Four People Charged in Alleged Grave-Selling Scheme
HARRIS: Breaking news right now in an alleged grave-selling scheme near Chicago. CNN has confirmed that four people have been charged and will appear in court this hour. The Cook County sheriff says employees at the historic Burr Oak African-American Cemetery allegedly dug up more than 300 graves. Let's get more from reporter Cheryl Jackson. And Cheryl's on the phone with us. Cheryl, who are these people who have been charged and will appear in court this hour? And what jobs did they hold for the company that -- I don't know if the company owned or just simply operated the cemetery.</s>CHERYL JACKSON, REPORTER: Yes, they operated the cemetery. One office manager and three grave diggers have been charged. They've been charged with felony, dismembering of a human body, and that is a Felony X. I don't know exactly what that means, but they said it's a very serious felony. Right now, you should just see the scene out here. I mean, people wandering around looking for their family members. We have actually gone back into the cemetery where we saw piles that the police are working on, where you can see literally bones. We talked to the sheriff who said he was wandering around, just trying to assess things, and he actually stepped into a pile of bones. I mean, that's how bad the situation is. And he said, like you said, about 300 people is what they admitted to. Police believe it's going to be turn out to be much more than that.</s>HARRIS: Hey, Cheryl, did the people who have been charged with this provide the information that's leading to this search for these remains?</s>JACKSON: Yes, they did. They told police that it was in this one location. But now I guess one other person has admitted that maybe the bodies are buried on top of each other. And that's inside the cemetery. The piles of bones and rubble is on the back side of the cemetery, on the outside. So, it looks like there's going to be some internal investigations inside the cemetery. FBI is coming from around the world with imaging equipment and that kind of thing to be able to figure out exactly what's going on.</s>HARRIS: Have you been able to talk to any of the people who you've described poignantly to us as wandering around on the grounds looking for their loved ones?</s>JACKSON: Yes. One woman just looked at me and said, "My brother is not here." And then she said, "What do you do if your family member is gone?" And I think that's the question that's going to be the hardest to answer.</s>HARRIS: Oh, yes.</s>JACKSON: You know, is what do you do, you know?</s>HARRIS: How did this scheme, this -- oh, boy -- this scheme come to light?</s>JACKSON: Well, actually, some people who actually worked in the cemetery actually told police about it. That's how it came to light. Now, they don't believe the cemetery ownership has anything to do with this. They believe these four people actually are the ones who hatched this scheme. And it was very sloppy scheme in a lot of ways because there are bones, according to police, just strewn throughout the cemetery, on the inside and on this back side, where there's -- several of the bodies are piled.</s>HARRIS: Do we have any idea -- and I'm asking questions, and it may just be too early in the investigation to know the answers to some of these questions. But do we have any idea of how long this plot, this scheme, had been operating?</s>JACKSON: I have not heard any information about that, about how long.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>JACKSON: But the woman whose brother was -- she was unable to find her brother -- he was actually buried in 1983. And today she said, "When I walked to where his grave was, the grass has been recently mowed and there's no stone, nothing there." So...</s>HARRIS: And Cheryl, just for clarification, the people who reported the plot, are they the same people who have been arrested, or different employees?</s>JACKSON: Different employees. Different employees.</s>HARRIS: OK. And any statement yet from the company that owns the cemetery?</s>JACKSON: No statement yet. We are expecting at least from police and some official statements here at about 1:00.</s>HARRIS: OK.</s>JACKSON: But we have had no statement. Actually, we've been told by police that no one involved from the cemetery is even on the scene. And that's causing a little bit of chaos, because you see hundreds of people filing through these gates.</s>HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. Are you kidding me?</s>JACKSON: And nobody inside to say where the plots are. So they really don't even know where to start.</s>HARRIS: So, wait a minute. You're talking about no one from the company that is operating the cemetery, no one from the company that owns the cemetery, is on site right now?</s>JACKSON: No. They are trying to get someone in here, but no one is on the scene. And so police tried to break into the computers in order to be able to figure out how to help people find the bodies of their family members, but it is a big mess. And there are hundreds of people walking through these gates every few minutes.</s>HARRIS: The significance of this cemetery, the historic significance, frame that up for us.</s>JACKSON: Well, it's -- you know, it used to be the only place in Chicago where blacks could be buried, African-Americans could be buried. And, you know, Emmett Till is buried here, and one of the Globetrotters is buried here. And right now, we don't think their graves have been tampered with. And what we think the people involved in this did was they looked at graves where people didn't visit very often. So, some of those famous people, they believe their graves are intact.</s>HARRIS: Cheryl Jackson. Cheryl, thank you for your help on this story. We appreciate it so much. How horrible is this? We're going to take a quick break. 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