OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) -- Ten headstones at Garden of Memory Cemetery were kicked over and vandalized overnight, according to the cemetery's owner.

Christopher Ford, the owner of the cemetery, said the vandalism was discovered when some of his crew were working during a burial.

“They noticed a headstone or two knocked over and then once I asked them to do a sweep of the cemetery, we noticed that there were several headstones that were either kicked over, pushed over and damaged, and some were broken, some were just knocked off of their foundations,” he said.

Ford said the headstones are not easily knocked over, noting that most of the stones require two people to pick up.

“They've withstood several storms, wind and everything. So it's not easy to knock those over. You have to put forth an effort to kind of knock those over. So we're assuming that they probably kicked them over," he said.

Ford said he has notified the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office of the vandalism. He will also be contacting each family that was impacted by the offenses.

Ford said it was shocking to see the amount of headstones kicked over and damaged in the cemetery, a place where people are supposed to be resting and not being disturbed. 

“For those that were broken beyond re-standing up, we'll have to replace those. Several photos were broken. A couple of the stones we will have to replace but thank God most of the stones that were vandalized were we should be able to upright those and everything should be okay with them," he said.

Ford said that at first he believed the vandalism could have been caused by a family, somebody being vindictive. However, after further observation, he realized the vandalism appears to be more random, having occurred at grave sites of babies, military veterans and several other families.

“We've been here since the late 90s and we've never had any vandalism or any of this sort going on in our cemeteries,” said Ford. “It was shocking and my secretary, like I said, coincidentally, one of the damaged stones happened to be her nephew and he was a disabled child. I think that's unfair for those parents and for them to have to suffer this trauma twice because of someone being insensitive to others.”

Reach the cemetery if you or you know any of the family members that this may have affected at 337-948-1764 or 337-945-2923. If you know any information, call the sheriff’s office or crime stoppers at 337-948-8477. 

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