LINCOLN, Maine — Technically it is a violation of a town ordinance, but an unidentified man will not be cited with illegally burying a relative in the West Broadway cemetery, officials said Saturday.
Ron Weatherbee, town director of cemeteries, parks and recreation, said that the man that town cemetery maintenance worker Ted Martin saw digging out an unused town burial plot on Aug. 11 and leaving a small box of ashes told Weatherbee on Friday night that he would pay the $50 fee to bury his elderly relative appropriately.
“Proper paperwork has been done and I will have the cremation dug up and placed in the family plot,” Weatherbee said Saturday. “The gentleman did not know the town ordinance and was very apologetic. All is well.”
Town regulations require payment of $50 to $150 for unused plots in town cemeteries and that a town worker attend funerals to ensure that graves are dug properly and burial records are accurate, Weatherbee said. To ensure the correctness of town records, several Mattanawcook Academy students identified all the marked graves in town cemeteries as part of a public service project in 2010 and 2011.
Martin was attending a burial service in the graveyard on Aug. 11 as part of his job when he saw the man and a woman at a nearby plot, Weatherbee said. The man was digging and the woman was holding the ashes, which eventually were placed in the fresh-dug grave, Weatherbee said.
A 30-year town employee charged with digging graves and seeing that the right people are buried in them, Martin was quite surprised to see somebody else hefting a shovel in the graveyard unattended, Weatherbee said.
Weatherbee said he was equally astonished when Martin told him on Monday what he saw. Weatherbee and Martin were somewhat apprehensive when they approached the gravesite on Tuesday.
“When we dug it up, we did not know if it was a person, an animal or whatever,” Weatherbee said.
Another question was whether the person cremated died of natural causes or foul play, Weatherbee said, but they dismissed that concern almost immediately. Anyone doing anything nefarious probably would not have done it so openly, in broad daylight, he said.
One of the reasons for the surprise, said Steve Clay, Town Council chairman and owner of the funeral home that assisted with the cremated remains, is that the man, who was burying a relative, put the ashes “on the wrong side of his family’s stone.”
“It was just a matter of the plot being behind the stone or in front of it, and he just put it on the wrong side inadvertently,” Clay said Saturday. “The guy put the remains in the wrong place. I don’t think the guy was doing anything malicious. In his defense, there’s nothing there [in the graveyard] that says you need someone from the town to be there.”
The illegal burial is not as unusual as it seems, said Police Chief William Lawrence, who consulted with Weatherbee and Martin on Monday. Lawrence’s research showed that no state law was violated with the burial and that several nearby towns have no regulations regarding how people get buried in public cemeteries, Lawrence said.
Still, Lawrence, Martin and Weatherbee, who between them have about 70 years of experience in their professions, said they have never seen a burial handled by a family member.
“Here in Lincoln, it is kind of uncommon for people to dig their own family graves because we have to have somebody there from the town to make sure the grave is in the right spot,” Clay said. “In some of the smaller towns it is common for people to dig their own graves.”
A member of the town’s cemetery committee, Clay said he thinks the committee should discuss whether to place signs in town graveyards saying that all burials must be attended to by cemetery workers.
Weatherbee and Martin saw by the markings on the box that the ashes were those of an elderly man who recently had passed away. They placed the remains back in the grave. During the week, they consulted with Hervey Clay, patriarch to Clay Funeral Home of Lincoln, who said that his business had handled the man’s remains recently.
Clay gave them several leads and Weatherbee identified a family member Friday who he believed was involved in the burial, he said. He declined to identify the family, he said, to spare its members embarrassment.
Follow BDN writer Nick Sambides Jr. on Twitter at @NickSam2BDN.
We ought to be watching our borders like our graveyards.
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Nice to see that common sense prevailed.
When they dug it up?? I think these guys broke the law, I did not know they could take it upon themselves to exhume a grave without proper authority?? Okay now we got the lord all mighty proper town worker in the graveyard, now did they have the proper legal right and law there to exhume a grave?? Might have been tampering with evidence, or something. I understand they wanted proper list, but is anoymous okay? This is mostly busy body stuff, it should have not been in print here.
“This is mostly busy body stuff…” says pattenpond. Sounds like this body wasn’t busy at all.
If you re-read the story they didn’t know what was buried. Once they realized it was cremains they reburied him until they could sort out the issue. It seems they did just that and he will be placed in the right plot now.
They had no business disturbing a grave in a graveyard without legal rep.They needed to report this to authorities, they are not the authorities. They could be sued themselves for self admiting disturbing a grave without proper legal right.
So if it had been a dog that they wanted to bury with a family member they need to involve law enforcement? I think a little common sense is needed. And these two people had no one else with them like you would at a funeral and didn’t bother to ask the funeral director if they could just go dig a hole in the cemetery. Think about it nothing that happened in this situation was perfect but all ended well.
No runner, Iwas not talking about the people doing the burying, they were fine, it was the town authorities digging this up with no authority to do so.
The cemetery is owned by the city, so i guess they are the authotities.
The city may own it, but they cannot go digging up graves without a order to exhume.
This article is exactly why I am all in favor of families taking care of deceased relatives. I would rather go back to the old traditions where family washed the body, sat by the deceased, built the coffin, and placed their bodies in the grave. It is a part of the healing process yet we have taken it all away. Funeral Homes make tons of money, the town wants their share, and I could go on. It is time to change things for those of us who want to keep our family close to us, even in death.
