More Cases of Disturbed Graves Discovered in Burial Plot Scam at Illinois Cemetery
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}July 8: Authorities at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill., where dozens of graves were dug up and bodies dumped in a massive pile. (AP)
Authorities say about 30 more cases of disturbed graves have turned up at a historic black cemetery in Illinois where four people are accused of unearthing hundreds of corpses in a scheme to resell burial plots.
The four made about $300,000 in a scheme believed to have stretched back at least four years.
Authorities say some of the corpses were dumped in a weeded area, while others were double-stacked in existing graves.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Burr Oak Cemetery is the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till, as well as blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington.
Investigators found Till's original glass-topped casket rusting in a shack at the cemetery. The 14-year-old was killed in 1955 and his battered body helped spark the civil rights movement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday said about 2,000 families have come to the cemetery trying to determine the status of loved ones buried there.
Three gravediggers and a manager at Burr Oak have been charged in the case.