A sense of peace has been restored at Woodlawn Cemetery after a man tore through the natural landscape last week, destroying roughly 50 grave sites.
Late Thursday, a jogger going through the cemetery caught the violent act on camera .
“Hey, knock it off!” Craig O’Neill yells at the man in the video.
“Go about your way, man, but don’t come back here. … You can’t smash the cemetery, dude!”
The man, who has not yet been publicly identified, then appears to walk towards a wooded area.
Police tell FOX 17 that approximately 50 sites were destroyed or tampered with.
A source with the city of Grand Rapids tells FOX 17 that five more graves were disturbed at nearby Oak Grove Cemetery.
Both sites are owned by the city. Graves were restored for the most part by the beginning of this week.
For one family, the pain of seeing their loved one’s final resting place desecrated will take time to heal.
Jason Mancuso, a genealogy enthusiast, has spent years researching his family’s history, eventually exploring hundreds of names buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.