Most people who choose permanent memorialization for a loved one leave the cemetery or mausoleum confident that family members will be able to return and pay their respects for generations to come. They trust that the stewards of these sacred spaces will care for the property’s inhabitants to ensure that permanent memorialization remains just that — permanent.
A deeply unsettling development in Plains Township, Pennsylvania has proven that this isn’t always the case. During the first week of November, two bodies were stolen from crypts at Good Shepherd Memorial Mausoleum. One of the victims has been identified by a grandson as Mary Cappellini Piga, who died in 1979, while the identity of the other person has not been publicly released. Authorities have shared that some “partial remains” have been recovered, but the investigation is ongoing.
Owners claim ignorance
While this theft is horrifying, it has, tragically, been foreshadowed by decades of neglect by the owners of the Good Shepherd property. The mausoleum that once housed the remains of Piga was actually condemned in 2015 after the discovery of black mold, crumbling marble, and structural instability. At that time, some family members were scrambling to arrange reinterment for their loved ones — and suing the property’s owners for reimbursement of those expenses.
Lawrence Lee and Viktoria Evstafieva, who live in Ormond Beach, Florida, purchased the 6.08-acre cemetery at a tax sale for $4,500. Oddly, they later claimed that they weren’t aware the property included a cemetery or mausoleum.
“We did not purchase the business part of it,” Evstafieva told a local news station in 2006. “We did not intend to continue this place as a cemetery.”
Funeral directors stepping up
Various township leaders have commented on the deteriorating situation at Good Shepherd over the years, but the recent crimes have renewed interest in finding a solution. One member of the Board of Commissioners — who is, coincidentally, Piga’s great-grandson — said they’ve filed court documents to relocate the 38 bodies still housed in the mausoleum because efforts to reach the owners have been unsuccessful.
Funeral director Chris Yanaitis and the Luzerne County Funeral Directors Association have joined the efforts to do right by the deceased, but the process is costly, legally complex, and emotionally taxing. Yanaitis told WVIA that he hopes the Attorney General’s office will grant a blanket order to move the bodies from the mausoleum to Good Shepherd’s cemetery section, which volunteers are attempting to maintain.
Time is not on the side of Yanaitis and authorities. Not only is nature taking its toll on the mausoleum, but thieves have been systematically dismantling the structure, removing bricks and screws, most recently, of course, human remains.
“Everybody in the Luzerne County Funeral Directors Association has been trying their best to do and get the word out to families,” Yanaitis told WVIA news. “I know [lawyers] have been helping us … but at the same time, it’s still a cost, and it’s going through a second funeral all over again.”
