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Vandals Repeatedly Hit Attleboro Cemeteries

ATTLEBORO (CBS) - It's a senseless crime that makes the pain of losing a loved-one even worse. In Attleboro, vandals have repeatedly hit cemeteries, leaving headstones toppled over, and in some cases, damaged.

"I feel kind of crazy saying this, but I almost treat it like this is my friend here," says Samon Lee, as he tries to clean up his best friend, Zack Marshall's grave. "I'll sit right in front of it and I'll talk to him and have little conversations and just reminisce about the time we had."

Marshall was 22 when he was murdered in Providence right before Christmas, leaving a baby behind. His stone was one of three knocked over Wednesday night.

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports

The same thing happened to a half dozen other graves two weeks ago. In March, vandals toppled more than 60 historic stones at another Attleboro cemetery.

"It's hurting the dearest people who obviously expressed their love by putting a monument in their honor," says Father Thomas Rita, who manages St. Stephen's cemetery where the most recent vandalism happened.

One of the damaged stones belongs to Jeff Burgess, a city water department worker who was killed on the job two years ago. His father is offering a reward for information leading to the vandals.

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