No Change One Year later, Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal-YourFuneralGuy

Sadly  one year after the Burr Oak Cemetery  Scandal not much has changed. Perpetua, Inc, the company responsible for the disaster is still in charge. The Four people arrested have not gone to court. The gate has been changed. There is no resolution of grief for the families involved. Recovered remains have not been identified or even tested, nor will they be.

Illinois does have a new cemetery Law  and possibly effective  Cemetery Oversight. (Click Here for More)National legislation, the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act, HR 3655 seems to be stalled in Congressional Committee.

Burr Oak is of special significance to African-Americans in Chicago. It was one of the first cemeteries to allow blacks to bury their loved ones, and many African-Americans still opt to have their relatives laid to rest there.

Burials resumed at the cemetery in November. But they have not all gone smoothly, said Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office uncovered the alleged grave-reselling scheme. Dart said his detectives found hundreds of human bones, but there is no way to identify the bodies.

“I feel confident the people who have been charged will be convicted,” Dart said. “But true justice, I don’t think (the families) will ever get the complete closure and sense of justice they deserve.”

Since the cemetery reopened, there have been more than 200 new burials, said Randy Sanderson, chief financial officer of Perpetua Holdings. He said there has been a steady stream of visitors since the cemetery reopened, and the staff helps relatives find gravesites, now that the cemetery has been better organized.

While it was closed, officials relabeled sections of the cemetery and placed new markers on the grounds.

“I believe we have come a long way in terms of assuring folks that their loved ones were not disturbed,” Sanderson said. “It may only be a handful of families that have some doubt. But hundreds of families have come here since November, and they leave here satisfied.”

Nevertheless, a sense of distrust and betrayal remains with some.

via www.chicagotribune.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

One Year Later|Sheriff Recomends No Burials at Burr Oak-yourfuneralguy

One year after the gruesome revelations  at Burr Oak Cemetery the Cook County Sheriff is not recommending burials take place at that location. Stating that Folks are emotionally damaged due to the scandal, Sheriff Tom Dart feels that  conducting burials there would be not be workable.

It’s been a year since police began discovering skeletal remains above ground at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart took over Burr Oak Cemetery in the days and weeks after the bones were being discovered and an alleged grave dumping scandal was uncovered.

New owners are in line to take over, but the sheriff says they should not put new graves in the area where most of the skeletal remains were found on the northwest corner of Burr Oak.

Dart says, “You can never operate it like any ol’ cemetery. Certain areas are sacrosanct. You can’t dig there because there are remains back there and they’re never going to be actually excavated.”

Sheriff Dart says that, in the end, the Burr Oak scandal left a lot of emotionally damaged families.

Burr Oak Cemetery is open for burials once again, but Dart doesn’t think there’s much, if any, room to bury any more bodies. He says even after all the work to sort out the hodge podge of burial records there, there are still occasional problems, like going to bury someone only to find “there’s somebody already in there.”

via wbbm.cbslocal.com

Over 300 graves were desecrated at Burr Oak Cemetery. There was a grave plot selling scandal with four people arrested. There is yet to be a trial in this matter.

The scandal has brought new cemetery legislation in the State of Illinois, but the fate of the National legislation proposed by Congressman Bobby Rush-the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act HR 3655-remains to be seen.

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Link to Mindboggling Burr Oak Cemetery 2003 internal Memo-YourFuneralGuy

Illinois Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal Heating up the Illinois Governors Race

There is a link posted here to the mindbboggling  “Perpetua”  Burr Oak Internal Memo- from Silvy Cottton To Employees and or investors.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE BURR OAK CEMETERY INTERNAL MEMO FROM 2003

A Friday night report by ABC CHICAGO revealed that The Illinois Comptroller Hynes office had the memo, and was aware of Potential  Burr Oak Cemetery  body desecration in 2003.

The Memo Clearly points to a  Perpetua INC,  cover up of known Grave desecration with an effort to hide the  info from  ILLINOS COMPTROLLER OFFICE  EMPLOYEE DAVID FOLEY.  Perpetua is a Funeral and cemetery company owner the of Burr Oak Cemetery (Scandal).

Comptroller Hynes Burr Oak Cemetery “not my job” regulating cemetery operations -RESPONSE- is true.  he only was responsible for Financial regulation. Still this does not play well with voters. The whole thing smacks of a smear campaign by sitting ILLINOIS governor Pat Quinn.

THE LATEST INFORMATION REVEALS PERPETUA INC AND SLIVY EDMONDS COTTON  ATTEMPTING TO  COVER UP GRAVE DESECRATION, AND POSSIBLE GRAVE ROBBING at BURR OAK CEMETERY.

