Families 'devastated' after graves desecrated by cemetery staff

A mother whose son was murdered oneday before his 18th birthday is among a number of families upset after groundskeepingstaff at a London, Ont. cemetery repeatedly damagedloved ones' graves.

Nancy McWebb, whose son Richard Maisonville was murdered for his truck in 2003, says groundskeepingstaff at Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Cemetery havedamaged her son's grave marker on four separate occasions over a 14-year period.

The first time she discovered the grave was desecrated was in 2007, about four years after Richard's death.

"I was totally devastated. Not only did they disrespect my son, but they disrespected us as a family. This is the only place that I can go and sit and enjoy time with my son. He's not here anymore," she said.

'It's really uncalled for'

McWebbsaid each time she discovered the damage she complained, only to be dealt with rudely by staff,and while her son's memorial was replaced by the company each time it was damaged, she was never informed.

"This needs to change,"McWebbsaid. "This cannot constantly happen. It's really ripping the Band-Aid off the pain we've already experienced and bringing up a lot of new pain and it's really uncalled for."

McWebb isn't alone in her complaints about the company.

Katie Dean buried her infant daughter Kylie Johnsonin her family's plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery back in 2004. She noticed it was damaged by a lawnmower when she recently went to visit her baby girl's memorial.

'I was pretty upset'

"It's a bronze heart on a base," she said. "It was knocked right off."

"I was pretty upset obviously, finding my daughter's grave like that. To me, it is completely not acceptable but pretty disrespectful that it would be found like that," she said.

When she went in to talk to the manager of Forest Lawn and explained her daughter's grave was damaged, she claims she was also treated rudely.

"He was dismissive in his tone," Dean said, noting the manager stood up, at first refusing to apologizeand ending the meeting abruptly.

You can listen to Katie Deans interview with London Morning here.

Others share stories

"I left. I was in tears. I was sobbing," she said. Since then, she posted the details of her story to her Facebook page and has since had dozens of responses, from people with similar stories and others alleging the company uses pressure tactics in order to get more money out of clients.

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"The response has been unreal. So many people have problems out there, I had no idea," Dean said.

"I too own a plot out there," she said, noting her family has been doing business with Forest Lawn since the 1970s. "After my daughter died my mother bought me a plot and now I don't even want it."

"Everybody in our city is going to die, somebody they love is going to die" she said. "You want to bury them some place where you canfeel peaceful, that the plot is going to be taken care of, and for them to roll over those plots and damage them with tractors is just unacceptable."

Company response

"The damage to any of the monuments is very unfortunate,"Dustin Wright, the spokesman forAborMemorial, the company that ownsForest Lawn Funeral Home andCemetaryin London, told CBC News Friday. "With each of these situations, whenever the families have brought it to our attention, we have immediately addressed it."

"In all of these cases, we want to do right for the families and we believe we do thisevery day," Wright said.

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"So if ever there's a situation where a family member feels as though they are not receiving the kind of response, empathy, treatment they want, so we can address it right away. It is definitely not the feeling we want them to have."