ShawneeDispatch.com

More than $2,000 in damages earlier this month at a cemetery just south of Shawnee has left officials at the historic site frustrated but not surprised.

Officials with the Monticello District Cemetery Association, which operates four historic burial grounds in and around Shawnee, say vandalism at Murphy Cemetery, 8700 Mize Road, is a common occurrence.

That said, they'd like it to stop soon, and they'd like residents' help.

Cindy Ashby, secretary of the association, said that vandals on May 6 caused more than $2,000 worth of damage when they tipped over four gravestones at the Cemetery.

Cemetery administrators reported the damage to the Lenexa Police Department, but authorities have little to go on without a description of the perpetrators.

In addition, cemetery maintenance staff routinely picks up spent fireworks and alcohol bottles and cans at the site. The vandalism is due in part to warmer temperatures, Ashby said.

"It always seems to be around spring," Ashby said. "Kids are getting out of school, they have spring fever, they have parties and they end up hanging around this cemetery."

Officer Shannon Trevino, of the Lenexa Police Department, agreed with Ashby and said that the department patrols the site routinely, especially during the spring.

"This is the time of the year where kids are getting out of school and they don't have a whole lot to do to begin with so they become a little more destructive," Trevino said.

The cemetery, which has been located just south of the current Shawnee city limits for more than 100 years, when it was a family-owned tract, has no lights and only one of two gates is locked at night. The gravestones aren't insured, and many have become weakened by decades of harsh weather, Ashby said.

Vandals desecrate at least one or two gravestones each year, Ashby said.

About 34 gravestones were disturbed in October 1997, causing between $10,000 and $15,000 worth of damages, according to police records

"These old stones are really irreplaceable, because some of them have been there for 130 years," she said. "They're really antiques."

Ultimately, Ashby said, the cemetery association is asking residents to help patrol the area by watching for suspicious activity near the site.

"These cemeteries are closed from dusk until dawn," Ashby said. "If there's any activity after dusk, we're asking the neighbors to call the police."