by Sandman
First of all I am very involved with cemeteries and their preservation. I operate a cemetery database which serves many purposes including the detection of vandalism. This is to be our focus because I have something disturbing to share with you.
Vandalism in our cemeteries has been an ongoing problem for a few hundred years now but one has to wonder what drives a person to act in such a manner. This particular form of vandalish came to my notice about three years ago. I was photographing a cemetery here in southwestern Pennsylvania when I came upon a child's gravestone that had been violated.
The type of stone in question has a lamb carved into it just above the child's name. The violation to these gravestones has been the decapitation of the lamb. My first thought was that I had discovered a random act but I was soon to learn that this was only the beginning. I am uncertain as to exactly how many lambstones have been vandalized but an accurate account is being undertaken.
It appears that hundreds of cemeteries within a given area were targeted...some of them very remote as well. It has been suggested that what I have discovered has been nothing more than similiar acts committed by persons unknown to each other but I do not believe that to be the case. Random acts generate random locations and that is simply not the case here.
This vandalism does not appear to extend past a certain point which is what lead me to believe we are dealing with a single person or perhaps a group of people acting together. I have speculated that cult activity may have had a hand in this but I have no facts to substantiate such a conclusion.
My thoughts along that path are based on cult tradition which has included the use of a lamb in the form of an offering. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts concerning this subject. Check back from time to time because I will be updating this material on a regular basis.
Sandman
