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Get Marty: Local Business Volunteers To Clean Vandalized Headstones

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The Riverview Cemetery is committed to returning the headstones to their original condition.

It won't be cheap, but one man has reached out to KDKA's Marty Griffin.

The work is painstaking, meticulous. Grave markers are timeless reminders of the loss of a loved one.

The people at Rome Monuments in Monaca will use the same effort when they remove the spray paint form the headstones defaced in Kiski Township's Riverview Cemetery over the weekend.

"First I was mad," said John Diogardi with Rome Monuments.

Diogardi was outraged when he saw 200 headstones spray painted and vandalized at the cemetery.

"We cannot let the vandals think they won," said Diogardi.

KDKA talked to him an hour after the incident was first reported. He didn't hesitate and immediately volunteered to step up and help.

"Those families right now need to be hugged and held," said Diogardi. "Hopefully what the cemetery is doing for them, what we are doing, that's the hug they need, so then their lives can move on."

Diogardi just ordered about $1,000 worth of a special chemical. It will take a few days to be delivered.

But with the super powered cleaning solution, a pressure washer and crew, he will be out early Thursday morning cleaning all of the headstones for free.

"I gotta believe they would do it for another person as well," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind you have to do it for free."

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