A Shocking Theft in 1982
In 1982, fans of Ronnie Van Zant were stunned when the large marble marker at his grave was stolen not long after it was placed. Van Zant, the frontman of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died in a plane crash in 1977 at age 29 when the aircraft carrying the band ran out of fuel outside Gillsburg, killing him and several other members of the group. He was originally buried in a marble mausoleum at Jacksonville Memory Gardens in Florida, and many fans visited his grave as a place to remember the singer.
Not long after his burial site became a public place of tribute, someone removed the heavy marble slab that marked his resting place. The headstone weighed about 300 pounds and was taken without warning. Law enforcement searched for weeks, and the theft raised questions about whether it was a prank by rock fans or something more serious. At the time, police had no clear suspects and very little to go on in the investigation…