WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A family is asking the public to find a piece of family history taken from Greenwood Cemetery.
The memorial gates are an heirloom that goes back decades for the Hayes family, made by their great-grandfather.
For nearly 50 years, the rod iron gates have been planted at the cemetery.
“The gates to heaven is what we always thought they were,” said Abbygail Hayes, who had memorial gates stolen.
Now, just the vertical pieces are left.
“I came out because it was my grandmother’s birthday on the 14th because I put flowers on the graves and I noticed my grandpa’s gates were gone,” said Hayes.
The gates were made by Abbygail and Michael Hayes’ great-grandfather, Michael Herald, who died in 1976.
“The first thing I thought was why, you know, like, this cemetery is just so out of the way, in my opinion, from, like, every day Wichita life,” said Michael.
A post Abbygail shared on social media asking for help is now seen by hundreds.
I checked earlier, and there were almost 300 shares on Facebook, and that was never that was not. I wasn’t planning for this to get anywhere other than just people to keep their eyes out, I guess, by sale trade groups, Facebook, marketplace, all of the things,” Abbygail.