TOMBSTONES OVERTURNED AT OLD LORIMIER CEMETERY

~Correction: Revolutionary War soldier was Uriah Brock, who was a fifer.

Vandals overturned 14 tombstones at Cape Girardeau's oldest cemetery, adding to a growing number of property crimes this summer, police said.

Of the 14 gravestones, four were broken into pieces at the Old Lorimier Cemetery, police Sgt. Carl Kinnison said.

A maintenance worker noticed the damage to tombstones in the southwestern corner of the cemetery as he prepared to lock up the gates at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, police said.

The vandals must have committed the damage sometime between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., police said.

Cemetery caretaker Terrell Weaver was surprised at the timing of the vandalism.

"It's unusual because it happened during the daytime," he said.

Lamp posts have been installed around the grounds, and a fund raiser almost 10 years ago paid for a fence with barbed wire along the perimeter, Weaver said. He is not sure that any other security measures are available to protect the cemetery, founded in 1808.

"We've been more fortunate since we've had the fence, but problems still happen," Weaver said.

The last episode of vandalism occurred in August, he said. Weaver doesn't bother to report small instances of damage, which would include two or three tombstones being knocked down.

Cemetery workers have done their best to put pieces back together. Many tombstones that have been broken off are held together with a combination of cement and glue.

"From all the glues that we've found, nothing works permanently," he said. "We know they'll come apart sometime."

Most of the tombstones date to the mid-1800s. Names and dates are almost impossible to read on almost half.

Some have metal placards beneath them placed by relatives or veterans associations. One recognizes revolutionary war soldier Uriah Brock Fifer, who died in 1845.

Several tombstones get less care. Broken into four or five pieces, they are left stacked in a pile.

The vandalism at Old Lorimier follows an incident in which aluminum cans and a truck were used to break windows and doors at old Notre Dame High School last week, and more than 30 car windows being shot at with a pellet gun a week earlier.

Arrests have only been made in the case involving old Notre Dame. Police are continuing to investigate the other incidents.