WAXAHACHIE, Texas — Waxahachie police are looking for leads as they investigate a vandalism at the Waxahachie City Cemetery.
City officials say somewhere between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, someone tipped over and damaged more than 275 headstones.
Police have made no arrests.
“I hope they find the people who did it and prosecute them,” said Jimmy Mitchell.
Mitchell lives in Waxahachie and has worked for a funeral home for nearly three decades.
“It’s supposed to be a resting place for family members to lay their family to rest,” Mitchell said. “It’s not supposed to be desecrated.”
Amy Borders is a spokesperson for the city.
“The police of course are seeking tips,” Borders said. “Anybody who has any bit of information that might be helpful they are highly encouraged to contact the Waxahachie Police Department or Ellis County Crime Stoppers.”
After this unfortunate crime, Borders said many have reached out wanting to help.
“One of the wonderful things about the Waxahachie community is there has been this huge outpouring of people that want to help in different ways, but we do ask that before you come out here and try to do any work, that you coordinate through our Parks and Recreation Department that does oversee the cemetery,” said Borders.
“People have also reached out wanting to make financial contributions. There are several different ways to do that that we’ve put in place, all of that information is on our city website," she said.
Many of the damaged headstones have been there since the 1850s, making it difficult for city employees to identify the owner.
“It is unfortunate and they are going to take some real tedious work and TLC to repair, but we’ll get it done,” said Borders.
Borders believes many of the older headstones may have been targeted because they’ve been there so long.
“It’s likely that those are older and they are more brittle and they are easier to knock over and they are also toward the back of the cemetery, they are not up by the street,” Borders said. “The cemeteries are for the living, and it’s really tragic to see a part of our history taken away with such disrespect.”