Someone had been walking through Magnolia Memorial Gardens in Chatham County for a year and a half, pulling metal flower vases off headstones and selling them for scrap. The graves they left behind belonged to people whose families had paid several thousand dollars to place a single vase there.
The scheme came into focus on July 1, when a cemetery worker spotted two women removing vases from headstones and disappearing into a nearby wood line. The cemetery sits off Silk Hope Road in Chatham County. By the time Chatham County Police Department detectives finished tracing the investigation backward, they believed as many as 150 vases may have been stolen from the same cemetery over the previous 18 months.
Three suspects have been identified and charged. Alicia Hart, 39, and Doris Friday, 35, each face felony theft by taking charges in connection with the July 1 incident. Kenneth Jenks, 47, faces a felony charge of theft by receiving stolen property. Hart and Jenks are in custody. Friday remains at large.
Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley did not mince words about what investigators found.
“Damaging a gravesite for profit is a reprehensible act that we will not stand for,” Hadley said. “Victims tell us it cost them several thousand dollars to add one of these vases to the gravestone of a loved one. For someone to remove those and sell them for scrap is a horrible crime that adds to the heartache of a grieving family.”
Anyone with information on Doris Friday’s whereabouts can submit an anonymous tip through the Chatham County Police Department app, through the online tip form at police.chathamcountyga.gov/Tips, or by calling Crime Stoppers at (912) 234-2020. Tipsters who call Crime Stoppers may qualify for a cash reward.
B.T. Clark is the Publisher of The Georgia Sun and author of Principles Are Like Pants… You Ought to Have Some. Over two decades in journalism, he has served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc., earning multiple awards along the way. His work has appeared in newspapers across the state, including The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
