Grave Desecration in Echols

According to an article in the Evansville Courier & Press, some vandals recently desecrated the Hopewell Community Cemetery near Echols, KY.

This doesn't sound like your usual garden-variety idiot-teen vandalism, though: they used a backhoe. The article states:

Caretakers believe the heavy equipment was used to dig into the grave of James Franklin Welborn and perhaps a couple of other graves, Benton said. The backhoe driver apparently became mired in the mud and damaged or disturbed eight to 10 other graves and knocked over tombstones, the sheriff said.

In all, an area 50 to 60 feet long and about 25 feet wide was disturbed, Doolin said.

"It appears they might have been looking for some type of artifacts," he said.

After the dirt was moved, heavy rains filled the holes with water. No one knows for sure exactly what is missing from the graves or how deep the holes are, said Benton and his wife Ruth. They aren't sure what would normally be left in a 50-year-old grave.

Welborn, who occupied the disturbed grave, was a World War I veteran who died in 1958at a Dayton, Ohio, veterans hospital, Benton said.

"It's a puzzle to everybody." No one has a clue what someone might be seeking in the graves, he said.

In the immortal words of Fox Mulder, "I think this might be an X-File".