ONTARIO, Ohio — For a parent, there is nothing like losing a child. Robin Owens lost her son, Josh Owens, in February. She says she still gets shaky and tears up when approaching his gravesite at Mansfield Memorial Park in Ontario.
Owens visits his gravesite often. So when the flowers she had placed next to his memorial plaque went missing, she noticed. Then it happened again. And again.
“There’s a total of three things missing,” she said. “There were flowers twice and a tin and glass, porcelain type angel another time. The angel was not out during a cleanup week, so that’s when I knew they were being stolen.”
She also noticed Easter candy missing after Easter Sunday. “I thought maybe animals did that.” She said the wrappers were not missing.
Owens said she checked with the cemetery’s administration to see if the groundskeepers had removed the items to mow, but they had not.
Mansfield Memorial Park, like other cemeteries, has rules and regulations for families who leave items at the grave sites. Mansfield Memorial Park allots certain weeks of the year — from Nov. 1 to March 31 — where families are free to leave items by their loved ones grave site.
After learning Mansfield Memorial Park staff was not responsible for the missing items, Owens asked friends of Josh — to no avail. In her search, Owens found she was not the only one with missing items.
“They (staff of Mansfield Memorial Park) told me that there was some graves down in this area because it’s towards the back [of the property] that there were some things stolen from some graves in this area too,” said Owens.
Mansfield Memorial Park Office Secretary Debbie Konezak said theft is not complained about too often. “Sometimes we get people saying flowers or little statues are taken. There’s not much we can do unless that person chooses to go to the police,” said Konezak.
According to Ontario Police Division (OPD) records, there have been 14 calls referencing theft from 2012 to 2015 at Mansfield Memorial Park. Of those 14 calls, five developed into investigations. The reported stolen property amounted to approximately $466.
In April 2014, Frieda Kay Shade was caught on video stealing a stuffed duck from Hayden ‘Tank’ Cole Sheridan’s grave site at Mansfield Memorial Park. The video camera had been placed near the grave site by the OPD and the woman was prosecuted after Shade admitted to taking the stuffed duck.
Mansfield Cemetery Association Inc., 389 Altamont Ave., has experienced theft in the past too. But Interim Superintendent Susan Neutzling says it’s rare.
“It’s like a drop in the bucket when it does happen,” she said. In her 22 years working for the cemetery, she said she has not seen theft often. “We mostly have vandalism here and there. We have gates, but the gates only deter honest people.”
Neutzling also said Mansfield Police Department (MPD) police patrol the grounds often.
According to MPD public records, there have been 44 calls made from 389 Altamont Ave. since 2012 to 2015. However, five of those calls developed into reported cases of theft — one was investigated as “lost property.”
Galion’s Fairview Cemetery does not experience theft as much as drug use, says Manager of Operations Shane Shipley.
“When I see people or teenagers roaming around on the grounds during the night I call the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department,” said Shipley. “We don’t want people out in the cemetery at night because it’s a liability issue. They could get hurt,” he added.
“Some people think they have a right to something that doesn’t belong to them. I don’t understand why anyone would ever do something like that. I don’t think we’ll ever know. But we’ll prosecute them if we ever catch them,” said Konezak of Mansfield Memorial Park.
Owens said she just wants to grieve the loss of her son and for Josh to rest in peace.
“I just pray that it stops. Not just for him, but for other families,” said Owens.
Joshua “Josh” Corbin Owens, 22, died February 7, 2015. On August 19, 2012, he was a passenger in the back of a car when the driver lost control, hit the highway’s noise barrier, bounced back into traffic and was struck by a semi truck. The crash left Josh with traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, broken bones and a collapsed lung. The passengers survived the crash unscathed.
