Family Shocked After Mother's Grave Moved Without Notice

KINGSTON (CBS) - When they lost their mother five years ago, it was bad enough.

Laura Howard, 53, died in Florida in what appeared to be an unsolved murder. So her kids brought her remains back to Kingston for burial at the Evergreen Cemetery. That was five years ago.

Then several days ago, they went to visit Laura's gravesite and found she'd been moved.

"It felt like a violation," said daughter Cassie Mador. "Another level of violation we have already gone through with her loss."

No one from the cemetery or the superintendent could be reached Thursday.

"We had a beautiful funeral and we had a beautiful day that she was placed into her final resting place," Cassie said. "And we have sentimental memories of the trees being in bloom at the foot of her gravestone and the blossoms swirling around us."

The family says the plot they chose five years ago was special, because it was right next to the grave of a family friend. Now she has been moved one row away.

"It just seems wrong," said Greg Howard, Laura's son. "I can't imagine that it's right in any place legally, or not, to move a dead person's remains."

There's also the issue of not knowing if only the headstone was moved, or the urn with the ashes too.

"They told us that she was initially buried in the wrong plot, and that they had to make their records right and relocate her," Cassie said.

At the least, the family would like proof that their mother's remains were in fact moved.

"We just don't know, no one ever contacted us," says Cassie.