Vandals Hit Citronelle Cemeteries

Around the Pine Crest and Mount Nebo Cemeteries you'll notice several things amiss.

“It's just a sacred place and we respect it and we want everyone else to respect it,” says cemetery board chairman Milton Foster. He’s just one of the people upset by recent vandalism. Sometime Friday night vandals damaged more than 19 gravesites. They tipped over markers and disrupted hallowed ground. Even though most of the damage occurred in the predominantly African American Mount Nebo, officials say it's not racially motivated.

“You know this is probably some young people with nothing to do on a Friday night,” says Mount Nebo cemetery board secretary Joann Chastang. Officials believe whoever did this didn't act alone. They say the markers are two heavy to be moved by just one person. In the last two and a half weeks members of the cemetery board say three other nearby cemeteries were also hit in Citronelle.

“I say you should be ashamed of yourself and the least you could do is make an apology to the loved ones graves you damaged,” says Foster. He says insurance money should help pay for the damage, but he's not happy with these ghoulish grave attacks.

“This is the last place on earth these people will be, it's their final resting place and no one should be out here disturbing it,” says Foster. If you have any information, you're asked to call Citronelle police at 251-866-5527.