Vandals Inflict $500,000 in Damage to Headstones at Long Beach Cemetery
Long Beach police are looking for the vandals who overturned or destroyed 345 headstones at a historic cemetery, police said Saturday.
Responding to a call from caretakers at Sunnyside Cemetery on East Willow Street, police arrived at the cemetery early Saturday morning to find the damaged headstones, most of which were cross-shaped, said Officer Jana Blair.
The damage is estimated at about $500,000, she said.
Police found traces of blood at the scene, which they believe was the result of the vandals cutting themselves on the sharp granite edges of the broken tombstones, Blair said.
The 13-acre cemetery with more than 18,000 graves opened in 1907. It is the resting place of dozens of Long Beach leaders, including former Mayor Ray Clark, who died in 1925, and the city’s first schoolteacher and first police chief.
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