F'closures Also Affect Dearly Departed; Loved Ones' Final Resting Place Anything But Peaceful As Pending Sale Of Troubled Cemetary Worries Families

In Madison, Indiana, WDRB-TV Channel 41 reports:

• Grandview Memorial Gardens Cemetery gained attention for water-logged graves and will now go to the highest bidder. The auction is just the latest problem for Grandview, that has many folks wondering what will happen to all of their loved ones.



• Pictures are all Hazel Wilkerson has of her late husband Fred who died October 22nd. "It will be three months Sunday," says Wilkerson, a secretary at the Madison Airport. She worked alongside her husband, a pilot, for many years. "We'd been married 45 years when he passed away."



• He is buried next to his mother at Grandview. Hazel already has her plot next to Fred. But their final resting place is anything put peaceful. "I just wonder what's going to happen," wonders Wilkerson.



• She's wondering because next month the cemetery is going on the auctioning block. Grandview's history is bogged down in controversy. Bodies were exhumed several years ago to fix problems with water logged graves. The actual owner is still in dispute with lawsuits dating back to 2006.



• "I just don't know. That's up to a judge to decide," says Jim Holt. He thought he sold the cemetery years ago to Keith Mefford and wants nothing to do with it now as it goes up for auction. "When Mefford stopped making his payments to me, then I stopped making the payments to the bank."



• The bank then filed foreclosure against the cemetery. Holt says he knows of two interested parties.



• Hazel Wilkerson just hopes the highest bidder holds this sacred ground in high regard. "Somebody's going have to take it over that's going to take care of it cause it's not really been taken care of like it should be." "The sheriff plans to auction off the cemetery on February 23rd.

Source: Troubled Madison cemetery will go to the highest bidder.