Jul 13, 2009 7:54 pm US/Central
Investigators Begin Identifying Graves At Burr Oak
Families Of Loved Ones Buried At Burr Oak Are Asked To Stay Home
Sheriff's Department Will Only Accept Information By Phone Or E-Mail Starting Monday
ALSIP, Ill. (CBS) ―
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The Cook County Sheriff's Office and FBI are conducting a methodical survey of Burr Oak Cemetery, which is being treated as an enormous crime scene since allegations of illegal body dumping and burials surfaced.
CBS
Authorities are beginning the daunting task of trying to identify the people in each of the approximately 100,000 graves at a suburban Chicago cemetery where four former workers allegedly dug up bodies to resell burial plots.
The FBI set up a mobile command truck at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip on Monday. The cemetery has been closed and declared a crime scene.
Authorities allege the former workers dug up bodies and either dumped the remains in a vacant lot or stacked them in existing graves.
CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports that workers assisting the sheriff's department arrived by the busload Monday. The FBI is also on the scene to begin the enormous task of trying to sort through and identify 100,000 graves.
"It's a lot of work for our guys," said Lisa Gordon, Cook County Sheriff's Department. "It is 150 acres that we have to go through. It's a whole crime scene now, not just the original portion of it."
Investigators have begun setting up small flags to help them in a grid search of the entire cemetery to help collect evidence. On Tuesday, officers and other workers will walk shoulder-to-shoulder to canvass the entire cemetery, sheriff's spokesman Steve Patterson said.
"Everything has to be documented, photographed, logged both electronically and by hand before it can be removed," FBI spokesperson Ross Rice said.
It's all an effort to make sure no evidence is overlooked in the vast cemetery.
Frustrated families looking for answers about
loved ones buried at Burr Oak Cemetery are being told to stay at home. Relatives of loved ones who went there Monday were turned away.
Requests are only being accepted by e-mail or phone.
Inside the cemetery office, sheriff's department staffers worked feverishly to create a database of names of the more than 100,000 people buried in the cemetery. Investigators say they're trying to sort through jumbled records and call the bookkeeping system "disastrous."
As of noon Monday, 12,000 requests for information on burials had been filed by family and relatives. Authorities also had 37,500 calls to phone hotlines and 4,000 e-mails.
"This is just ridiculous. My parents bought this plot for my grandparents to rest in peace forever, not until they get tired and want to re-sell the plots," said Homer Bibb. "This don't make no sense. Trying to find some kind of information. I didn't find nothing out that I didn't know already."
Over the weekend, they had 7,000 requests for information, but they've only been able to process about 400 of those requests.
On Saturday, officials closed the gates to families seeking answers at Burr Oak Cemetery.
By Sunday, relatives of the deceased were sent to Eisenhower High School, 12700 Sacramento Ave., in Blue Island, where officials continued to gather information.
Families say the uncertainty is the hardest thing to deal with.
Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes says he's filing a complaint against the cemetery's owners and will try to transfer ownership to a more responsible party.
The cemetery remains closed until further notice. The sheriff's department says this will be a long process and an ongoing investigation.
Also Monday, authorities moved the original casket of Emmett Till to a suburban sheriff's office, and plan to return it to the Till family. The casket was found in a dilapidated shed on the cemetery grounds. Till's murder by a group of white men in Mississippi helped sparked the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
A photographer was placed under arrest outside the cemetery. Sheriff's deputies say he was illegally trying to climb into the cemetery to snap photos of what is now one of the largest crime scenes in the history of Cook County. He denied the allegation.
Patterson said he's seen no sign of Melvin Bryant, the leader of the investment group that owns the cemetery. But he says the sheriff's office has conveyed to him that many family members want to hear from Bryant.
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.
CBS 2's Susan Carlson and Mike Puccinelli, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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