Future of Burr Oak Cemetery uncertain 1 year later

[July 12, 2010]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Louella Johnson has spent the last year hoping for answers.

More than a dozen of the Chicago woman's relatives, including her daughter, mother and grandparents, were buried at Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic black graveyard where a gruesome desecration scandal was discovered last summer.

Bodies were found double-buried and human remains were thrown into a grassy field, which authorities allege was part of a moneymaking scheme stretching back years.

"Sometimes when I start thinking about it, I think I'm going to lose my mind," said Johnson, a 65-year-old retired postal worker. "It still hurts. That's like reliving my mother's death all over again."

Hundreds of families are in the same situation a year later, as the future of the suburban Chicago cemetery that is the resting place of civil rights-era lynching victim Emmett Till remains in limbo.

Burr Oak was sold in April to an Illinois company, Cemecare. But that sale won't be finalized until the sale of its sister property Cedar Park, said Howard Korenthal, who was appointed by the court to oversee operations at the two cemeteries. He declined to comment further on Sunday.

Perpetua Inc., the company that owned the cemetery, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. A message left Sunday for a Perpetua attorney wasn't immediately returned.

The pending sale means that lawsuits filed against the cemetery must wait.

The criminal investigation is also pending. Four former Burr Oak workers were charged in the scandal. All have pleaded not guilty and remain free on bond. They are expected to appear in court in the coming days. No trial date has been set.

While a state-appointed task force held a series of emotionally charged public hearings over the past year, little action has been taken. Further complicating things is that paperwork at the cemetery remains missing, destroyed or incomplete, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, which led the investigation.

For now, Johnson is left to wait.

She has been to Burr Oak three times in the last year.

The entry gates and some signs have been changed at the 150-acre cemetery. A website has been set up to help families. Protests have been held and she has been involved in a lawsuit.

But she still doesn't know where some family members are buried. Her mother's grave isn't where cemetery officials said it would be.

"It will take me long time to get over it, if I ever get over it," she said.

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Online:

http://www.burroakalsip.com/

[Associated Press; By SOPHIA TAREEN]

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