Vandals break headstones, dump trash at 3 cemeteries in Ohio city

CANTON — Police are looking for the people who vandalized three cemeteries in Canton last week.

Claude Shriver, President of the Canton Cemetery Association, told WOIO, a Cleveland CBS affiliate, that someone dumped auto parts and license plates on top of tombstones at Westlawn Cemetery last week. Other dumpings like this have recently happened there, according to the Shiver.

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“Someone attended each of these graves at one time in a state of grief and mourning and when they come out now and they see the desecration of the graves of their loved ones,” Shriver said.

He also said that three days after installing a new gate, someone drove through it, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

Less than three miles away, eight headstones were knocked over and smashed into pieces at Rowland Cemetery. A groundskeeper told WJW in Cleveland that they estimate the cost of repairs will be more than $10,000.

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“Some of these are over 100 years old,” Tom Hale, Secretary-Treasurer at Rowland Cemetery, told WOIO. “If you hit the wrong one they’ll just explode, they’ll shatter.”

While police were at Rowland Cemetery, an officer noticed one damaged headstone at the neighboring First Mennonite Church Cemetery.

No arrests have been made at this time, but the investigation is ongoing.

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