Missing gravestone pried from ground at Cavendish Community Cemetery

Police are investigating the disappearance of a gravestone from the Cavendish Community Cemetery.

Usually when a family removes a stone to get it cleaned or re-engraved, they notify the cemetery's board first.

So board chair Elwin Wyand was surprised to find a hole dug near a tall white gravestone three weeks ago the cemetery is the site of the grave of P.E.I. author Lucy Maud Montgomery.

"There was a small headstone in that hole. So they took the base and the headstone and everything," he said.

Wyand said the headstone was dated 1939 and may have been for an infant. He said there were crowbar marks in the hole and he believes the people who took the stone used the crowbar to pryit from the ground.

"There was a track in the cemetery where they took it out on some kind of wagon," he said.

Wyand thought someone took the stone to be resurfaced and forgot to tell him, but as time has gone on he isn't so sure it'll be returned, Wyand said.

"I just thought somebody took it to get the letters and words cleaned up, so people could see what was on it," he said.

"But it's three weeks now and nobody brought it back."

He said he contacted the possible relatives a few weeks ago, but hasn't heard back.

He said staff at the cemetery filled in the hole on Saturday and the RCMP have been contacted and are investigating.

Wyand said every spring he inspects the cemetery and surveys the winter damage. He said often headstones are cracked or fall over in the winter but this is a first in his time a headstone has disappeared.

"We've never had that happen before since I've been on there and I have been president for 10 years," he said.

Wyand said if the people whotook the stone want to return it, they will have to reinstall it themselves.

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