Jul 15, 2009 6:48 pm US/Central
A Look Into The Cost Of Burr Oak Investigation
ALSIP, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Cook County Sheriff's officers and FBI work to identify graves at Burr Oak Cemetery
CBS
Trying to piece together what really happened at Burr Oak could be the toughest job in Cook County right now and the bill is bound to be enormous.
From the sheriff's office alone the manpower commitment at Burr Oak totals more than one hundred employees as of today. There is no cost estimate on that yet, but a spokesperson gave CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman a little people power insight.
He said that of the 43 people in the detective bureau, more than half are at the cemetery in Alsip. He says that does in fact affect how they can tackle things such as non-violent crime and cold case work.
That's just the sheriff's office perspective. Burr Oak's getting help from other county agencies as well.
The number of people who have questions about loved ones buried at Burr Oak makes for an awfully long paper trail that someone has to follow.
People from multiple county departments are doing just that in a room at 69 west Washington. They're archiving all the information the sheriff's office has gathered from families for the criminal investigation. But that is just one way Cook County's Emergency Management Agency is assisting. They are also contributing three light towers, daily garbage pickup and a 25 station call center among other contributions.
As of now, the cost of all this is unknown, but Antonio Hylton of the Cook County Bureau of Technology says that other places will not suffer because of it. They are not putting all of their resources into the Burr Oak location.
Many relatives of those buried at the cemetery, like Cheryl Lewis, are glad to see resources used to help sort out the situation. They want to know where their loved ones are and if county work yields answers, they are all for it.
"If they stop it here...hold nothing back...other cemeteries will stop doing these things."
Now that a receiver will be operating burr oak, there is some question as to what county resources will be needed there. A spokesman for the county says they'll be talking about that over the next 24 hours. In the next day or two we also should have some idea of cost, at least from the sheriff's office. It has not ruled out suing the cemetery's owner for expenses incurred.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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