Mystery as Hundreds of California Gravestones Stolen

Police in Los Angeles are investigating the theft or vandalism of nearly 600 grave markers from Woodlawn Celestial Gardens in Compton, California, last week.

Celestina Bishop, a local woman who owns and restored the cemetery where four of her slain family members are buried, is calling for support from the city council to secure the site.

According to Bishop, at least 592 name plates were stolen from the cemetery, which she has owned for the past four years. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told Newsweek they were aware of the thefts and are investigating.

Bishop told CBS News about her disgust at the theft, noting that those buried in the cemetery include "the man who founded Compton, the city that you represent and stand for" and "children." The site also contains the graves of American military veterans dating to the Civil War.

Bishop has a personal connection to the cemetery, which holds the graves of her mother and three sisters whom she witnessed being killed in 1977 when she was 2. She added that only one member of the city council, Councilman Jonathan Bowers, had "come to the cemetery to see if they can help with a resolution or if there's any assistance."

On Tuesday, Bishop attended and hoped to address a Compton City Hall meeting but was unable to as the sign-up period for speaking had already closed. However, Terrence Cumby, another attendee who is hoping to be elected to the council, speak out, saying: "I can't take it anymore."

Cumby urged the city council to buy surveillance cameras to help secure the site, but no action has been announced. Newsweek has reached out to Bishop and a representative of the Compton City Council for comment.

In her profile on the Find a Grave website, which tracks cemeteries around the world, Bishop said she had been inspired to restore the cemetery during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

She wrote: "On May 10, 2020, I desperately needed to visit my mother, sisters, and grandmother's grave in Compton, and that's when my second gear of life kicked in on full throttle.

"The cemetery had been abandoned and neglected for years and the conditions that my loved ones and the soldiers were left in broke my heart, and the camel's back."

Los Angeles has been suffering badly from crime over the past few years, with a National Retail Federation report released in November 2023 concluding it had the highest rate of retail crime in the United States.

Across California, the proportion of people who said violence and street crime was either a problem or a big problem rose by 11 percent for the 12-month period ending in February 2023 to 76 percent, according to Public Policy Institute of California figures.

The number of violent crimes across California increased from 173,864 in 2020 to 193,019 in 2022, with property crime rising from 851,171 to 902,977 incidents, according to the state's 2022 crime report.