Investigation digs deeper at historic Chicago cemetery

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The investigation of the Burr Oak Cemetery in Cook County, Illinois is continuing and the FBI says they’re turning up even more unsettling evidence.

The FBI has now recovered in excess 200 pieces of evidence, almost all of them human bones or pieces of bones.

“Right now, we are looking as far down as eight feet,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Grant. “Based on other information we have developed, we may be required to dig deeper.”

Indeed, since day one, employees and at least one of the suspects have been guiding investigators to where bodies may be hidden.

Today, investigators released pictures that show the deplorable condition the cemetery was in. There are gravestones that are almost impossible to see, some completely covered with sod. The cemetery has immense holes, extending all the way to the burial vaults themselves. Other tombstones are ripped from graves unknown.

Investigators also say prospects have dimmed severely that any of the remains they are now finding will ever be identified.

Trudy Foushee, the acting manager of the cemetery, said she would regularly drive the property and never saw “anything obvious to the naked eye.”

Tuesday, Sheriff Tom Dart bristled at that assessment, commenting, “I don’t think under anyone’s analysis this is the way a cemetery should be run.

Indeed an incredulous Dart reacted angrily to Foushee’s suggestion that he and his men had not been availing themselves of her help.

Said Dart, “When we asked her will you please come out, that was not met positively.”

Thus far, the sheriff’s department has spent more than $300,000 to cover the costs associated with the case. The Cook County Board of Commissioners agreed Tuesday to sue the owners of the cemetery, trying to recoup some of the money the investigation is costing the county.