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The former director of Burr Oak Cemetery has been convicted of profiting from the desecration of hundreds of graves in South Suburban Alsip, according to the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Carolyn Towns, 51, of Blue Island, pled guilty this morning when she appeared before Judge Frank Castiglione at the Cook County Courthouse in Bridgeview, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Towns had served as the director of Burr Oak Cemetery and was charged along with grave diggers Maurice Daily, 61, of Robbins; Keith Nicks, 47, of Chicago; and Terrence Nicks, 41, of Chicago.

Towns was convicted of stealing over one hundred thousand dollars from the corporation that operated Burr Oak Cemetery.  Through her position at the cemetery, Towns would accept cash payments from the families of the recently deceased.  Towns would then keep the money for herself, and then direct the grave diggers to bury the bodies in graves that were already occupied. 

As part of the scheme, the grave diggers would dig up and remove the remains of the bodies already buried in the graves.  In many instances, the grave diggers would crush the vaults and caskets in the graves and then dump the human remains in another area of the cemetery which was generally used for dumping garbage and dirt.  In other instances, they would “double stack” graves, a practice referred by Burr Oak employees as creating “bogus graves.” This practice involved the removal of previously buried vaults, which were then set off to the side. The defendants would then dig the grave deeper, replace the previously removed vault back in the hole, cover it with dirt and prepare the space for a new burial on top of it. 

Towns pled guilty to all the counts in her indictment which included Dismembering a Human Body, Theft from a Place of Worship, Damaging Ten or More Gravestones, Desecration of Human Remains, Removal of Human Remains of multiple Deceased Human Beings from a Burial Ground, and Conspiracy to Dismember Multiple Human Bodies.

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