Missouri men charged for attempting to dig up grave

Two men have been charged after they allegedly attempted to dig up a grave at a cemetery in Missouri, the St. Louis County Prosecutors Office confirmed this week.

Jimmie V. Allen and Zebulun Nash, both 73, were caught in August shoveling dirt out of a gravesite at Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, Missouri, KSDK-TV reported.

Nash reportedly told officers he was planning to relocate his grandmother’s body and Allen was helping him.

Missouri law requires a state order to exhume a body and the men were both charged Wednesday with attempting to destroy or deface cemetery property, according to KSDK.

Witness Kiesha Wayne told the station that one of the men “said that they paid somebody to dig up the body, but they got ripped off, so they took it upon themselves to dig up the body. I do feel sorry for the man whose loved one is or was buried there.”

Berkeley Police Chief Art Jackson said he’s never heard of anything like this in his career.

“I was amazed,” he commented, “Twenty-nine years of doing this work, we’ve never had any issues or incidents like that.”