Who removes the body’s organs, Uncle Fester?
hugh? they don’t do that now. Why would someone have to do that in the first place?
To return them to the Wurlitzer Company?
Within the last 10 years or so a friend did much as you describe when his father passed. Including building the coffin and digging the grave. A cemetary rep was there to make sure they dug in the right place and it helped that he had a backhoe. Unless laws have changed it is perfectly legal. No embalming required, no funeral home involvement etc.
What if you do not have family?
Great point. Simple is best. I’ve told my husband for decades, when I pass just throw my body on the fire pit and make some smores w/family and friends (w/Clapton or Robert Plant in the backgroud). Cremation is the way to go. Funerals, wakes and burials are just way too morbid
I have told my wife to drag me out in the back woods and prop me up against a tree. Recycling in it’s purest form
I would go for a funeral pyre as well – i’m sure my husband would honor my wishes – but the state would probably prevent and or charge him with unlawful disposal of remains. Wonder how I would find out if I can be burned to a crisp on my own property after I die?
There are religions in this country that still do that. Most people I know can no longer afford to bury their dead. I don’t know if it is possible, but it would be nice to bury family on their land too.
Private cemeteries on private land are legal in Maine. Green burial is also legal. I think Maine must be one of the most sensible states in the country on this topic.
Perfected way of saying it. The funeral homes are making 100’s of thousands of dollars a year. When my father died 19 yrs ago. The funeral bill was $75oo and how the same funeral I bet would 14 to 15 thousand dollars for the 3 day’s. Pretty sad its came to this kind of a profit margin. I would think they are making 65% to 70% profit.
The poster is right. Everyone wants to fleece the family of the departed. If you think about it, a cemetery is sort of gross as is, the wake and burial. Plus all the decay, etc. I, now feel that cremation is the proper way. No land, can elect a celebration of life at a relatives home or not, no elaborate fees taken from the grieved, ones. It makes the most sense, these days. Our new era of kids do not visit or maintain graves any longer and that is the times, so why bother and leave your container to the bugs, etc. The end is the end and if my belief is right that sperm creates everything but the mind then the mind will depart at death and move on, regardless.
Everyone wants to fleece the family of the departed.Yeah,especially other family members who did nothing to aid the person in their last days.Especially certain churches,er,cults..
What next? In Waterville, the cost to dig a hole for cremains is $200. I think I’ve found a way around that, though. Mine will be scattered on top of the grass. Now watch the DEP come along and fine my family for air pollution.
I’d look into that a bit more. I had the opportunity to spread a friend’s ashes as per his request, and I was honored to do so. But, I discovered the ashes are anything but “ash.” There was no “blowing away in the wind.” You see that in the movies but what I had would not have blown away in a hurricane. The cremains were more like medium gravel sized chopped up bones and bone/white color. A good rain would not have washed these into the soil. So, spreading them on the grass? Maybe not.
I knew a man whose job it was to cremate the dead. He said there couldn’t be ashes left because at the high heat they used, all ashes burned up. What’s left, he said, was crushed bone. It sounds better to refer to a person’s ashes rather than Grandpa’s crushed bones, however.
Agreed. I looked up the process and it says just that – the skeletal form remains. This is put through a device to break the bones into smaller pieces.
The movies still portray “ashes” as something akin to what you get when you clean out the fireplace, which of course are very light and any wind would blow them everywhere.
True.I looked thru my dads ashes,and there were some fairly large fragments.Very interesting.We are all but a whisper here.So fragile and temporary..
Thank you, CG. You may have inadvertently hit upon something positive about having advanced osteoporosis-haha.
Just got some more info:http://mainedeathcare.com/alternatives.htm#promession
Apparently, there are a few methods that will result in ash. One is called “promession” and involves acid and vibration. That almost begs me to include the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” song. What a way to go!
Ask Kieth Richards.
My dad is in a glass container right here in my room with me.And he will be until I am compelled to do otherwise.
My family has 11 plots in one area, cremation allows us to bury more ashes then bodies in there, and we are among other Catholics… (-;
The Catholic Church requires that “ashes” not be left unburied for long. I don’t know the time limit though.
I didn’t know that. For so long the Church didn’t even allow cremation. Why do they have a time limit do you suppose?
I have no idea, but it was information printed in the Harvest magazine or whatever it’s called, that comes in the mail from the church.
Am I the only one learning a lot from this article and comments. I did not know about the body not being ashes and being bone parts.
It appears a person needs to have the documents in place for what to do if you get sick, a will, and I would say a document of some sort stating “this is what I want done with my remains.” I had planned on and need to redo my documents and this articles and the postings have been a big help what I need to say and state.
How did the mayor know that this man was a “gentleman.” Gentleman and lady are both political terms…Say man…Say woman…As Mother Jones used to say “God made women and the Rockerfellers made the ladies..”
I love in court when the attorney asks, “Is the gentleman that killed the ten members of you family in the court today?”
And the witness answers, “That gentleman over there..”
Do gentlemen kill people?
My now 89 year old mother has buried at least 3 relatives cremains in family plots. One great aunt was enraged and reburied my great uncle somewhere else. My favorite one was my uncle who was buried under the flower pot. Everyone thought my sister and I were sobbing at the graveside service, but we were trying to hold back our laughter as we knew Uncle Eddie was under the flower pot. I suspect these burials happens more often than people realize.