more, Dart said.

"We walked around here for the last week and each step you take you're finding more remains, more bones at different locations," he said, "and we don't even have our arms completely around the magnitude of this yet."

Most of the excavations occurred in back lots, where the plots were older and not frequently visited, he told reporters at the cemetery Wednesday.

The current owners -- who could not be reached for comment -- have operated the cemetery for more than five years, but are not believed to be involved, Dart said.

He said the workers may have doctored records to cover their tracks.

The FBI, forensic scientists and local funeral directors have been called in to help, he said.

Dart said groundskeepers, who have not been implicated in the scheme, have said the grave of Till -- whose 1955 lynching at age 14 helped spark the civil rights movement -- has not been disturbed.

Investigators are trying to determine the scope of the scheme and plan to use thermal-imaging devices to further examine other graves to see if they have been tampered with, Dart said.

"When you look at some of the gravestones that we come across, gravestones that have been dumped throughout the cemetery and had been hidden, you see gravestones of babies, you see gravestones of grandparents, wives, husbands, " he said. "This is heartbreaking stuff."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/09/illinois.cemetery.scheme/index.html

Love This Email Print Facebook Stumble It! Report