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Subject: [Q-R] Former Ore. cemetery manager admits to disturbing graves
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:40:04 -0500 (EST)

Police: Former Ore. cemetery manager admits to disturbing graves


FAIRVIEW, Ore. - Police say a former Metro cemetery manager has confessed
to disturbing graves up to 50 times in a Fairview cemetery and then dumping
dirt possibly with human bones in four different spots.

The district attorney has decided not to pursue charges but a state board
that oversees cemeteries is still investigating, especially in light of the
controversy over Metro admitting it resold hundreds of graves.

Human bones were discovered in dirt piles near Blue Lake Regional Park
last spring and winter. Metro said the bones were inadvertently dumped there
when excess dirt was removed from new grave sites at Pioneer cemeteries.

"They're digging up occupied graves and reselling them. That's what they
do," Ron Overlie told KATU News last year. Overlie is a former gravedigger
who videotaped the bones he found in the dirt piles. "They don't
accidentally dig up these people. They don't tell you to stop digging. They actually
tell you to keep digging and threaten to fire you if you don't."

Fairview police have launched an investigation. Detectives told KATU News
Tuesday night a former cemetery manager, Susie Bousha, admitted human
remains were disturbed up to 50 times during grave site excavations between 2001
and 2007. Additionally, dirt could have had bones in it and been dumped in
four spots around Multnomah County.

In May, Paul Slyman with Metro Parks and Environmental Services denied
that graves were being resold.

"Absolutely not," he said. "Our contractors are directed, if they see
anything, to put it back into the parcel that they dug."

But five months later the tune changed when KATU News confronted Metro
again with proof of 640 grave sites resold at Lonefir Pioneer Cemetery.

"They're very old," former Metro CEO Michael Jordan said then. "The vast
majority are pre-1880. Of the rest, most are before 1975."

Metro blamed a records problem for the graves being resold. And it said it
was typical for bones to shift in old graves that didn't have concrete
liners like newer ones.

Metro would not comment Tuesday night because of the investigation.

Metro could be fined or sanctioned if the board finds wrongdoing.

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