Astute lawyers and victims have included Perpetua Inc and Slivy Cotton in their lawsuits.

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Source (Capitol Fax Blog)

Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax blog is the best blogger on Politics in the State of Illinois.

Burr Oak Cemetery scandal|more grave desecrations.-YourFuneralGuy

Latest in the Butr Oak Cemetery Scandal

Burr Oak Cemetery is having more Grave problems. These are amounting to unintentional grave  desecration. When attempting new burials graves are being disturbed. In spite of Court supervision the owners Perpetua, Inc. have not been able to straighten out the chaos there.

Recently while conducting burials, the continued situation of Graves and bodies have been discovered in the wrong locations. This is a result of the owners, Perpetua Inc original mismanagement of the cemetery.

This was reported recently by the Chicago Tribune.

Meanwhile, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart again called for burials at Burr Oak to be halted. Dart said his records show there have been five to seven incidents of discovered caskets and remains.

“We should not go through this exercise of torturing people,” he said. “Having them come out for a burial and find out there’s someone already there. We need to have these people step back and get it right and at that point they can go ahead with burials.”

via www.chicagobreakingnews.com

The insensitivity to the bereaved continues at Burr Oak even today. This is beyond horrific. The Culprit is clear in this matter. Perpetua, Inc.

Not only is there not justice here, the world of hurt continues

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Burr Oak Cemetery Opened on a limited basis|YourFuneralGuy

Burr Oak Cemetery partially reopened on November 19th 2009

Burr Oak Cemetery is being opened on Thursday to specific families that have a loved one buried there.

The tickets are being issued by a Perpetua,  Inc at a website at http://www.burroakalsip.com/

Anyone who has a ticket can get in on their assigned day. If You have a loved one at Burr Oak, you can find the information at the website.

Here are some of the details on the Cemetery Reopining listed at the Perpetua Website.

Burr Oak Cemetery will re-open to the public on a limited, section by section basis beginning on Thursday, November 19, 2009 through Wednesday, November 25, 2009. The Cemetery will be open from 8 am to 4 pm on week-days and 8 am to 3:30 pm on week-ends.

We anticipate that there will be large numbers of people coming to Burr Oak, some of whom may require assistance. To avoid the crowd, we suggest that you make your visit at least two weeks after the Cemetery opens.

We have a very limited staff, so we appreciate your patience. We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Because of the limited staff, the Cemetery will be opened up on a section by section basis, with a new section being opened each day until all 45 sections have been opened. Burr Oak staff will be stationed only in the areas being opened on that specific day to provide assistance in locating a loved one’s grave.

via www.burroakalsip.com

In order to visit the site one should get on a bus at a specific location-Burr Oak Cemetery Transportation Center at 12250 S Cicero Ave, Suite 109, Alsip, IL 60803. there is parking.

On Friday November 27th Burr Oak cemetery will reopen to the Public.

In July 2009 it was discovered that over 300 graves were desecrated at Burr Oak Cemetery. Four people were arrested. Bones were piled up all over the cemetery.

In reaction to the Burr Oak Cemetery  Scandal Illinois has proposed cemetery reform, and Congressman Bobby Rush has proposed the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act of 2009-Click here

The main problem at the Cemetery is that there are over 140,000 grave sites with only 43,000 headstones.

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Burr Oak Cemetery resumes funerals-Your Funeral Guy

Burr Oak Cemetery Remains closed but some funerals have been happening

Burr Oak Cemetery is conducting  funerals now.  This was reported by the Chicago Tribune. Sadly though. Cemetery reform has been stalled in the Illinois legislature, the State Senate. The neglectful  owner company Perpetua Inc is still in charge and THE CEMETERY IS NOT OPENED TO THE PUBLIC.

Although some funeral services are resuming at Burr Oak Cemetery there is little consolation for Burr Oak Cemetery families.

At Burr Oak Cemetery Over 300 graves  were desecrated, and bones were piled up at various locations around the cemetery,

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It is unclear why the cemetery decided to resume the burials but not open the doors to the general public. Repeated calls to Howard Korenthal, who was appointed to oversee the cemetery at the end of September, were not returned.

Spencer Leak Jr., co-owner of Leak and Sons Funeral Home in Chatham, said the funeral home had to keep four bodies since July because the family members wanted them to be buried at Burr Oak. Two weeks ago, they buried the last of the four.

