‘That’s vile and disgusting’: Mementos stolen from Evergreen Cemetery in Okeechobee
By Cassandra Garcia
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OKEECHOBEE, Florida (WPTV) — Law enforcement is looking into who took items from a cemetery in Okeechobee County.
Several stolen items from Evergreen Cemetery in Okeechobee County have been recovered and deputies are working to charge the suspect and reunite the items with owners.
Evadean Lydecker couldn’t believe someone would prey upon a final resting place.
“I was out here checking on my loved ones’ graves,” said Lydecker.
Hundreds of heartfelt mementos were taken from grave sites at the cemetery.
“I think that’s vile and disgusting and it does make me concerned about my loved ones’ graves out here,” added Lydecker.
The Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office said investigators spent weeks looking to locate missing statues and mementos from the cemetery. Last week they made an arrest at a campsite.
“Some information that led them to an individual that they were able to get onto the property and then found a lot of these artifacts, relics and things that are suspected to have been taken from graves, which are unknown to us at this point,” said Okeechobee County Sheriff Noel Stephen.
Now, the sheriff’s office is looking to the community for help in properly charging the suspect.
“We need assistance from the public to please go to their loved ones’ graves and plots and see if there’s anything missing,” explained Stephen. “We’ve got over 100 items that we think are from there, but we need complaints and we need these victims to come forward.”
They ask that you call the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office if you notice something is missing. So far, they haven’t been able to match any of the mementos to an owner.
The suspect’s name is not being released until the investigation is closed. For now, the person is being held on unrelated charges.
“We know that he’s involved in this and he’s not cooperating so we need the citizens to be our eyes and ears and let us know if these things were stolen from their loved ones’ graves so we can get it documented,” Stephen said.
Lydecker says she feels for the families impacted by the cemetery thefts and hopes the suspect will be brought to justice.
“I think that’s very disturbing,” said Lydecker. “It’s like, why do you want to disturb the dead? They’re trying to rest.”
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