Brooklyn Family Makes Gruesome Discovery At Gravesite

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A local family already reeling from the death of their 85-year-old patriarch suffered through a gruesome burial last week at a New Jersey graveyard on Friday, Aug. 4.

As Cleveland Butler's casket was lowered into the ground at the Mount Holiness Memorial Park cemetery in Butler, Morris County, his descendants were reportedly stunned to see what appeared to be a foot and a calf emerge from the dirt.

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“This was a very traumatizing situation, first dealing with losing my father and then this,” the man's daughter, Sandra Butler, told the New York Daily News. “I couldn’t even look at it. It was too much — and no one said anything to us. It was like business as usual for them. They just dumped the dirt in the plot like it was normal, like it’s nothing to them.”

In a photo taken at the scene, a dirty leg juts out over Butler's casket, between blue and white flowers.

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Cleveland Robert Butler died last week after suffering a fatal stroke in his Brooklyn nursing home, according to the Daily News.

Before burying the 85-year-old in New Jersey, the family also held a service for him at the Robeson and Brown Funeral Home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn News 12 reported. "Our hearts truly go out to the Butler family and friends regarding their loss," the funeral home director told News 12 in a statement.

Mount Holiness owner James Shmergel and caretaker Bill Plog, on the other hand, don't think everyone should be so shocked.

“Is it newsworthy? In a cemetery? Not really," Shmergel said in an interview with the Daily News.

Plog added: “There was a casket. It deteriorated. You can purchase a concrete vault, but people don’t. That grave there is from 1969... It’s unfortunate that this happened, but this is a graveyard.”

On top of everything, the Butler family is claiming a cemetery worker accidentally dropped his phone and a pack of cigarettes into the open grave during the burial. Both had to be fished out with a rake, they said.

The family is reportedly now considering legal action against the cemetery.

"Are other family members of other people out of their graves like that as well?" Alonzo Butler, the old man's son, said at a press conference held by the family. "I want a complete investigation to make sure that we don't have a bigger problem going on."

Rev. Kevin McCall, a crisis director for the Brooklyn East Chapter of the National Action Network, attended the press conference as well.

“This is beyond heinous for anyone to witness during their time of grieving over a loved one,” the reverend said, adding: "They have been through emotional distress, and have been through psychological distress as well."

With reporting by Tom Davis (Patch Staff). Lead image via YouTube