Visitors to a Catholic cemetery in the heart of Windsor have been confronted with an upsetting sight.
Headstones at St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Cemetery were vandalized over the past two weeks.
WindsorNewsToday.ca visited the cemetery on Wednesday and noticed over a dozen headstones with significant damage. Some showed visible cracks, some included decapitated statues, and others were knocked off of their pedestals.
The majority of the damage was in the northeast corner of the property. Damage was also found in the section south of Ottawa Street, which bisects the cemetery, but it was unclear if that was new vandalism.
The Heavenly Rest Family of Catholic Cemeteries and Crematorium oversees St. Alphonsus, and confirmed the vandalism on its official Facebook page.
"We want to assure the families affected that we are committed to repairing the damaged headstones," said Diocese of London Cemetery Property and Project Manager Gisele Grieves in an email to WindsorNewsToday.ca. "However, please note that we will need to wait for weather and ground conditions to improve before we can safely bring the necessary equipment into the cemetery to undertake the repair work. We will provide updates on the restoration timeline as soon as it becomes feasible."
Heavenly Rest said that visitors with loved ones buried at the cemetery should exercise caution in the affected areas and not touch any damaged stones.
Grieves added that Windsor police have been notified. WindsorNewsToday.ca has reached out to Windsor police for additional information, but they did not respond by the time of publication.
