Repairs Start To Easton Cemetery Gravestones

EASTON, Conn. – Repairs have begun on gravestones at Easton's Union Cemetery, where 55 stones and monuments were knocked over by vandals in August.

“We raised it up and are putting it on a better base,” Joseph Silhavy, president of the Union Cemetery Association, said of one of the monuments. “We restored it and put it back up the best we can. We epoxy them together.”

Silhavy is grateful for a donation received from St. Dimitrie Orthodox Church to support the repair effort, the only donation received so far. “We’re only doing what we have money for,” he said. “We’re looking for donations and insurance money.” He said he’s unsure whether insurance will cover the damages.

“We don’t have many burials now, so the money isn’t as plentiful as it used to be,” he said.

The August vandalism was not the first, “but it’s the most severe,” Silhavy said.

Cemetery vandalism is frequently carried out by people who believe there are ghosts in the cemeteries, according to Lisa Burghardt, president of the Historical Society of Easton. Burghardt believes the myth of the White Lady may have drawn the vandals to the cemetery.

Union Cemetery is considered haunted by the White Lady. Silhavy has seen people sitting in circles, trying to take pictures of the spirits, “but there’s no such thing as ghosts,” he said.

Silhavy praised Easton police for keeping an eye on the cemetery, but they have yet to apprehend a suspect in the August vandalism.

“It’s not a cold case. We’re still working on it,” Police Chief James Candee said. “We’re following up on leads.”

He called on anyone with knowledge of the vandalism to contact police.

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