Vandals Strike Northern Rogers County Cemetery

Newson6.com

ROGERS COUNTY, OKLAHOMA -- The Rogers County Sheriff's Office is investigating a vandalism spree at a rural cemetery over the weekend.

Sometime Friday night, vandals damaged 53 headstones at the Wingnon-Ketchum Cemetery in the northern part of Rogers County.  That's about 40 percent of all the graves there.

"It takes disrespect to another level," said Sheriff Scott Walton, Rogers County.

"How somebody could do something like this, I can't understand," Dan DeLozier, Rogers County Commissioner, said.

A number of the headstones were knocked down. Vandals also used smaller headstones to smash larger ones.  Some of the figurines adorning the graves are smashed to bits. The age of the headstone didn't matter.

"It leaves you shaking your head and wondering why," DeLozier said.  "It sickens me that there are people who would do something like this."

"Anybody that could do something like this, I think of them as less than human," Sheriff Walton said.  "To see that somebody would come in here and have no respect for the last memory of someone's loved one who is placed is placed here in this cemetery."

The cemetery was located west of Old Alluew, but the town and cemetery was moved to build Oologah Lake. 

County crews are working to clean up the mess and repair the markers.

"We're going to make an example out of anyone we catch doing this," Sheriff Walton said.

Anyone with information on this case can contact Rogers County Sheriff's Office tip line at 918-341-3620.