Cemetery gates locked as relatives try to hold memorial service

COMPTON, Calif. - Nearly 100 people gathered for a memorial service at a troubled graveyard Saturday to honor relatives whose remains may have been scattered or dug up.

But they found the gates locked - again.

State inspectors closed Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in March after discovering bone and casket fragments scattered around the grounds.

Caretakers also illegally converted single-burial graves to multiple graves, and failed to properly rebury bodies, the state Department of Consumer Affairs charged.

''This is horrible,'' said Dan Prinzen, 26, of Bellflower. ''I buried my mother here in February. Now I can't be sure where (her body) really is. I just want to make sure she's at peace.''

Prinzen joined a crowd of angry residents whose loved ones were interred at Woodlawn for a group memorial service Saturday, one month after the cemetery was reopened for visitation.

Overseers subcontracted by the state padlocked the gates because they feared the gathering of nearly 100 people, most of them elderly, would cause a disruption, police Sgt. Barry Lobel said.

Four men guarding the graveyard inside the gate refused to speak with reporters and walked away when mourners tried to speak with them.

Department of Consumer Affairs' Cemetery and Funeral Bureau did not return messages left at its headquarters in Sacramento.

Lobel said the cemetery officials were within their rights to temporarily lock the gates. He said the cemetery would likely reopen Sunday.

The Compton Police Department tried to appease the mourners by allowing them to hold the memorial service on a street adjacent to the graveyard.

The group prayed and listened to impassioned speeches from individuals who fear their relatives' bodies have been disturbed.

''When they closed this cemetery ... they closed the gates to our hearts,'' said Felicia Ford, who has several relatives buried at Woodlawn. ''Now they've done it again.''

The mourners had intended to scatter flowers throughout the graveyard, but instead placed the bouquets in the dilapidated chain-link fence surrounding the cemetery.

Liddie Heights, 59, of Paramount, said problems at the graveyard, which is more than 100 years old, began only recently.

''My sister died in 1967, and her grave was fine for years,'' Heights said. ''But this year, her (tombstone) was missing. I don't even know if she's still there. We deserve an explanation.''

In addition to the disturbed graves, gophers and other rodents run amok through the property and the grass has died from a lack of water, mourners said.

Authorities said they discovered the human remains and other problems during inspections conducted between Feb. 8 and Feb. 18.

The Department of Consumer Affairs said the cemetery ''unlawfully converted single burial graves to multiple graves, disturbed previously interred remains and then failed to properly re-inter all of the remains during these conversions.''

Consumer Affairs closed the cemetery to perform further inspections and took control of the site pending administrative hearings on the cemetery owner, Evergreen Memorial Care Inc.

Evergreen officials could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles County officials have launched a criminal investigation into the cemetery's problems, and relatives of those buried at Woodlawn are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the owner.

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On the Net: Department of Consumer Affairs http://www.dca.ca.gov