Monument Firm Shuts : Missing Grave Markers Turn Up at Mortuary

The Mystery of the Missing Tomb Markers has been laid to rest . . . sort of.

Where an Encino tombstone-maker once operated, there are too few tombstones. In fact, none.

At Mt. Sinai Mortuary, there are too many, perhaps including some without the corresponding deceased.

This is no help to the families who have been knocking on the door of Valley Memorials Lodge Monument, only to find the business locked, the employees gone and the headstones they paid for nowhere to be found.

Workers Left

Neighbors say the owner and the workers abandoned the business without warning about 10 days ago. Employees of other businesses in the two-story office building where the company was located said they saw several bronze grave markers and tombstones being loaded onto a truck one morning.

The next thing they knew, customers who had fully or partially paid for grave markers were coming into their offices, asking what had happened to the business. “I’ve had about a dozen people come in here, really upset,” said Carl Gregory, whose Allstate Maintenance Co. is located next door to Valley Memorials.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tony D’Ambrosia dropped by the office Thursday on behalf of a handicapped friend who had partially paid for a friend’s tombstone. “He’s very worried because he has no idea what happened,” D’Ambrosia said.

A clue to the answer can be found at Mt. Sinai Mortuary in Los Angeles near Burbank. A load of grave markers from the Encino firm appeared there mysteriously one recent morning.

“Someone from that organization evidently decided that this was the place to get rid of them, and brought them here without our knowledge or permission,” said general manager Benjamin Dwoskin. “Some were in boxes, some weren’t.”

He said the 16 completed markers were dropped off without documentation, authorization from customers or fees to cover the placement of the headstones. He said he wasn’t even sure if all the markers match up with the mortuary’s deceased.

Received Call

A few days after the stones were dropped off, the mortuary received a call from David Lodge, Valley Memorial’s president, Dwoskin said. “He said that he was gone, that the business was defunct,” Dwoskin said. “He didn’t stay on the phone very long.

“This is really a shameful kind of thing,” Dwoskin said. “This is supposed to be a memorial for someone they love, and for something like this to happen is really upsetting.” Dwoskin said he had previous dealings with Lodge’s business, with no problems.

Attempts to reach Lodge on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Dwoskin said he was trying to put an end to the confusion by checking his records of recently buried people to determine if they match up with the names on the headstones. “We have to notify next of kin and straighten everything out,” he said.

“It’s really unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”