FROSTPROOF, Fla. — The mother of a Polk County murder victim is shedding more tears this week after her son's headstone was suddenly moved.
Every day after work, Dottie Payton comes to the Silver Hill Cemetery in Frostproof to talk to her son, Brandon Rollins. In July 2020, Rollins and two friends were on their way to fish when they were shot in cold blood. Now fresh dirt covers his urn vault from a new burial at the adjacent plot, and to do so, they had to disturb Rollins' headstone.
“It's already been four years and now we're having to go through this same process again,” Payton said. “I mean, I cry every day. It was a senseless thing that happened.”
The city of Frostproof owns the cemetery where Rollins is buried and offers plots to the public at rates far more affordable than a private cemetery. Before moving the headstone, they called Payton and the family on the other side of Rollins' resting place to ask for permission to move the monuments.
“They had to move it a foot and a half over to the left because they were putting a burial here on Saturday,” Payton said. “Dealing with this situation that has happened this past week, it's brought on a lot more stress and heartache.”
Public works director Josh Turner was the one to ask Payton for permission, and she did. But what went wrong in the first place? He says the city owns the plots but funeral homes and monument companies bury remains and install the headstones.
“Nothing was disturbed as far as remains-wise, it was just the markers, the headstone markers,” Turner said. “If it's not marked properly, or they come out there and plop it down where the funeral home has put a little plastic marker with the name on it...we had a contracted mowing crew that the city used and they might have knocked it off and stuck it back in the ground somewhere but it's not exactly centered.”
While not common, it can happen and it's something to keep in mind if you decide to purchase a city or county-owned burial plot.
“In order for us to have Brandon back under in the middle of his headstone, we have to dig this up,” Payton said.
This was already going to be a difficult year for Payton and Rollins' family. Earlier this month, she was in court to see her son's accused killer have another appearance and they are still preparing for jury trials for all three suspects in the triple homicide that could begin in May.
“This is not something that we take pleasure in doing,” Turner said. “It's not something that we want to do. We're trying to help [Brandon’s family] out as well as this other family so they can have their funeral in time and get over their hump of grieving also.”