Jul 12, 2009 6:33 pm US/Central
1,000 Head to Area School For Burr Oak Answers
Church members tight-lipped about Towns
BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (CBS) ―
Burr Oak family members now navigate the new system for finding out if their loved ones' graves are still intact.
Each person is going through a wave of emotions. There's deep sadness, and anger, followed by a quest for answers.
"I have the burial cards for them as well, I have the death certificate, the birth certificate – everything," said Leslie Jones.
Jones has all the necessary paperwork with her to help locate the graves of her mother, father, and husband at Burr Oak Cemetery. Jones hopes her loved ones are still in the final resting place she paid for long ago and not part of a mass grave created for profit.
She said she has had to find the paperwork and the process has been indescribable.
"It's very disturbing, it's just devastating," Jones said. "I just…it's enough, it's enough."
Jones was among the hundreds of people coming to Eisenhower High School in Blue Island. The place of learning has been transformed into an information center by the Cook County Sheriff's Police after officials closed the graveyard to the public on Saturday.
Each person coming to the school fills out a form. They provide the name and age of their loved one, along with a lot location, row, grave, and burial date. An investigator calls them back in five to seven days.
"We're taking information from them so that we can process their records and ultimately, they'll have some information where their loved ones are buried and then when the cemetery does reopen, they'll be able to come out here and go to the site and hopefully find that everything's OK," said Willie Winters of the Cook County Sheriff's Department.
The task of locating graves is incredibly difficult. Some Burr Oak office records were either destroyed or are incomplete. Jacqueline Harvey is trying to locate the graves of 58 relatives. She had a stack of papers on her Sunday, a stack that represents 28 of her family members.
"We're very devastated with this situation, very devastated," Harvey said. "It's been very hard. I wanted to come out last week, but it was too hard for me to come by myself, so I had to wait for other family members."
Diane Hargraves wants to find her mother and father's burial sites. Hargraves says she's still trying to understand how anyone could carry out such a heartless crime.
"It's unbelievable that something like this can happen in this day and age, but it can," Hargraves said.
In five days, the Cook County Sheriff's Department has received more than 7,000 written requests for help in finding loved one and only 400 requests have been processed by department employees, authorities said.
The Cook County Sheriff's Police will be at Eisenhower High School,12700 Sacramento Ave., in Blue Island again on Monday from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. taking information with the hope of locating undisturbed graves.
If you have loved ones buried at Burr Oak Cemetery and want to check on their well-being, call (800) 942-1950, or locally, (708) 865-6070, or send an inquiry to
BurrOakCemeteryInvestigation@gmail.com. According to the sheriff's department spokesperson, the Cook County Sheriff's Department will only be accepting requests for information over the phone or by e-mail starting next week.
The woman police say was the mastermind of the Burr Oak debacle received a little spiritual support Sunday. Carolyn Towns is a member of First Mount Calvary Baptist Church. She stepped down from the finance committee two years ago amid allegations of irregularities.
Sunday, most church members were tight-lipped about Towns as they walked into Sunday service. One woman who didn't want to be identified said these charges are hard to accept.
"I just couldn't believe it cause she's a very nice lady, for real. Me and her got along so good. She always treated me real good. So just couldn't believe it – that's all I know," said the woman.
Towns sings in the choir at the church and remains a member of the board.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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