Vandals Exhume Corpses at Cemetery

In a gruesome act, vandals broke into eight crypts at the abandoned Verdugo Hills Cemetery and exhumed the corpses, propping up one against the crypt and shoving a cigarette in its mouth, Los Angeles police said.

A volunteer caretaker, who last visited the cemetery in October, discovered the macabre scene Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s possible that this was a Halloween prank,” LAPD Det. Jim Vojtecky said. The vandals opened eight of the above-ground graves and pulled out seven caskets, leaving no fingerprints on any of the marble surfaces, Vojtecky said. There are no suspects.

Police enlisted the help of Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs when the State Cemetery Board declined to take responsibility for the corpses. The city and state board are in disagreement over which agency should assume responsibility for the former private cemetery, which opened in 1923 and was closed in 1976.

“This was just too puzzling for the police,” Greg Nelson, press deputy for the councilman, said of the disposition of the corpses.

Wachs arranged for the eight corpses to be transported to a Tujunga mortuary. He also directed a security guard to watch over the Verdugo Hills Cemetery while repairs are made and the crumbling mausoleum is boarded up. Since its closure, the cemetery has become a favorite hangout for teenagers and vandals who have defaced graves and littered the grounds with trash and car parts.

Nelson said the city will see that the corpses are reinterred but would prefer that the State Cemetery Board take charge of the situation. Meanwhile, the mortuary is trying to locate family members of the exhumed bodies.

In the early 1970s, the cemetery fell into disrepair, and state and local officials complained about its appearance and operation. The cemetery lost its license in 1976 and since then has experienced a series of bizarre pranks and natural disasters.

Heavy rains in February 1978 sent corpses and coffins sliding down the hillside into neighbors’ yards, leaving 41 graves partly exposed in a 1,500-square-foot section of the cemetery. In response to complaints from residents, the city spent more than $200,000 to collect and store the corpses while constructing a retaining wall to prevent another landslide.

Even so, five corpses were exposed after another bout of heavy rains in February 1980.