Second suspect sought in urn case

by MAUREEN DOLAN/[email protected]
| November 14, 2014 8:00 PM

Katherine Kilduff never imagined she would lose her grandparents a second time.

Kilduff's relatives' cremated remains were entombed in a Kellogg cemetery wall niche, which was one of two broken into sometime between Halloween and Nov. 3.

"They took the urn and disposed of the remains all over the cemetery," said Kilduff, a Silver Valley native who now lives in Gresham, Ore. "We will never be able to get them back."

The urns taken in the incident at Greenwood Cemetery have not been recovered.

Police arrested a suspect, Robert McCool, 20, on Nov. 5.

McCool, who remains in custody in Shoshone County Jail, is facing charges of desecration of a grave, unlawful removal of human remains and malicious injury to property.

"It's a particularly ghoulish, heinous and cruel type of crime," said Kilduff, in a phone interview from Oregon.

The identity of a second suspect was released by police Thursday. A felony warrant has been issued for the arrest of Jeremiah "JJ" Miller.

Kilduff said the perpetrators' targeting of her grandparents' niche seems odd, because of its position in the cemetery. Her grandparents were entombed in one of the first walls erected at Greenwood, not on an end wall.

It also feels personal, Kilduff said, especially considering her family's deep roots in the Silver Valley. Her mother is Kellogg City Council member Joan Head, and Kilduff's aunt owns the local mortuary.

"It just seems very strange," she said. "If it is random, I would really like to know what the impetus was."

Kilduff said she's pleased the police are closing in on Miller and that they have McCool in custody, but it doesn't change the pain her family has experienced.

"We are grateful, but my grandparents can never be returned to us," Kilduff said."We have to mourn their loss again because of the cruel and callous nature of this deplorable act."

Kellogg Police are asking anyone with information about Miller's whereabouts to call their office, (208) 786-9131, or the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office, (208) 556-1114.