Gravesites disturbed in Zephyrhills cemetery

ZEPHYRHILLS (FOX 13) - A sheriff's deputy's body cam video shows the aftermath of an unimaginable crime: burial plots dug up inside a rural Pasco County cemetery.

"There was a hole. It was 2-feet wide and 4-feet long and it was quite deep. There was water coming into it, that's how deep they went. They had gone through clay," Crystal Springs Cemetery Association President Cindie Cornelius said.

Cornelius runs the Crystal Springs Cemetery, a remote resting place dating back to the early 1900s. Along with the unearthed grave, another plot's vault was vandalized.

"The big stone had been moved. There were tire tracks. There was a rope," she said. 

Chuck Flanagan found the mess.

"You're supposed to rest in peace," he said.

He volunteers his time to keep up the grounds out of respect for his wife, who is buried there.

"That just really upsets me that they would be desecrating any of the graves here. If it had been anywhere near my wife's, I'd probably be even more upset," Flanagan said.

It's unclear if the vandals got away with anything, or actually reached the remains. Cornelius fears they may have been after jewelry or valuables tucked away with loved ones passed.

"They have no morals. They have no conscience. They're just the wrong kinda people. I don't want to meet them. I just want them caught," Cornelius said.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.