Chicago Area Local News

ALSIP, Ill. (CBS) ― It is hard to imagine what dozens of mothers, fathers, son and daughters went through today. They spent hours at the cemetery just looking for the graves of their loved ones. Some people showed up as early as midnight to try to get answers.

CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman talked to several families after they learned that up to 300 bodies were removed from their graves and the plots were resold at the historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. Four people have been charged in the case.

When somebody answered the phone at the Burr Oak business office Thursday morning, CBS 2 heard many voices in the background. The person who picked up said only that families with questions should come to the cemetery, so that's where we went.

"If they're buried before 2001, you want to head up to that brick building over there," a sheriff's office staffer said.

"We're doing the best we can," another staffer said.

And they are busy.

"It is a madhouse," Joyce Harris said.

Staffers from the Cook County Sheriff's Office have the tough task of letting families know their loved ones might not be in the spot they thought was their final resting place.

In the crowd of people who came to check on their loved ones, one woman was angry to the point of yelling.

"This is ridiculous," said Gwendolyn Hicks.

Hicks came to Burr Oak Cemetery with one question: "Where are my loved ones?" she said. "Where are all of our loved ones?"

Family members are demanding justice.

"I have 23 family members out here," said Myrtis Palm Dean. "I have grave sites that haven't even been used, headstones that are missing. This is ridiculous. This is sacred ground."

Dean looked for her grandparents graves and couldn't find them.

A lot of people were searching today, trying to make sure their family members were where they were supposed to be.

Joyce Harris found her son.

"Thank you, Jesus," Harris said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

But she's not certain about her mother-in-law's remains. She's worried hers was one of the graves unearthed so someone could cash in.

"I don't know how people can do that to someone," Harris said. "It's so sad. How could this happen?"

Cherise Moore became suspicious three years ago, when her sister's tombstone disappeared.

"When I saw it yesterday on the news, I said, 'I'm going to come out here and see,' because it would be so muddy, and you would need a boat and boots to get back there, and every time I would get back there, I never could find her headstone," Moore said.

She described the situation as a "living hell."

"It's opening up old wounds," one woman said. "Why? I just want to know why."

Hicks left the cemetery knowing she wouldn't get an answer today. So CBS 2 followed her home and she showed us the faces of the family members she thought she laid to rest: her mother, her father, a brother, a son.

"You pay for them to have a nice funeral, you pay for them to have this burial, and they should not be disturbed," Hicks said.

But she says based on her past experience, "It doesn't surprise me at all."

Hicks claims shortly after her son's burial in 2003, Burr Oak staffers moved his body without her knowledge.

"They told me he was buried in one place when he was in another," Hicks said.

She says it was so traumatic she didn't trust the cemetery, but she continued to visit.

"I'm always taking flowers. I'm always going out there to talk to my son," Hicks said.

When asked if she ever saw any strange activity at the cemetery, Hicks said, "Lately they've been digging to a spot, move to another, come back to a spot."

Now she worries about what she saw because of what she knows. She's seen the reports about the unearthed graves. She thinks some of her relatives might be in the problem area, relatives who have been there since before the year 2000.

"We talked to a detective at 7:00 this morning, I'm on one phone, my daughter is on the phone with him, and he was telling us that records had been destroyed prior to 2000," Hicks said.

That's her history and her daughter's history.

"When you put them to rest, they're in peace," Hicks' daughter Precious Taylor said. "And just to think that someone would tamper with them, how do you go home and sleep after that?"

A sheriff's office representative said they're meeting with people Thursday to let them know what's happening, but they can't offer any resolution anytime soon because the case is so new.

"They need to pay for what they have done," Hicks said.

As of Thursday afternoon, hundreds of families had called with questions and more than 700 family representatives had visited the cemetery inquiring about loved ones.

If you have loved ones buried at Burr Oak Cemetery and want to check on their well-being, call (800) 942-1950 or send an inquiry to BurrOakCemeteryInvestigation@gmail.com

Officials really want to hear from families since the records prior to the year 2000 had been destroyed.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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