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ALSIP, Ill. (STNG) - Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart declared all of Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip a crime scene Friday night after more remains and altered grave sites were found in a second part of the cemetery.
"It has become abundantly clear to us that this crime scene is going to continue to grow," Dart said. "We do not have an end in sight."
The newly discovered remains were found in the southern part of the cemetery near 127th Street. But missing or fake paperwork kept by cemetery workers will make it difficult to determine how many graves may have been disturbed.
Asked if the number of affected graves would exceed his estimate Thursday of 300, Dart said:
"I would be shocked if it doesn't change the number," he said. "It's becoming clear there are potential crime scenes littered throughout the cemetery."
Dart said members of the public may come to Burr Oak to provide information to the sheriff's office about their loved ones. But no one will be allowed past the front entrance for the next five to seven days while investigators try to "define the size of the crime scene," Dart said.
Earlier Friday, the Cook County state's attorney's office said it was attempting to persuade a judge to issue an injunction to halt burials at the historic cemetery. And Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes said his office has started the process of revoking the cemetery's license.
Dart's announcement capped a hectic day during which hundreds of people came to the cemetery to try to find their relatives, many without success.
Four cemetery workers have been charged with digging up hundreds of graves and reselling the plots. The bodies were dumped into at least one mass grave as part of a scam that netted the workers about $300,000, authorities have said.
Dart said about 700 people showed up at the cemetery Friday. The sheriff's office has also received more than 5,000 calls and 1,700 e-mails. Dart estimated that 30 to 50 percent of people who came to look for graves found missing headstones, and about 25 percent reported that the grave of a loved one was not where they expected it to be.
At least one of the visitors found bones in the cemetery, Dart said.
In addition, an entire section of the cemetery designated for babies could not be found, Dart said. He cited the need for better regulation of cemeteries.
Also Friday, the first lawsuits were filed in the Burr Oak scandal. Lawyers asked judges to make sure evidence was preserved.
One of those suing was Judy Minor Jackson, who, before the scandal broke Wednesday, went to Burr Oak to visit graves of her husband and her mother, but couldn't find her mother's grave.
Cemetery personnel promised to locate the remains of Adrienne Minor, buried in 1967, and get back to Jackson. Jackson returned to the cemetery in the wake of the scandal to that learn both sites had been destroyed, their contents and markers missing, according to a lawsuit she filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.
Chicago attorneys Deidre Baumann and Blake Horwitz said Friday that they filed a class-action lawsuit against the cemetery and four of its workers on behalf of families of four loved ones buried at Burr Oak.
Plaintiff Roshanda Washington Jones - with her nephews Jeremy Washington and Jarvis L. Washington and her mother, Renia Washington - is suing on behalf of her father, James Washington Sr., her sister and the nephews' mother, Sonia Lavette Washington and another relative, Mary Jane Haney. Chequita Byrd-Davis is suing on behalf of her daughter, India Scott Davis.
Baumann said she wants all records preserved despite the chaos at the cemetery. She said her clients had not yet been able to get into the cemetery to locate their relatives' graves because of large crowds.
"Even if they find the gravestones, that does not ensure the bodies are in the sites," Baumann said.
Meanwhile, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes said Friday he has begun license-revocation proceedings against Perpetua Holdings Inc., the owner of the cemetery.
"Even though it was rogue employees who were committing these atrocities, it is [Perpetua's] cemetery, and they are ultimately responsible, and they have abused the right to hold these licenses," Hynes said.
Hynes said his office doesn't have the legal authority to police the nearly 2,000 funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories it oversees in a "very narrow, limited role."
He said his office is authorized only to oversee trust funds for things such as prepaid funerals and "perpetual care" plans.
