Over 600 Graves Damaged in the Last 2 Years at Columbus, Ohio’s Green Lawn Cemetery

The following excerpt is from an article first posted in the Columbus Dispatch:

Yellow caution tape flapped in the wind, crisscrossing the entrance of a mausoleum erected nearly 100 years ago.

It’s the latest sign of vandalism at Green Lawn Cemetery, where more than 600 grave sites have been damaged in the past two years at a cost of more than $1 million.

The latest incident occurred on Jan. 9 when a man entered through a broken fence and damaged a mausoleum and eight grave sites before grabbing a fistful of American flags from the graves of veterans and lighting them afire. He tossed the burning flags into a brush pile — an act caught by a security camera — before leaving the cemetery.

“Fences are a lot like locks. They keep honest people out,” said Randy Rogers, a trustee on the cemetery’s volunteer board.

The cemetery has grave sites of five governors and five Medal of Honor recipients, including Civil War veteran Ovid Smith, whose marker was damaged by vandals on Aug. 14.

Read the full article.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

One Reply to “Over 600 Graves Damaged in the Last 2 Years at Columbus, Ohio’s Green Lawn Cemetery”

  1. Since the police haven’t yet identified the perps, with just the fuzzy photo of someone’s back so far, THEN WHY ARE SO MANY COMMENTATORS SO QUICK TO BLAME ANYONE OR ANY GROUP THAT THEY HATE??
    Just shows the emptiness inside the heads & hearts of such commentators!!

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