Reward Offered After Union Cemetery In Fayette County Vandalized
FAYETTE COUNTY (KDKA) -- Muddy tire tracks, toppled grave markers, and headstones ripped straight out of the ground. That's the scene at one Fayette County cemetery.
KDKA's Meghan Schiller traveled to Dunbar Township and talked to community members who want justice for recent vandalism.
"It's terrible. It hurts in your heart for God's sakes for someone to do something like this," said Lance Winterhalter, chairman of the Union Cemetery board. "Why would you even pick on a cemetery."
He said a criminal targeted the dead, crashing into headstones and ripping apart burial plots.
"These people are buried here. Their families are going to see this and what are we going to do about this? These family members are going to be hurt from this," Winterhalter said.
Winterhalter invited our cameras out to Union Cemetery in Dickerson Run and thinks the vandal struck early this week.
"I think the person came up on the side road, come over, he did some donuts up on the top and he came down and at least knocked at least eight or 10 stones down on the ground," Winterhalter said.
Neighbors Harry Gray Jr. and Jack Washabaugh live just up the hill. They say a few neighbors' cameras captured a black truck passing through, but Pennsylvania State Police continue to investigate.
"You know your family is at rest here, this is it," cemetery board member Gray said. "Then they come in here and the young people come up here drinking and smoking dope and this is what you get."
"It's a lack of respect, and that's what we have in our nation today," said cemetery board member Washabaugh.
They're hoping cash will help them find who did this and bring the vandal to justice.
"The cemetery board is putting out a $500 reward for the arrest and the conviction of the person who did this," said Winterhalter.
The vandalism damage burial plots that have been in the cemetery since 1928. One man, buried in mid-August, doesn't even have a headstone yet.
If your loved one is buried in Section Five West of Union Cemetery, the board wants to talk to you about repairs and what happened.
