Families exhume loved ones from overgrown cemetery

(5/18/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- Imagine barely being able to make it to your loved one's gravesite. Several people say that's what they're dealing with -- an overgrown cemetery and other deplorable conditions that no one is taking care of.

The cemetery in Acres Homes is in such bad shape that people are spending thousands of dollars to literally move their loved ones out. It is an expensive and emotionally draining process. But with the cemetery in such bad shape, people we talked to don't quite know any other option.

"We're here to remove my mother's remains," said Olivia Molett. "She died December the 4th, 1972." Molett has waited years to exhume her mother's body in order to give her a proper burial at a proper cemetery.

She said, "(The owner's) not keeping it up. The weeds are growing around it, and we are tired of coming over here, and cutting it so we can get through it."

It's easy to understand her frustration. Grass, shrubbery, trees -- everything's overgrown. The headstones are barely visible beneath all that vegetation, assuming families can even find some of their loved ones' graves.

Betty Walters of Duncan Funeral Homes said, "The weeds are all around. The headstones are missing from some of the graves. It's just poorly kept."

This exhumation is the fourth one Walters has done at this cemetery. They're all from people who simply can't live with their loved ones resting in a dilapidated cemetery.

Walters says the owner simply hasn't kept up the place, and our efforts to reach the company MJM Cemeteries were unsuccessful. For Olivia Molett, none of that matters now, because her mother will soon be resting somewhere else.

"That's going to bring a lot of peace to me," she said. "We've been waiting for this peace for a long time."

Late Thursday afternoon, we reached the home of the cemetery's owner. The woman who picked up the phone would not comment. We are also waiting for more information from the city of Houston about the cemetery's history and will let you know what we find out.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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