More than three years after Urbana's former cemetery superintendent was sent to prison for over-charging for plots, keeping cash payments and accepting illegal kickbacks from a monument manufacturer, a grieving family is feeling the impact of the criminal activity, which spanned a period of 14 years.
Randy Holycross, who pleaded guilty to theft in office, tampering with records and two additional counts of theft, was sentenced to prison in 2007 and ordered to pay more than $52,000 in restitution to the victims. He is due for release from the Pickaway Correctional Institution on May 1, 2010.
His stay behind bars isn't comforting to the family of Marzetta Moore. The Urbana woman died in March of 2004 and was buried without a marker at Oak Dale Cemetery. Holycross never recorded where she was buried, and attempts by the city and her family to establish where her grave is have met with no success.
"We didn't even know it was an issue until this year when my father finally was able to pay for a headstone," said sister Marsha Moore. "He's 86 and he wants to be able to put it on his daughter's resting place before he dies."
The Moores said they've enlisted the assistance of current Urbana Cemetery Superintendent Chris Stokes, to no avail.
"The guy who took care of the cemetery before, he's at fault. But what can the new (superintendent) do? All I want is to know where the grave is," Mitchell Moore said.
"We're poor, but we're not dirt poor," Marsha Moore said. "How did (Holycross) get away with it for so long? I think part of it was targeting people like us."
Moore said her sister succumbed to cancer, which increased the family's financial difficulties.
"She was only 55 and Heartland's Hospice contributed $1,500 to her expenses," she said. "Walter-Schoedinger handled the arrangements, but we have no way to know if her grave was paid for or if she's in the indigent section. She's not listed on any cemetery record or map."
Urbana Director of Administration Bruce Evilsizor said he believes Moore may have been buried in the indigent section at the cemetery, but, even so, there should have been a record of the transaction, since political subdivisions are obligated to bear the financial burden of indigent burials under Ohio law.
"I was hoping someone would be able to remember, because there is no documentation," Evilsizor said. "Chris has looked and looked, but there's nothing. The previous superintendent was supposed to keep records, but obviously he failed to do so."
Evilsizor said the city has a long-standing rule that a grave must be paid for before a marker can be placed. In this situation, though, he said the city is making every effort to work with the Moore family to resolve the situation.
"We got ahold of David Miller, the clergyman who performed the service and he can't tell us for certain," Marsha Moore said. "We want to be able to put her marker there so we can go pay our respects. We used to take flowers to where we thought she was buried in Section 16, but apparently that's not the place. It brings the grief right back to the surface, like losing her all over again."
Breanne Parcels can be reached at bparcels@urbanacitizen.com
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