Water splashed Aisha Woods' feet as she entered Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery. It wasn't long before she discovered a vomiting faucet that worked without a valve.
It wasn't the only piece of metal missing from the 20-acre park in Carson.
On Jan. 11, vandals stole more than 100 bronze plaques from the Lincoln Memorial, including one donated by boxing champion Joe Louis in 1949, according to Woods, one of the volunteers who manages the cemetery. It is the second attack by cemetery robbers recently in the Carson-Compton area, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
“I was very angry,” said Woods, who has been tending the cemetery since the summer. “He was very angry. “I was wounded.”
Most of the plaques taken from the Lincoln Memorial were in the mausoleum, a turquoise-painted structure located toward the center of the cemetery. Woods said he noticed the robbery while he was walking around the park on the morning of January 12. He said vandals had also tried to cut off the plaque attached to a bust of Abraham Lincoln.
Woods said he believes the robbers returned a night later. He said that on Sunday he noticed fresh marks on Lincoln's bust and an abandoned garden tool near a couple of bushes. All possible evidence has been turned over to the Sheriff's Department, Woods said.
Five days after the initial raid, rectangle-shaped debris remained on the walls of the mausoleum where the plaques once hung. Families entering the park to visit the graves of their loved ones scanned the mausoleum for the missing plaques; others walked through the structure to observe the vandalism.
The estimated damage and cost of the missing plates totals more than $2 million, according to the Sheriff's Department.
The incident affected an already struggling cemetery that has been run by volunteers since late July after its owner, John Michael Mintz, canceled its operating license. The Times reported in August that Mintz, 74, had become ill in recent years and had not responded to further communications about the park.
Valerie Holyfield, another volunteer at the Lincoln Memorial, said she spends time at the cemetery because her two children are buried there. The latest incident, she said, left her “pretty hurt.”
“I let them rest there and I never would have thought that in 2023 I would be faced with not walking to the cemetery to visit it,” Holyfield said, referencing the time when the cemetery was temporarily closed to the public last year. “And then, in 2024, this place where I let you rest would be violated.”
Holyfield and the rest of the Lincoln Memorial volunteers will host a community meeting Sunday to address the theft and organize future cemetery cleanups. Holyfield hopes to get more help to help with the cemetery, which still has an uncertain future in terms of administrative tasks.
“For someone to vandalize and steal the names of their loved one's resting place, that's one too many pills to try to swallow,” Holyfield said. “Every day since it happened, I wake up in the middle of the night asking God to take care of the cemetery.”
A week before the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, thieves attacked the adjacent Woodlawn Memorial Park.
On Jan. 5, Celestina Bishop, owner and operator of the 11-acre park in Compton, was driving near the cemetery when she noticed the door to an equipment shed was ajar.
When he attempted to enter the park to close the gate, he noticed the gates were open and called authorities.
“I was a little afraid to go onto the property myself,” she said.
No suspects were found inside, but the next day, while exploring the grounds, Bishop discovered that dozens of tombstones had been knocked down and smashed and the metal plaques stolen.
As of January 9, Bishop had identified nearly 300 graves that had been vandalized; Headstones from 92 buried graves were knocked down and broken, and more than 200 plaques were removed from the walls of mausoleums.
“And that's just for [the letter] F,” Bishop said. “I have to get to the letter Z to tell you how many wall plaques were actually removed.”
The park, where Bishop took over operations in 2021, has more than 26,000 graves.
“I think the most devastating part is when I have to tell someone that their family's headstone was vandalized,” Bishop said. “It's like I'm telling them that their family just died. “I'm crying, I'm crying telling them about the tombstones.”
Like Woods, Bishop believes the plates were taken to be sold.
“I think any agency or company that buys this product should also be held accountable. Because as long as they pay these criminals for this type of material, they will continue to commit the crime,” he added.
Bishop said it has brought more security to the park, which he is paying for out of pocket.
“I'm overwhelmed, but right now what I'm worried about is the people,” she said.
Compton Mayor Emma Sharif condemned the thefts, adding that the city was working with law enforcement “to ensure justice for the families affected.”
“The recent cemetery break-ins are deeply troubling, and to witness such blatant disrespect for sacred spaces is disheartening,” he said in a statement. “The attacks on our cemeteries are unacceptable and I echo the sentiment of the community in finding these incidents appalling.”
The Sheriff's Department will also investigate residents' complaints that a third cemetery, Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton, has also been vandalized. An Angeles Abbey employee declined to comment.
“The Sheriff's Department is aware of the historical significance of these cemeteries and has dedicated the full resources of the Major Crimes Bureau and Detective Division in an attempt to recover these priceless stolen items and apprehend and prosecute the suspects involved. “the agency said in a statement. release.
Lt. Vincent Ursini of the Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Bureau said authorities have not yet identified the suspects but are following leads and reviewing security footage.
“It's a sad situation when you're at your final resting place and you can't even rest in peace without someone breaking your headstone to remove the metal,” he said.
