Family members say they were shocked to discover Monday morning that vandals had damaged grave sites, stealing or destroying memorials left on loved ones' graves, at Cutter Morning Star Cemetery overnight.
The vandalism was reported to the Garland County Sheriff's Department Monday morning.
Rebecca Jones, whose 2-year-old son is buried in the cemetery, said she received the call from a friend early Monday morning notifying her of the vandalism.
Her friend "knew that's where my son was buried, so I rushed in the car and pull up and see probably about 25 other cars, because everyone is rushing to see, I'm guessing, obviously if their loved ones' graves were messed up," Jones said.
"And I parked and had to run to my son's. He was 2 years old when he passed away and there (was) all of his stuff, which his headstone was not broken and I guess that's the only thing I can say I'm thankful for, but he had little angels and different things sitting on his headstone."
She said the angel figurines and a lion figurine were both thrown at her son's headstone.
"I could tell because all of the ricochet pieces were right there at the front," Jones said. "Everything that was thrown at it and broken, it filled up a trash bag."
In addition to that, she said he had flowers, toys and a large cross at the grave site that were all stolen.
"As a mom, I've already lost my child (and) I have to wake up the day after Mother's Day to go clean up my 2-year-old son's grave site because someone wanted to vandalize it; it's heartbreaking, it's disgusting," Jones said. "I never would have thought I would have lost a child to begin with, but I definitely didn't think I'd have to go clean his grave up because someone wanted to go throw angels at it and bust them over his headstone."
The row where Jones' son's grave site is located is called "Kid's Row" since it is made up mostly of children, and she said this is the row that got "hit the worse."
"They literally just drove through graves," Jones said. "There were several headstones that were completely demolished. ... It would have definitely had to been a truck or something with some pretty strong tires because they hauled through several areas just running over stuff, and I think a car would have gotten stuck doing that."
She said there was even an area that she believes the vandals started to dig up.
"I don't know what type of human being; and I don't think it was just one person," Jones said.
See Tuesday's edition of The Sentinel-Record for complete details.
Local on 05/11/2020