ID process begins in Burr Oak cemetery investigation

Authorities are beginning the daunting task of trying to identify the people in each of the approximately 100,000 graves at a south suburban cemetery where four former workers allegedly dug up bodies to resell burial plots.

Authorities are beginning the daunting task of trying to identify the people in each of the approximately 100,000 graves at a south suburban cemetery where four former workers allegedly dug up bodies to resell burial plots.

The FBI set up a mobile command truck at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip on Monday.

The cemetery has been closed and declared a crime scene.

Authorities allege the former workers dug up bodies and either dumped the remains in a vacant lot or stacked them in existing graves.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office says it has received more than 7,000 written inquiries about loved ones.

The historic Black cemetery is also home to the grave of civil rights-era lynching victim Emmett Till. His grave site wasn’t disturbed.

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