More than 200 headstones vandalized at New Vienna cemetery

The Clinton County Sheriff's Office is "aggressively pursuing" an investigation into the vandalism of more than 200 graves at a New Vienna Cemetery. 

Sheriff Ralph Fizer told The Highland County Press that gravestones - some dating back to the 1800s - at the I.O.O.F Brotherhood Cemetery on Nordyke Road just outside the New Vienna corporation limit, was vandalized over the Halloween weekend. 

"We believe it occurred last Saturday, Oct. 30," Fizer said. "It was reported on Saturday when one of our local citizens went out to visit a loved one and noticed the stones. A rough estimate is that approximately 200 headstones had been turned over or smashed. It's very disturbing. Unfortunately, we don't have any leads. But we are very aggressively working this case. We want to find out who did this." 

Due to the damage caused, Fizer said it is believe that some sort of pry bar or even a vehicle was used to cause the damage.

"The department and the caretaker tried to move some of the headstones (back into place) and you can't move them," Fizer said. 

The Green Township trustees of Clinton County are working on contacting the families of those whose markers were destroyed. 

"Currently the trustees are attempting to put back a majority of the headstones, and any that have been broken or destroyed they are attempting to contact family members," Fizer said. "But there are some that date back to the 1800s. If they don't have a living family member on file, there is nothing they can do. Our department is assisting in trying to contact the victims."

Fizer said the department is using many resources to track down any leads. 

"This was definitely a vandalism by more than one person," he said. "We've had cases like this in the past, but not in the past several years. Why anyone would want to go into a cemetery and do something like this, I have no idea. But we area very aggressively hunting these guys down."