They have completed the investigatory phase at Burr Oak Cemetery, and still, no one has any answers, and no one has any peace.
They have completed the investigatory phase at Burr Oak Cemetery and still no one has any answers, and no one has any peace.
The terrible tragedy that occurred at Burr Oak, the first cemetery in the area to inter Black people, has touched so many families. The simple expectation of being allowed to “rest in peace” has been dashed by the reality of a scheme by some cemetery workers to resell burial plots by digging up the deceased and just discarding the remains.
The question for the families, for the funeral homes, for law enforcement and for regulators, is what happens next.
Unfortunately, the end of the sheriff’s investigation has not brought much more light. We still do not know if the four people charged in the heinous crime are the extent of the scheme. We do not know, yet, how many bodies were moved, how many graves desecrated or how many were never buried in the first place.
Worse yet, at the end of the Burr Oak investigation, new allegations were surfacing about a similar scheme at another cemetery. That means that Burr Oak may not be an anomaly and that every cemetery is now placed under a cloud. Who really knows what is happening at any other cemetery. Where are the checks and balances, where is the regulation that governs how cemeteries operate?
______
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to our digital or paper edition. For previous editions, contact us for details.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
About Post Author
