Few Clues in Theft of Body From Mausoleum

The bizarre theft of a woman’s body from a mausoleum in Westminster this week has left police baffled, family members shocked and people in the funeral industry stunned.

Mike Ross, general manager of Westminster Memorial Park Cemetery Mortuary and Florist, said he ordered increased security patrols after what he called a heinous crime by “a sick individual or individuals.”

“I did talk to the family, and they’re cooperating with police with the hope that we can put an end to this,” Ross said. “Of course, they are as shocked and saddened as we are.”

Duane E. Harvey, president of the 1,600-member National Funeral Directors and Morticians Assn. in Atlanta, said that in his 28 years of experience he has never heard of anyone taking a whole body.

“We’ve known of the basic vandalism and situations of that nature,” Harvey said. “Mostly it’s for a prank or gang initiation. Most people, when doing it, they have fear and are forced into it from social pressure. But never to take the whole body.”

Harvey said what also was unusual in the Westminster case is that security measures had been taken. The cemetery was fenced with a combination of chain link, wrought iron and brick. Most graves that are desecrated, Harvey said, are in unfenced areas.

The ax apparently used to knock through the mausoleum’s thick marble-and-concrete wall was recovered by Westminster police at the scene Wednesday morning.

“Picture a guy just whaling away with an ax, and that’s the effect on the marble facing,” Westminster Police Sgt. David McDowell said Friday.

Marble and concrete chunks three-fourths of an inch thick were found at the mausoleum, along with the ax, its 3-foot-long wooden handle reinforced with black electrical tape.

Police said the vault was crudely broken into and the casket pulled out--a feat that could have required more than one person. The casket was left open and leaning against a mausoleum wall at a 45-degree angle, police said.

The body of the 85-year-old woman, who died in 1991, had no jewelry, and there were no valuables inside the casket. Her identity was not released at her family’s request.

“We don’t know the motive here,” McDowell said. “Could it be a prank? Or a cultic crime? It’s just bizarre.”

Based on other evidence at the scene, police believe the body was dragged about 40 feet over a grassy area, across a cemetery roadway and then perhaps placed in a bag and removed from cemetery grounds.

Police bloodhounds found a trail from the mausoleum, across the cemetery, through an open spot in the fence and down into a concrete canal, where they lost the scent.

“Whoever did this,” McDowell said, “they basically took a beeline from the scene slightly east and directly north to the fence line and went west along the fence about 100 yards. There, there is an opening in the metal fence, and that goes into the concrete canal where there’s a built-in ladder.”

The site is near Beach Boulevard and Hazard Avenue, one of the busiest intersections in the city, traveled by thousands of motorists daily.

“We’re hoping that someone saw a person with a bag or a backpack sometime after 8 p.m. on Tuesday night and before 8 a.m. Wednesday,” McDowell said.

Police are still processing evidence and did not disclose Friday whether any fingerprints were found at the scene.