#Bridgeport CT– Bridgeport Police began an investigation of the Park Cemetery on Lindley Street back in September 2018 after allegations of digging up old graves to make room for new gravesites.  Today, an arrest warrant for Dale LaPrade for interference with a cemetery.  She was released on a promise to appear in Superior Court on December 18th.  The felony charge is punishable by up to ten years.

Police Captain Brian Fitzgerald said this was an unusual case, a first for the city.  Fitzgerald cited praise for detectives Kimberly Biehn and Jorge Cintron for their work on this case.  What the found was a lot of disturbed dirt,  garbage overturned gravestones, old decayed caskets, and human bones.   Detectives spoke to cemetery workers, did site surveys they applied for warrants for polt maps and financial records.   Detectives found intermingling of grave sites from the civil war era to as early as 2011.    Police spoke with a lot of experts like other cemetery operators, the Connecticut Cemetery Association, an archeologist and then brought in ground-penetrating radar to get a better idea of what was below the surface.    Police determined that the cemetery was intentionally disturbing gravesites to replot new graves next to or overlapping existing gravesites.