Vandals desecrate 73 Conrad graves

Vandals desecrated 73 graves by knocking over monuments in C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery either Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Jim Korn, the cemetery's sexton, said he spoke with people who regularly walk in Conrad cemetery to determine that the vandalism occurred sometime after 4 p.m. Sunday.

"We have people up here all the time who are very aware of what's going on," Korn said.

He estimates that reinstalling the monuments will cost between $5,300 and $7,400. Korn said it depends on how much of the work the cemetery staff can accomplish.

"We are not a monument company so we don't have the equipment necessary," he said.

He said the cemetery would have to hire a private company to lift and replace the monuments.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Korn was waiting for the Flathead County Sheriff's Department to come and complete the investigation. He said that the glossy granite monuments should contain fingerprints which may identify at least some of the culprits.

Deputies came out initially and surveyed the damage. Korn then completed an inventory of each site damaged and developed a cost estimate for repair as requested by the sheriff's department.

In the process, Korn discovered a vodka bottle at a party site on the perimeter of the cemetery. He suspects that that the vandals may have attended the party before embarking on their reign of destruction.

He preserved the bottle for the investigation.

According to Korn, the gate at the entrance to Conrad cemetery was locked so whoever committed the crimes must have entered on foot. Because of the weight of the monuments, he said several people must have worked together.

The cemetery has no insurance policy to draw from to cover the repair. Because the monuments belong to families rather than the cemetery, some may have coverage for the damage under their homeowner policy.

"We're going to be out (the money) because we are going to assist the families in putting the monuments back up," Korn said. "We aren't serving the rest of the families if we leave it like that."

However, a few of the stones were damaged too much to return to the grave site. Korn intends to contact those families about using their homeowner policy to repair their monument.

He said he would like to call each family who had a member's grave damaged, but some are so old that it isn't possible to find their survivors or a local contact.

Korn left the damaged grave sites untouched as requested by the sheriff's department although some families are emotionally upset and incensed by the disturbance of their loved-ones grave site.

"They really think this is an affront," Korn said. "We'd like to put them (the monuments) back up."

He said that every cemetery or public place is subject to this kind of crime. Conrad was a target once before in the 1990s.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com