Leak said he got calls every day from frustrated relatives, but there wasn’t much he could do. Finally, about a month and a half ago, he got the OK to start burying one person at the time. Donahue was one of them.

via www.chicagobreakingnews.com

 

Illinois Cemetery Reform not til 2010-YourFuneralGuy

Illinois Cemetery reform has put been put on hold till 2010 by the Illinois Senate. The Illinois Senate wants to hold it’s own hearings on Cemetery reform. This legislation was approved by the Illinois house  and submitted to the Illinois Senate.

On Friday the Illinois Senate President called for more hearings responding to private cemetery objections. this reform is desperately needed and as up to 300 graves were desecrated at Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports that the proposed reforms were buried on Friday amid concerns from private for-profit cemeteries who wanted to be excluded from many of the requirements in the proposal.

On Thursday, the reforms passed overwhelmingly in the Illinois House and the sponsors predicted it would also pass easily in the State Senate.

But Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) did not allow that vote on Friday. Instead, he planned to call another round of public hearings on cemetery reform — time and place still uncertain.

via cbs2chicago.com

Illinois Representative Bill Black R-Danville came out on the side of the cemeteries and spoke out against the reform.

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Burr Oak Cemetery is for sale-Your Funeral Guy

Burr Oak Cemetery is for Sale

Burr Oak Cemetery is now for sale. The cemetery just outside of Chicago is being sold by Perpetua, Inc. the owner. There is no word on any buyers at this time. This may or may not be good news for victims of the Scandal. Time will tell.

In July of 2009 graves were found desecrated with bones scattered  in piles around the cemetery. Recently Perpetua was given back control of the the cemetery, through a consultant. There is hope that the cemetery will reopen soon. There has been Federal legislation initiated because of this and other scandals The Bereaved Consumer Bill of Right Act

In a Chicago Bankruptcy Court hearing on Tuesday, Judge Pamela S. Hollis gave permission for Perpetua-Burr Oak Holdings of Illinois, L.L.C., owner of Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, to sell the cemetery that became infamous this summer for a grave desecration scandal that sent families searching for their loved ones.Perpetua filed for bankruptcy protection in September in the wake of a criminal investigation. The company told Judge Hollis it had hired American Cemetery/Mortuary Consultants Inc. as a consultant to assist in selling the cemetery.Attorney Robert Fishman, of Shaw Gussis Fishman Glantz Wolfson, in Chicago, said Perpetua doesn’t yet know of any buyers but hired a consultant with expertise in cemeteries.“All the pressure of the world is on us,” said Fishman during the hearing.

via news.medill.northwestern.edu

On Monday 50 Lawyers representing Plaintiffs in lawsuits were given a tour of the cemetery.

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picCat Rabenstine/MEDIL via news.medill.northwestern.edu

Burr Oak Cemetery|current management-yourfuneralguy

The Illinois Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal has promoted federal cemetery reform in the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act(AkA Bereaved Consumers Protection Act.)

The Current management situation at Burr Oak Cemetery is a little confusing. According to a bankruptcy judge the current ” inependent  manager assigned is Howard Korenthal,a management consultant from the Morris Anderson Company in Chicago with experience in turning around troubled companies.

This seems somewhat unrealistic. the consultant has no apparent Funeral or Cemetery Experience. Perpetua, Inc is responsible for paying this individual. He cannot be removed without Court Permission.

A court appointed temporary, receiver from Catholic Charities in Chicago Roman Szabelski who was brought in to run Burr Oak Cemetery temporarily,  remains as a consultant.

Burr Cemetery remains closed.  What is going on now appears to be  in the best interest of Perpetua, Inc and not the families who where Victims of the grave desecration in the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal.

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Latest Time Line in the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal-YourFuneralGuy

Latest in the Butr Oak Cemetery Scandal

Revealed here the latest  time line events in the Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal. Like the the horrible events in July these events are bizarre, but not quite  the horror  show of 300 grave desecrations and  human bones

being piled up across the cemetery.

On September 15th 2009  Governor Pat Quinn’s cemetery oversight task force gave its report. Click here to view it.

A Bankruptcy judge gave back to Perpetua Inc the keys to Burr Oak cemetery on September 17th 2009.

There was a  protest March on the Cemetery on September 20th 2009

Control of the cemetery was taken away from Perpetua AGAIN on Sept 21st 2009 with the help of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Perpetua lost control of the cemetery on 09/21/09 after the intervention of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

On September 21st 2009 Congressman Bobby Rush Introduced nation wide Cemetery and Funeral Reform with the the Introduction of The Bereaved Consumers Protection Act

So now we are facing Statewide Cemetery and Funeral Regulation in the State of Illinois and across the United States of America?

What’s Next?

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