ALSIP, Ill. — Authorities are closing the grounds of a historic black cemetery near Chicago where four employees are accused of digging up bodies to resell plots after more bones were found on the property.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Friday that families can no longer wander through Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip to check loved ones’ graves because more of its 150 acres are now considered a crime scene.
The three gravediggers and a manager made about $300,000 in the scheme thought to have stretched back at least four years, authorities said Friday.
They are accused of unearthing hundreds of corpses, dumping some in a desolate area near the cemetery and double-stacking others in graves.
The process of revoking the cemetery’s license has begun.
Cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39 — all of Chicago — and Maurice Dailey, 61, of Robbins each have been charged with one count of dismembering a human body.
