11/29/2014 - Amy Buenrostro was relieved when she learned earlier this month that the 12 tombstones she and her family found in the backyard of their new home did not mark any actual graves there. But she didn’t want them to stay in her backyard as steppingstones, which, as it turns out, is what the previous homeowner had purchased them as. The Department of Veterans Affairs and some families didn’t want the stones used that way, either, and have taken them off the family’s hands.
The discarded tombstones contained typos, were flawed in some other way, or had been replaced by a new one with a spouse’s name added. A deputy with Riverbank Police Services determined the previous owner purchased them at a discount from a now-closed business in Turlock that made marble and granite headstones.
A Nov. 14 story in The Modesto Bee chronicled the family’s discovery of the tombstones and the deputy’s investigation that followed.
Buenrostro thought she’d try contacting the families of the deceased to offer them the tombstones for “sentimental reasons.” Before she could get started, calls started coming into The Bee newsroom from family members who had read the story and saw the names of their deceased relatives.
The VA’s National Cemetery Administration also called. The administration had been alerted to the story because some of the tombstones belonged to veterans.
Spokeswoman Kristen Parker said veterans’ headstones are paid for by the administration and therefore are government property. read more>>>
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