A new pond in a cemetery in Mulberry Grove, Ill., may be covering a series of unmarked graves, an activist group has alleged.

Roy Lappe, 51, is part of the group that claims the man-made pond may have covered up -- and perhaps flooded -- several graves at Seagraves Cemetery, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Sunday.

We're not out after anybody, Lappe said. But this is wrong. You don't mess with people's final resting place.

Farmer Kevin Devore said he created the fishing pond on what he thought was his property after getting permission from the Bond County Board. A land survey after the pond was dug discovered it overlapped onto cemetery land.

I didn't mean to upset anybody, Devore told the Post-Dispatch.

County officials say they are trying to work out a solution to the problem, one that would offer some consolation to the families of people who are buried in the cemetery.

Bookmark this news