Six people are now charged in connection with the damage to more than a dozen rare headstones at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Lethbridge last week.
Lethbridge Regional Police have laid further charges in connection with the nearly $50,000 thousand dollar damage after 17 headstones were smashed.
On March 12, 2014 police responded to a report from a city worker that a number of headstones in the older part of the cemetery along the 500 block of 6th Avenue north had been broken. The city of Lethbridge says there are no records for the damaged headstones to contact the families. Some of the markers date back to the 1900’s.
“A lot of our records in the 1950’s were burnt in a church fire. The genealogy society of Lethbridge walked the cemetery and handwrote all the markers they could find. So we took that information and placed it on a map that we had to have a general idea of the people buried there, but a lot of them are incomplete,” said Hiroshi Okuba, with the City of Lethbridge cemetery services.
One of those men responsible for the damage of the century old headstones says he’s disgusted with himself and is apologizing for his actions.
“I regret everything I did that night and I am truly sorry for every person affected by my actions in what happened that night. It’s eating me a part of what I did that night and nothing will stop the guilt of what I did,” said 32-year-old Jon Mitchell
But, while Mitchell says he is sorry for his actions the tombstones are irreplaceable. They were made out of a white marble and is no longer manufactured here in Canada.
Kayla Angelina Sheck, 18, Alexander Nicholas MacKay, 18, and Tyler Daniel Letkeman, 19, all of Lethbridge are charged with mischief over $5,000.
Police previously charged Jonathan Montega Manitowabie, 23, Jonathan Frederick Mitchell, 31, and Chad Daniel Saxon, 23, with mischief over $5,000.
All are scheduled to appear in court April 9.
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