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Blog Entry 36 of 78 Grave Concerns: Inside Grand View Memorial Park

News you can use regarding Grand View Memorial Park, Glendale, CA's oldest cemetery, which has been closed for regular business since June 13, 2006, due to legal and financial problems.

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Two bodies and a cancelled funeral at Grand View

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Contributed by: Lisa Burks on 4/5/2007

The third time is apparently not a charm at Grand View.

After two recently successful court-ordered interments at the little cemetery with big problems, a third was cancelled this week when an apparent occupant was discovered in what should have been an unused grave.

John Lenn, a 74-year-old Glendale resident, passed away on March 18 and this past Monday, April 2, Judge Anthony J. Mohr ordered his burial after Lenn's daughter, Tanya, established pre-need rights to interment in Section L, Tier 4, Grave 68, described to the court to be known as an unused, single grave.

According to a purchase agreement marked paid-in-full dated December 22, 1999, signed by Mr. Lenn and the late Marsha Howard representing Grand View, Lenn paid a total of $905 ($795 for interment rights and a $110 endowment care fund fee) for the specified plot.

In a report and declaration filed with the court yesterday, Ms. Lenn's attorney Paul Ayers described the events which unfolded Monday, 24 hours prior to the planned burial service, that led to the apparent discovery of a concrete sectional casket-protection vault in Lenn's grave site.

Ayers stated that he attended the preparation for Mr. Lenn's grave, which was also attended by funeral director Reginald Duran, Woodlawn Memorial Park attendant Richard Garcia and an unidentified Evergreen Cemetery attendant. The primary purpose that day was to locate and soak the grave site to facilitate hand-digging of the spot the following morning.

The grave, stated Ayers, was located by using a January 2000 county recorded sectional map of the area and by measurements taken by Duran. Next to Mr. Lenn's grave, in what was measured out to be Grave 69 in the same tier, they found a double headstone indicating the previous interments of Wayne and Patricia Warrington in 1989 and 2002 respectively.

With water service cut off months ago at Grand View, Garcia brought in containers amounting to 100 gallons of water to soak the soil. As Garcia began to prepare the area, Ayers stated that a standard concrete flower holder was found embedded at the center of the Lenn grave site.

Because such containers are not typically placed on unused graves, a concerned Duran instructed the workers to remove the holder and begin digging in an effort to discover whether or not the grave was occupied. At approximately 17" below the surface, "an impenetrable barrier" was found, reads the declaration.

Not knowing whether they had hit a rock or piece of concrete (common materials found in cemetery grounds) the workers cleared an area measuring approximately 18" x 30" above the object, which revealed itself to be by all appearances the top of a customary vault that commonly holds a casket containing human remains, which Ayers photographed with a Polaroid camera and submitted to the court.

Based on a stipulation in Mohr's order which gave Duran power to stop operations if "materials other than that expected to be encountered" were discovered in the grave site, the interment was cancelled. The State of California's Cemetery and Funeral Bureau investigator Dan Redmond and Deputy Attorney General Joseph Zimring were consulted and ultimately agreed with Duran's decision, the declaration states.

Once the grave was closed, Ayers had the unfortunate duty to inform the Lenn family, who were gathered at Woods-Scovern Mortuary in Glendale for visitation hours, of the unexpected turn of events. At the time of Ayers' filing with the court, the Lenn family was attempting to make new arrangements at an alternative cemetery.

Ayers confirmed to me this morning that Mr. Lenn will be buried at Forest Lawn Glendale tomorrow, Good Friday, at 3:30 p.m. and that Forest Lawn personnel have been "absolutely great" about stepping in to offer assistance. The Lenn family has, understandably in their time of compounded grief, turned down all media request for a statement at this time.

So, who's in Mr. Lenn's Grand View grave?

Ayers speculated on one possible scenario in his declaration to the court based on his knowledge of operations of Grand View during Marsha Howard's reign there:

"In 1989, Wayne Warrington was buried in Grave 69. In 1999, Ms. Howard sold Mr. Lenn then empty Grave 68, but did not update her records to memorialize the sale. In 2002 when Patricia Warrington died Ms. Howard sold the family what she thought was an available grave next to Wayne Warrington. In my opinion the most likely decedent now in Grave 68 is Patricia Warrington."

Ayers told me that it's unclear what the next course of action will be in this matter, and which agency will take the lead on resolving the question of who is buried in Grave 68.

"There is no legal impetus to determine that question on any expedited basis; it's not absolutely necessary to my client's suit''," said Ayers who added that he doubts that any judge would order a disinterment of the remains at this point in time.

Grand View business records may also hold the answer.

Those records, which include copies of contracts, plot cards and death certificates of approxiately 40,000 individuals interred at the cemetery, were seized by the state Attorney General last fall and have been recently released for viewing by Ayers and other attorneys representing plaintiffs in an on-going class action suit against Grand View.

"If the records I have went past 'R' I would probably have proof of my theory (about Patricia Warrington) now," said Ayers.

Stay tuned as this latest twist in the ongoing Grand View saga develops.

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

Submitted By: Mary Leggewie

posted on 4/20/2007 @ 7:53:13 PM

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My mother-in-law lays dying upstairs, and I'm at my computer researching what to do about NOT being able to bury her with her beloved parents and late husband at Grand View. This is not something you want to be doing when your loved one has hours left. I really feel for the family who found someone buried in their spot this month. And my many thanks to Woods Scovern Mortuary for their assistance in sorting this out while we in need. I also think it's wonderful of Forest Lawn to be helping out families. We will change our plans, have my dear mother-in-law cremated and wait it out. What a shame. All I can say is that I'm sure Marsha Howard is most likely getting her punishment right now, and eternally.

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Submitted By: Annie Hundley

posted on 4/6/2007 @ 11:08:23 AM

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Great work as always, Lisa. Thanks for keeping us informed.

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Submitted By: Betty Haskell

posted on 4/6/2007 @ 9:16:08 AM

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Oh my Goodness -- What is next! This is so very sad for the family! I can only hope the answer is found in the records. We hadn't heard about this prior to your blog--- What would we do without Your truthful reporting?? Thank You Lisa. Respectfully Betty

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Lisa Burks

Burbank , CA

Lisa Burks has posted 78 blog entries and 5 comments since joining on 8/18/2006. Lisa Burks 's average blog rating is 4.93.

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