Body parts stolen from 1900s crypt — and it isn’t the first time, Colorado cops say
A crypt was broken into, and a person’s body parts were stolen for the second time, Colorado deputies said.
A Crown Hill Cemetery employee called police after noticing one of the mausoleums was damaged at the Wheat Ridge location, Jacki Kelley, a public information officer with Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
When deputies got to the scene Oct. 11, they noticed there was also damage to a crypt and a casket inside, McClatchy News previously reported.
The crypt, which belongs to a family from the 1900s, had been broken into in 2000 and the same person’s remains were stolen, Kelley said. The casket was shut again in 2002.
Police found blood on the casket’s fabric liner and inside the crypt, according to an affidavit obtained by 9 News.
McClatchy News reached out to officials for the affidavit Oct. 26 but was unable to obtain it as the investigation remains ongoing.
The person’s skull and other bones were missing, the outlet reported.
Deputies have not located the remains, Kelley said.
Deputies issued an arrest warrant for John Wayne Belknap, 46, after evidence at the scene led investigators to him, according to an Oct. 25 news release by the sheriff’s office.
Belknap did not have a relationship with the person in the casket, police said, and the two break-ins are not connected, Kelley said.
The reason why the same casket was targeted twice is unknown, police said.
Belknap was arrested Oct. 24 by Denver Police and was booked in Jefferson County Jail on charges of criminal mischief, abuse of a corpse, burglary, theft and desecration of a venerated object, deputies said.
Jefferson County is about 30 miles southwest of Denver.
Graveyard with colorful sarcophagi and 3,500-year-old mummies uncovered in Egypt
Body parts stolen from crypt after ‘disturbing’ grave robbery, Colorado cops say
Man illegally dug up human remains, artifacts at Native American burial site, feds say
