Grave decorations disturbed at Coeur d'Alene cemetery
Post Falls resident Linda Whitehead said she’s reluctant to decorate her parents’ graves after repeated disturbances. Last month, she found chicken bones and meat stuffed inside flower vases. KAYE THORNBRUGH/Press
In Forest Cemetery, the graves of Robert and Gertrude Van Wagoner sit unadorned after decorations were repeatedly disturbed. KAYE THORNBRUGH/Press
COEUR d’ALENE — When Linda Whitehead visited her parents’ grave in Coeur d'Alene's Forest Cemetery one Sunday in July, she found the red, white and blue silk flowers she’d previously put in vases scattered on the grass, along with the miniature American flags she’d placed.
She poured out the sprinkler water that had accumulated in the vases — and was shocked when chicken bones and pieces of meat fell out, too. Somebody had stuffed the waste inside the vases.
“I was appalled, especially that anyone would throw an American flag on the ground,” said Whitehead, a Post Falls resident.
A week later, her daughter checked the graves and found that the synthetic flowers had been strewn about again.
The family put the flowers back, but it happened again. This time, some of the flowers were missing.
“It’s unnerving that somebody would be that ugly and destructive,” Whitehead said.
City Parks Director Bill Greenwood said it’s rare for grave decorations to be disturbed. What Whitehead has experienced is highly irregular.
“Nothing like that’s ever happened, that I’m aware of,” said Greenwood, who has been with the city since 1999.
It’s more normal — though still infrequent — for people to take items like pinwheels and wreathes from graves or to move flowers or decorations from one grave to another.
Occasionally, strong winds or other weather conditions disturb grave decorations, causing confusion and heartache.
“It’s a sensitive place,” Greenwood said.
The Parks Department has placed trail cameras in the area, he said, in an effort to catch whoever is disturbing the graves.
Whitehead said she’s at a loss. She can think of no reason why someone would disturb her parents’ graves even once, let alone multiple times.
“My parents didn’t have enemies,” she said. “They were very upstanding citizens of Coeur d’Alene.”
Besides, she said — her father, Lt. Col. Robert Van Wagoner, died in 1986. Her mother, Gertrude Van Wagoner, passed away in 2005. Their graves are not distinctive or in a particularly secluded part of the cemetery.
Whitehead said she’s been especially dismayed to see American flags left on the ground.
Her father, Lt. Col. Robert Van Wagoner, trained B-17 pilots during World War II. Near the end of the war, he flew bombers from Italy over Germany.
“We were taught to honor the flag,” she said.
The disturbances have left her reluctant to place more flowers at her parents’ grave.
“My freedom to honor my parents and decorate their graves has been taken from me,” she said. “I’d like to find out who’s doing this.”
