HARD TIMES: MARTINSBURG MEN ON 'CASKET TAMPERING' SPREE

(07/26/2013)

WV thieves take some strange risks in hard times, from climbing poles to steel copper wire to tampering with caskets looking for jewelry. In Martinsburg, grave robbers have admitted they forced open crypts and caskets to steal jewelry from bodies at Rosewood Cemetery. The caskets and damage to more than a dozen of crypts were replaced to the tune of about $40,000. David Bowers III, 24, was arrested on felony charges of disinterment or displacement of a dead body, destruction of property and was also charged with burglary, conspiracy and distribution of heroin in connection with another incident. Court records say Bowers told police that he helped open crypts within a mausoleum to take jewelry from the bodies. Bowers said they used screwdrivers to open the crypts and pulled the caskets out before forcing them open. Bowers took the jewelry and exchanged it for money at the Cash for Gold kiosk in the Martinsburg Mall. Police also responded to another destruction of property complaint at Pleasant View Memory Gardens Cemetery, where 50 crypts had been disturbed.

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