‘They’ve survived 150 years over there’: heritage headstones damaged at Moncton cemetery

Dozens of historic headstones at a Moncton cemetery were vandalized.

Staff at Elmwood Cemetery in Moncton say they were heartbroken to discover over 40 headstones knocked over when they arrived for work Friday morning.

Cemetery president Jim Rogers says he knew something was wrong as soon as he pulled in around 7 a.m.

“I noticed two or three headstones that were laying on the ground that yesterday were standing,” Rogers said. “And after I looked further, there were 40 headstones down — most of them in our heritage section.”

Many of the damaged stones date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Rogers says most of the vandalism was concentrated in the section of the cemetery where some of Moncton’s oldest graves are located.

“They’ve survived 150 years over there, and then you have people come in and vandalize them,” he said. “Some of them are broken, and we don’t know yet what can be repaired.”

Superintendent Sarah Hope, who has worked at Elmwood Cemetery for seven years, says some of the monuments are so old that restoring them may not be possible.

“There’s some stones that date back to the late 1800s,” Hope said. “The most upsetting part is they focused on the older section — many of these monuments can’t be restored because they were made so long ago.”

Hope says the damage appears to have been deliberate.

“They definitely had intent to destroy these stones,” she said. “They’re heavy. They had to use a lot of force, and I don’t know why anyone would do that.”

Rogers says this is the worst vandalism he’s seen in his time with the cemetery. He estimates the total cost to repair or replace the damaged monuments could reach half a million dollars.

“Even at $10,000 each and you’ve got 40 on the ground — pretty easy math,” he said. “That’s half a million dollars in monuments laying there.”

Both Rogers and Hope say the vandalism is more than just financial — it’s emotional.

“I think families would feel violated,” Rogers said. “It’s sad that some people have no respect and consider destroying property as fun.”

“It takes a different kind of person to destroy a cemetery,” Hope added. “I just don’t think that’s right.”

Moncton police are investigating and plan to canvas nearby residents for information.

Cemetery staff say they’ll begin carefully resetting the toppled stones once a monument company can assist with heavy lifting equipment.

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