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Vandals target Woodbine cemetery on Easter Day
Posted On 15 Apr 2009
When Darrell Napier arrived at the Perkins Cemetery in Woodbine on Easter Sunday to visit the graves of his late family members, he got an unsettling shock.
As he approached the gravesites of his late wife (Betty), son (Adam) and mother-in-law (Sudie Baker), he noticed a change in the scenery that he said was saddening.
"The first thing I noticed when I walked through the cemetery was that a few of the footstones that used to be there were gone," Napier said. "As I got closer to the family plots, I noticed some of the things near there had been moved."
As he looked a little closer, Napier said that’s when he realized the changes might have been the work of vandals.
One definitive difference was the removal of a bench that had been placed near the area of his family’s gravesites so those visiting could do so comfortably. Napier said that bench was not only moved, but had to have been done forcibly so.
"This bench was actually concreted into the ground," he said. "It would probably take two good sized men to get that thing out of the ground.
"It’s just sad that people would go through that kind of effort to damage a place that means so much to people," he added. "It’s sad not only for my family, but all of those that are laid to rest at this cemetery."
The saddest part of the ordeal for Napier may be the fact he actually chose to go to the cemetery Sunday instead of church so that he could visit the grave of his son, who died at the age of 11 in 2007. Napier said he has had trouble with the Easter holiday since his son’s death.
"It’s just hard to be around all of the kids when I start to remember the Easters I spent with Adam," he said. "I thought by going to the cemetery, it would give me a chance to visit both graves and spend some time there thinking of them.
"It’s sad that you have to worry about the place you have chosen to put your loved ones to rest in peace," he added. "I am faced with having to worry about that now and I have had some trouble with it in the past few days."
Napier said this is the first time he has seen such damage at this particular cemetery, but added there has been some minor instances such as flower removal and things like that. He also said he knows the Perkins Cemetery has a reputation for attracting certain types of people who may be looking for "a place to party."
"It is pretty common for people to go up there and engage in drug use and, there really isn’t another way to say this, but sexual activity," he added. "It’s a shame that they don’t have any respect for the people and the families of the people up there.
"Hopefully a little awareness and some extra patrol by the Knox County Sheriff’s Department will help to curb that kind of stuff," he added.
Napier said he contacted the KCSD on Sunday and they agreed to provide some extra patrol for the area. The News Journal could not confirm that any type of investigation had been opened regarding the vandalism as of press time.
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I also have a mom, dad, brother, brother-in-law, aunts, uncles and cousins at rest in this cemetery. It is sad that we live in a day where there is no respect for the dead or the living. Many different times in the past twenty years my family members and I have tried to get the Knox County Sheriff’s Department to patrol or do something about the drinking,drugs,and parties that go on there.
We(my family and some friends) at one time had the inside and outside of the cemetery cleaned because it had garbage from the top of the hill to the bottom. Several of my family members worked hard and paid money out of there on pockets to see if it would make a change. It was in the paper also, thinking this would raise awareness and put a stop to littering and the others things going on there. KCSD at that time said they would patrol but if they did it is more than I know. I have noticed that the garbage is not hardly as bad yet. Many times beer cans would be thrown by or on my dads grave. My heart breaks everytime I go up there to visit my family graves. Many times I though about having them moved but I cannot afford to. I don’t think that is the answer anyway. I really don’t know what it would be.
I remember a few times in the past twenty years a few flowers getting put on someone else’s grave and someone breaking the fence by my dad and brothers grave. Flowers and bushes dug up and gone. I don’t know why anybody would choose a cemetery to party anyway. It must be because they know that no one will not come there and they feel safe. Don’t they know that they are being watched by our heavenly father who knows all? I pray for God to give them a heart to feel, that he will give them mercy and to let them see how deep in sin they truely are. This has went on for way to long. Maybe awareness and if the KCSD would stay consistant people that go there would realize they are going to be arrested. It would be nice to be able to visit the gravesites of our loved ones without having to look at the few things you bought for them destroyed. Mr. Napier, I know just how you feel. God Bless you for speaking out. Maybe if enough people speaks out that something will be done.