Police investigating the theft of two bodies from a condemned Plains Township mausoleum earlier this month found exposed human remains on the ground, according to a search warrant application filed in the case.
While investigators have been largely silent on the case, the affidavit also reveals what charges suspects could face if they are captured and convicted, including abuse of corpse, burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief.
"Certainly this case is one of the more bizarre incidents of my career," Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said Friday. "Plains Township continues to investigate this macabre theft of bodies from Good Shepherd Memorial Park, the motive for which remains unknown."
Township police have not released any additional information since a Nov. 10 post announcing the thefts on the department's Facebook page, but the affidavit illustrates the steps officers took in the early days of the case.
Affidavit: Volunteer called police
According to the affidavit, a volunteer identified only as Bowman called police on the afternoon of Nov. 5.
Bowman, who said he cuts the grass and makes sure garbage is picked up, told Plains Township Police Sgt. Michael Smith he saw that the mausoleum's front and rear windows had been smashed, and that the interior had been vandalized.
Another township officer who responded to the call observed that two caskets were exposed. He contacted Smith and Plains Township Police Detective Thomas Lepore for assistance.
Smith and Lepore observed concrete bricks and other debris, as well as multiple open crypts and the two exposed caskets.
Bowman had contacted another volunteer, Ava Petersen, who arrived at the scene while police were present on Nov. 5.
Peterson said she believed the damage took place between Nov. 1 and 5, based on cellphone pictures she took at the mausoleum on Nov. 1, showing no bricks or exposed caskets.
A history of neglect
The unsolved body thefts are the latest, but perhaps most dramatic turn in the history of the neglected cemetery — a history which led to volunteers, rather than paid staff, tending to the property.
News stories from 2015 indicated that relatives were concerned about the state of the Westminster Road cemetery and mausoleum then, and that the issues extended back at least a dozen years.
But then, as now, a major issue stood in the way: The cemetery is privately owned, limiting what steps municipal officials can take.
Good Shepherd's ownership has changed hands several times over the years. Viktoria Evstafieva and Lawrence Lee, who purchased the property in 2006, are believed to live in Florida.
WVIA News was unable to reach the pair using numbers listed online. Township officials also said they have been unable to reach Evstafieva and Lee over the course of many years.
The township condemned the crumbling mausoleum in 2015. Since then it has only continued to deteriorate.
Some volunteers — like Bowman and Petersen — have stepped up to care for the grounds, while members of the Luzerne County Funeral Directors Association have been helping families who want to have their loved ones' remains transferred from the mausoleum.
Petersen: 'They were somebody’s family'
Petersen started to research Good Shepherd to write a book on its history after she heard from community members how their loved ones’ burial sites were crumbling from neglect.
After five years of tending to the deteriorating mausoleum, she said her worst fears were realized on Nov. 5 when she learned of the thefts.
“These people have family members that loved and cared for them. I think a lot of times people look at places like cemeteries and mausoleums, [they see] just a name on the wall, but they were somebody’s family,” said Petersen, who is a Luzerne County resident.
Petersen hopes to finish her book in 2026. While Good Shepherd is a key part of the work, her research spans several cemeteries in the Northeastern U.S., including the Roger Williams Park Mausoleum in Rhode Island.
Its story is similar to Good Shepherd's.
In January 2005, the City of Cranson, Rhode Island condemned the mausoleum for being structurally unsound and trespassers have removed caskets and possibly human remains, according to local news reports, and relatives struggled to have their loved ones' remains moved.
She and Chris Yanaitis of Yanaitis Funeral Home are working to recover the site’s lost burial records. Yanaitis, in conjunction with the Luzerne County Funeral Directors Association, also has been working to help next of kin have their loved ones removed from the mausoleum.
Petersen and Yanaitis spoke at a Plains Township Commissioners meeting on Nov. 13, when Yanaitis said there were still 38 bodies entombed in the mausoleum.
One of the stolen bodies was that of Mary Cappellini Piga, a township resident who was entombed there in 1979.
Her great-grandson, township Commissioner Peter Biscontini, said police told him they found partial remains of Piga's body, but he could not comment further, including on what may have been removed from her crypt.
The name of the second body has not been released. Another relative, quoted in a Newsweek story about the incident, said he was told the second body, an unrelated male, was recovered.
Affidavit: Partial remains found at site
Plains police returned to the mausoleum on the afternoon of Nov. 6, collecting evidence including the two exposed metal caskets, the affidavit states.
Because of the caskets' size, police said they were not initially able to fully inspect their interiors, and the caskets were moved to a large evidence room at the Wyoming Regional Police Department.
Police returned to the cemetery on Nov. 7 to look for the remains missing from the two caskets.
One officer saw three crypt plate covers leaning against the building. He discovered a clear plastic tarp behind the face plates.
"After inspecting the area, he noticed it was human remains wrapped up," the affidavit says.
The officer called Lepore to inspect.
"I was able to confirm that it was in fact human remains still covered in clothing," Lepore wrote.
The affidavit does not elaborate.
DA: Case 'strains comprehension'
Sanguedolce said he has seen cases involving the theft of human body parts. Such cases usually involve fresh organs, which are sold on clandestine trafficking networks.
One case that made national headlines had local connections.
Earlier this year a former Harvard Medical School morgue manager admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts, including hands, feet and heads, the Associated Press reported.
According to the AP those remains were bought and sold through a nationwide network of suspects, including some in Pennsylvania, and the case was handled by federal prosecutors in Scranton.
But those thefts involved cadavers used for medical research and recently deceased bodies at funeral homes, with suspects selling brains, skin and other body parts, the AP noted.
The Good Shepherd case involved the bodies of people who had been dead for decades, leaving Sanguedolce and investigators struggling to determine why.
"Theft of remains at this level of decomposition strains comprehension," Sanguedolce said Friday.
Petersen, meanwhile, is hopeful that what she and Yanaitis are doing will make a difference for families and raise awareness of the issues that arise when cemeteries fall into disrepair.
“I'm hoping if I bring awareness to that, we can maybe close those loopholes for future generations so they don't have to go through anything like this,” she said.
