Mystery solved: Gravestone pried from ground at P.E.I. cemetery found

A gravestone taken from the Cavendish Community Cemetery in P.E.I. has been found.

Elwin Wyand is the chair of the board that runs the cemetery. He noticed a hole about three weeks ago and discovered a stone had been taken.

"I just thought somebody took it and was bringing it back," he said.

However, after the stone was missing for about a monthhe thought he should look into it, so the police were contacted.

Usually when a stone gets removed to becleaned or re-engraved, the cemetery's board is notified in fact that is what happened. Wyand and the board simply forgot they were told the stone would be taken.

"We came to find out it was our man that digs the graves and fixes the headstones. He took it. We talked about it last fall and forgot about it," Wyand said.

Wyand said the employee was doing work at the cemetery this past fall and noticed the stone was damaged so he pried it out of the ground to fix it.

Wyand said the personwas surprised to hear the story of the missing headstone on CBCRadio and reached out.

"He phoned me right away and he told me he had the stone. I was pretty happy to find out who had it," Wyand said.

Damaged by Dorian

The stone was damaged by post-tropical storm Dorian.

"The big storm we had in September broke it off. Broke the headstone off the base. So he had to take the base and the whole thing down to his shop and fix it properly," he said.

Wyand said the headstone is dated 1939. He said he will notify police the stone has been found and will be returned to the graveyard.

He said it makes him feel good to know the stone will be brought back to its rightful place.

"It was kind of a mystery we didn't know where it was for sure," Wyand said. "We'll know for next time. You learn by your mistakes I guess."

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