A 49-year-old West Virginia gravedigger, Matthew Fortner, is being accused of digging up a baby casket and dumping it downhill. This reportedly led the casket to open, sending the child's remains flying and eventually landing in the middle of the cemetery.
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According to WOWK, the incident took place on Thursday, March 27. Fortner was reportedly working at the Baylous Cemetery and was working on digging a plot for someone else's burial at the time. A criminal complaint alleges that Matthew Fortner dug up a baby's casket. The baby was originally buried in 1982, as per the outlet.
Fortner would then allegedly get rid of the baby casket he dug up by throwing it down the hill. This caused the casket to open, ejecting the baby's remains out in the open. At around 7:15 p.m., an individual was decorating one of Baylous Cemetery's graves. Suddenly, they stumbled upon the baby's corpse and the broken casket, and they immediately called 911.
On Wednesday, April 2, authorities arrested Matthew Fortner. He was charged with disinterment or dispalcement of a dead body or part thereof, damage to a cemetery or graveyard, and violating the protection of human skeletal remains, grave artifacts, and grave markers, as per WOWK. He is currently being held in jail on a $105,000 bond, with his preliminary hearing scheduled for April 10.
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Cabell County Sheriff Doug Adams spoke with WSAZ and was visibly disgusted by Fortner's alleged offenses.
"It takes a sick individual, in my opinion, to desecrate a grave and mess with a corpse — period," Adams told the outlet.
The grave of the child, who, according to the Cabell County Sheriff's Office, had no relation to Matthew Fortner, appears to be the only one disturbed. "We do think this is an isolated incident. We don't think it is going to be a trend or anything," Adams added.
According to WSAZ, Matthew Fortner was convicted of murder back in 1997. Back then, he pleaded guilty at the time and was sentenced to life with mercy in prison in 1999. Later, he was released in February 2006.
After Fortner's arrest, the Baylous Cemetery Board of Directors, who reportedly contracted Forntner, released a statement.
"The Board of Directors is shocked and saddened to hear that an employee of a contractor used by Baylous Cemetery stands accused of committing this crime," the statement reads. "We continue to cooperate with the Cabell County Sheriff's Office and thank them for diligently working to solve this case. We hope that justice will be served."
