PLACERVILLE, Calif. — When Colleen Cranor was walking her dog at the Placerville Union Cemetery, she noticed something out of the ordinary. Some of the headstones and markers were tipped over and broken in half.
Cranor said she even found a headstone she believes was dragged from its original resting place.
"It breaks my heart, because it’s a matter of history," Cranor said. She insisted that the stones were vandalized.
Julianne Melchor, a spokesperson with the El Dorado County Cemetery Administration, told ABC10 that outside forces destroying headstones is very unlikely.
Melchor, who was already investigating the claim of vandalism when ABC10 spoke with her, said after examining the cemetery with a volunteer, she concluded that no vandalism had taken place.
"We have old markers that have been down for a while," Melchor explained. "Others might have been broken because of age, especially the ones that are made of a softer material — they just brake."
Melchor said more than 6,000 people have been buried at the Placerville Union Cemetery since 1871 when it was created. Those buried on the grounds include some of Placerville’s original founders and Civil War veterans.
Melchor said El Dorado County and the City of Placerville share duties maintaining the grounds, but it's ultimately the families of those buried at the cemetery who are responsible for keeping up the headstones.
Melchor admitted that the cemetery has been targeted by vandalism in the past and that maybe some of that left behind is what Cranor recently saw.
Melchor added that the cemetery is gated, but it’s been nearly two years since its been closed off at night.
"We manage 18 cemeteries, and we have two and a half staff that do that, and we can’t go around all over the county to open and close gates," Melchor explained. "We just don’t have the manpower to do it."
Cranor said she believes age could be a factor with some of the damaged headstones, since some date back to the 1800s, but she is still skeptical about the explanation.
"There might be a few things going on like that, but in this instance, all of these stones did not come down by just falling down," Cranor said.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Mayde Gomez.
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