Edwardsville police said Saturday they have a suspect in custody in connection with the defacement of headstones and grave markers at Sunset Hill Cemetery.
Details about the 34-year-old man will be released once he is charged, police said in a post on the department’s Facebook page.
Swastikas spray-painted on more than 200 headstones in Illinois cemetery. https://t.co/HzlSPsi2Os pic.twitter.com/ltwCEiaW34
— Slate (@Slate) May 28, 2018
Employees at the Glen Carbon cemetery said swastikas were spray-painted on 150 to 200 headstones and markers.
Mark Johnson, grounds superintendent at the nondenominational cemetery at 50 Fountain Drive, said the defaced stones were discovered about 7:15 a.m. Saturday.
Johnson said he believed the timing of the vandalism at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend wasn’t by chance. He said large numbers of people would be coming to the gravesites to pay their respects to loved ones.
“I think they probably knew what they were doing,” he said of whomever committed the vandalism.
Johnson said he called in two crews to clean the stones and markers. Volunteers also assisted.
A Memorial Day ceremony for the general public is scheduled for noon Monday at the cemetery. More than 1,300 veterans are buried there.
Johnson said this is the first time vandalism of this magnitude has happened at the cemetery.
The vandalism in the nearby subdivision, Sunset Hills Estates, took place between 1:40 a.m. and 2:20 a.m., said Edwardsville police Sgt. Justin Towell.
He said swastikas were painted on the siding of homes and garage doors.
Edwardsville police posted on the department’s Facebook page the image of a man believed to be a suspect in the case.
The image is from a surveillance video from the subdivision.
Towell said that person may also be responsible for the cemetery vandalism.
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