Police find icon's casket, more empty plots at historic cemetery ALSIP, Illinois (CNN) -- Authorities revealed more disturbing discoveries Friday at an Illinois cemetery where hundreds of burial plots were allegedly dug up and resold, including more emptied graves and the discarded casket of a civil rights icon.
More than 2,000 families went to Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, after authorities uncovered what they say was a scheme to excavate the graves, dump the remains, resell the plots and pocket the cash. Four people face felony charges.
As families arrived to check on their loved ones' graves, they told authorities about 30 more cases "where another crime scene is obvious," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said at a news conference.
Earlier this week, Dart estimated the number of disturbed graves at about 300, but he said Friday the number is likely to rise.
"People have gone to grave sites where the headstones are gone. People have gone to the grave sites where a different person is there now. People have gone to grave sites where it's clear that something has been removed," he said.
New burials are taking place, Dart said, and one family that arrived Thursday to bury a woman found that the plot was already occupied.
Dart also said Friday that authorities discovered Emmett Till's original casket in a dilapidated garage on the cemetery grounds. Till was reportedly buried in a different casket after his body was exhumed in 2005.
"There was wildlife living inside of it," Dart said of the old casket, which he said was found in the corner of a garage filled with lawn care equipment and other "piles of things."
Till, 14, was brutally killed in August 1955 in Mississippi after he reportedly whistled at a white woman. Despite the gruesome condition of his corpse, his mother insisted on a public funeral and open casket in an effort to draw attention to the ferocity of her son's killing.
His body was exhumed 50 years later as part of a renewed probe into his death. The Chicago Tribune reported that he was reburied in a different casket.
Thousands of people viewed Till's body in the original casket in Chicago shortly after he was killed, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at Friday's news conference.
"His mother had the gut and grit to say that, 'I want America to see what they did to my baby's body,' " Jackson said. "More than 100,000 saw his body lying at the church. It is said that those who saw his body were never the same again.
Emmett Till’s lynching redefined emotions in our culture in very fundamental ways," Jackson said. "So to see his casket in this state of desecration and neglect is very painful."
Cemetery groundskeepers told investigators that Till's grave was not among those disturbed in the alleged scheme, Dart said earlier this week.
Carolyn Towns, an office manager for the cemetery, and gravediggers Keith Nicks, Terrance Nicks and Maurice Daley have each been charged with dismembering a human body, a felony. Sentences could range from six to 30 years, authorities said.
Steven Watkins, an attorney for Towns, said his client is innocent. The public defender's office in Cook County said it had represented the three others at the bond hearing but could not provide a statement.
Authorities began investigating the cemetery -- where, along with Till, blues legend Dinah Washington and some Negro League baseball players are buried -- about six weeks ago after receiving a call from its owners.
The owners said they suspected "financial irregularities" regarding the business, Dart said earlier this week.
The owners are not believed to be involved in the alleged scam.
www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/10/illinois.cemetery/index.html#cnnSTCText
