ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — David Lamphier buried his 14-month-old son, John, at the Royal Palm Cemetery South in St. Pete, but there are times when he wishes he'd chosen a different final resting place.
“It was quite rundown,” Lamphier said about the cemetery. “Almost looked like an abandoned place.”
Lamphier lives in Virginia, but on a trip to St. Pete in 2017, he noticed the cemetery had deteriorated since his son passed away in 1972. There are cracked headstones and vases that have fallen over.
On top of that, he said when he asked a cemetery employee where his son's headstone was, she told him records show he wasn't buried there.=
“It was quite upsetting, especially being as that I knew he was buried there,” he explained.
Lamphier eventually found it himself.
Carol Hart, whose husband is buried at a cemetery with the same owner, said she’s heard several complaints about bad recordkeeping at both cemeteries. She also said she’s witnessed the same deplorable conditions at Sarasota Memorial Park.
“I think part of what I see is, you know what, you're dead, you're gone, you're forgotten,” she said.
The state division in charge of cemeteries knows about the problems. People with loved ones at both cemeteries wonder if they'll ever get fixed, especially since the owner has filed for bankruptcy.
“People are buried there,” Lamphier said. “They have loved ones that care about them. It's just hard to believe that somebody would be so uncaring to just let things go.”
A court-appointed trustee is now responsible for the cemeteries. We reached out to the owner and his attorney again Sunday for comment, but haven't been able to get a hold of them.
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