Thank you Kyle.
No one is exempt from this.
LA~Tippecanoe
----- Original Message -----
From: <KidClerk(a)aol.com>
To: <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 7:00 AM
Subject: [INPCRP] graveyard vandalism-Lafayette
>From today's Lafayette Journal and Courier:
Vandals strike graveyard
By DAN SHAW
_dshaw(a)journalandcourier.com_ (mailto:dshaw@journalandcourier.com)
Vandals have knocked over several headstones in a small cemetery in south
Tippecanoe County within the past couple of weeks.
Bill Easterbrook, Lauramie Township trustee, said the groundskeeper who
mows
the lawn at the Horney Cemetery found the damage Wednesday morning.
The cemetery lies northwest of the intersection of County Road 700 East
and
South County Line Road.
Many of the headstones damaged were large. Some of them lay broken into
three
or four pieces, which Easterbrook estimated may weigh as much as 400
pounds
each.
To rebuild the headstones, the township will have to hire a monument
company,
which may cost as much as $1,500, he said. The money for that will come
out
of the township's cemetery fund, which contains about $25,000, he said.
"All of these stones belong to some individual," he said. "And there is
no
way for us to go back and look at the genealogy and say, 'Your stone was
tipped
over, and we want you to pay us for it.'"
Lauramie Township contains 15 cemeteries. Seven of those are public, and
Easterbrook is responsible for maintaining them.
Easterbrook said the groundskeeper, Marvin Wheeler, goes to the cemetery
about every two weeks and believes the vandalism was committed after his
last
visit.
Teenagers likely caused the damage, he said.
He thinks they did it merely by pushing the stones over, noting that there
were no signs of that a crowbar or other tool was used.
Don Hurst, a sergeant with the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department,
said
he too suspects that the vandals were teenagers, although he has no strong
leads to follow.
"It's kind of open at this point until we can get a little further to go
on,"
he said.
Most of the headstones in the cemetery bore the name of Horney and dated
to
the 19th Century.
Last year, vandals damaged headstones at the Fairview Cemetery, also in
Lauramie Township, according to Easterbrook.
No suspects were ever arrested for that crime, he said.
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