The Brief
- Moisture inside a columbarium at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery has caused a Korean War veteran’s wooden urn to rot.
- The veteran’s family says they reached out to the cemetery over a month ago when they discovered the moisture but had been unable to move the remains to a dry place.
- After reaching out to FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb, the family and the cemetery are now working to move their parents’ remains and figure out the cause of the moisture.
DALLAS – The family of a veteran buried at the Dallas Fort-Worth National Cemetery says the burial site is now moving their parents’ remains to a dry spot after moisture caused rotting within their columbarium.
Moisture causes rotting in veteran’s urn
Mike and Greg Matus reached out to FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb after he says the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery was initially unwilling to move their parents’ cremated remains from their resting place.
Their father, Marvin Matus, was a Korean War veteran who passed away in 2020. Their mother, Helen, was buried alongside their father when she passed away earlier in 2026.
The brothers say they discovered a buildup of moisture at their father’s headstone when the family went to bury their mother’s cremated remains in March. The moisture had caused rotting within their father’s wooden urn.
“They took the headstone off to place mom’s ashes in there with dad’s and dad’s box, and it’s just rotting away from the moisture,” Matus told Rabb. “There’s standing water — standing water inside the vault.”
What they’re saying:…