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Family members say they would review contents of caskets to confirm loved ones inside

By and FOX 2 Staff
Published  June 8, 2021 5:28pm EDT
Detroit
FOX 2 Detroit

Exhumations continue at Detroit cemetery as families express concern over accurate burials

Tuesday was day two of the exhumation at Gethsemane Cemetery on Detroit's east side and family members are still concerned about the process of identifying the remains of their loved ones.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - In the past few months, more than 50 families have questioned if their loved ones are buried in the right location at a Detroit cemetery. Now some are saying they would review the remains inside to confirm its their loved ones.

Detroit police, the FBI, Michigan State Police, and others are exhuming a total of 20 graves to make sure the bodies are where they are supposed to be at Gethsemane Cemetery on Detroit's east side.

It started when Christine Beavers and her family exhumed her mom to move her to a different cemetery. When that was started, four bodies were found in her plot.

"They told me it was not my mother, then they went to the left, the spot to the left of her, did the dig there, and that was also not my mother," Beavers said.

Her mom, Luevenia, was buried at Gethsemane in 2016.

"I've been coming here for five years, visiting a grave that is not my mother's," Christine Beavers said

Of the 20 plots they're digging up, one of them is the brother of Pandora Brown. She said a woman was found buried on top of his marker.

"You have someone else's plot on top of his marker. We have no idea," she said.

Detroit Police say that they are checking the serial numbers on the vaults to see if they match and they are not actually opening up the coffins.

Brown is willing to review more than the serial numbers.

"You don't have to do the whole body, or whatever, just show me their clothing. They're gonna show us the picture, I have a picture as well," she said.

She's not alone, Beavers said she prefers they open the caskets to be 100% certain.

"I would rather for them to open the casket to see that's my mother. I don't really want to - but if that's the only alternative I have to identifying and making sure so that I can have some peace, that's what I'll do," she said.

While FOX 2 was at the cemetery, Beavers got a call that they found her mother. Gethsemane said she was in grave number 220 but she was actually in grave number 222.