Vandals struck Cottonwood’s largest cemetery.
Annie Velazquez went Jan. 9 to visit the grave of her mother Yolanda, buried in the Cottonwood Cemetery.
The Velazquez graves are well- maintained, with a family that not only visits often, but decorates the grave with small statues, flowers and other features to show their love. A plaque on Yolanda Velazquez’s grave reads, “Gone yet not forgotten. Although we are apart, your spirit lives within us forever. It is within our hearts.”
But on the Jan. 9, Velazquez was dismayed to see serious damage. She had been told by another family with a nearby plot that there had been vandalism to the graves in the row, and on that Saturday morning, Velazquez found that the cross bearing her moth- er’s name had been knocked over. The star on top had been broken off. The wreath she had put on for Christmas had been wrecked. Two angels had been knocked over, with one broken.
This was not the first time. Just a month before on Dec. 10, Velazquez had filed a report with the Cottonwood Police Department after finding five different items from the gravesite, including decorative flowers gone, and a sleeping angel statue moved. It had been glued to the concrete with adhesive.
In January 2019, Velazquez filed a police report after several decorative flowers placed on the grave disappeared, asking for increased security.
“It’s been going on for a few years now, and there’s nothing really done about it,” Velazquez said. “It seems to be becoming more and more habitual. And it seems like the acts are becoming more and more brazen, based on what I’ve seen.”
The January 2021 incident featured high levels of damage that suggested not just casual vandalism, but possibly a deliberate intention to destroy parts of the graves by multiple people across more than 10 different grave sites in the row. A bench had been pulled out of the ground, leaving holes in its place, to be thrown on top of the graves of Rafael and Manual Beltran.
Several statues on various graves in the row had been moved and damaged. A small homemade wooden shrine on the grave of Peter De Loza had been thrown aside.
“We had a little house with some stuff in it and they pulled it right out of the ground and threw it a ways and broke the glass that was in it. It ruined it,” said Donna De Loza, daughter of Peter, who filed a police report on Jan. 9. “I felt shock, anger, sadness that somebody would go and desecrate graves for no reason. I’ve never seen this before.”
The police closed the cases of vandalism from both December and January with no leads, according to information provided by Cmdr. Christopher Dowell of the Cottonwood Police Department.
The families have expressed concern that the city has not taken their concerns seriously. According to City Manager Ron Corbin, the city has not so far treated the vandalism incidents as significant, especially with the difficulty of catching someone after the fact without leads.
“I am sure our PD will add additional patrols to the area to see if that helps and we have Public Works employees in there almost every day,” Corbin wrote in an email. “I am under the impression that we have not used locks at the cemetery in almost 10 years with very few incidents. It is always sad when this happens, and I personally find it hard to believe that a human being would desecrate someone’s grave.”
The families want more than that, after multiple incidents.
“It’s almost like somebody needs to be caught red-handed. There’s no security cameras,” Velazquez said. “To me it’s not so much about the price as it is the principle.”
“I know there won’t be any compensation or anything, but at least [give us] a little more — close the gate first, and a little more of a police presence around there.
Maybe take a drive through there,” De Loza said. “The gates, I think personally, should be closed. They had been closed and then all of a sudden they’re left open so vandals can come in. With the gates open, they can just drive in.”
Fed up with the lack of response, Velazquez spoke before the Cottonwood City Council at its May 4 meeting, during the public comment section.
“How would you feel if someone was frequently violating the gravesite to your deceased loved ones and nobody did anything proactive about it?” Velazquez asked the council. “I just want to deal with the fallout. I want to make things better for the cemetery while I try to deal with this.”
“You have our sympathies, and I believe we will be looking into the matter,” Vice Mayor Doug Hulse said in response.
In the meantime, the damage has greatly upset the families as they wait to find out if something will be done.
“The reason that you go to gravesites is to honor them, and put flowers,” De Loza said. “It’s not right when it’s desecrated and ruined. It’s just not right. You go to honor them, you go there to visit them, not to desecrate them.”
