[color="Blue"](This is the only article that I've found so far that draws the logical conclusion that these are likely niggers doing this. The other articles hint at 'teens' (aka White kids) being involved.)

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/281470

Graveyards report strange goings-on

Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Aug 25, 2010 23:04 EST

Peculiar events have happened at other city cemeteries in the weeks leading up to and since a grave robbery in Lancaster.

Someone tried to break into a sarcophagus at Lancaster Cemetery last weekend. The limestone, coffin-like grave covering, which held no remains or other items, was smashed and pieces were dragged into the nearby grass at the cemetery at Lemon and Lime streets.

"That is really freaky," said Jerry Smoker, board president and acting superintendent of the graveyard.

Several months ago, Lancaster Cemetery [highlight]groundskeepers found two severed chicken heads[/highlight] lying inside the historic burial ground, the final resting place for Major Gen. John F. Reynolds, a Union Army leader who died at the Battle at Gettysburg.

At Woodward Hill Cemetery, off South Queen Street, someone disabled the cemetery's motion detector lights earlier this month and tried to break into a small building near the grave of President James Buchanan.

In July at Woodward, someone smashed gravestones with crosses and other sacred symbols on them.

The events surround the recent robbery of a grave at Riverview Cemetery, off Duke Street. Sometime between Thursday, Aug. 12, and Friday, Aug. 13, [highlight]grave robbers stole the casket and remains of Paula Ream, a 9-year-old girl who died from cerebral palsy in 1962.[/highlight]

The grave robbery has cemetery officials on edge throughout the city, which is home to a number of large, historic burial grounds.

"We're looking out to see if things are unusual," said Neil Majors, the groundskeeper at Greenwood Cemetery, a 48-acre rolling graveyard off South Queen Street.

Sadly, vandalism is a regular occurrence at city cemeteries. Though located off busy streets, many of the graveyards are old, attract few visitors and are peopled by only a small number of groundskeepers. They often have isolated sections where undetected troublemakers can topple tombstones or wield spray paint.

But the recent activity at Lancaster and Woodward Hill cemeteries is of a different nature, officials at those cemeteries said.

Smoker has a long history with Lancaster Cemetery — his father also was superintendent — and he said he can recall nothing similar to the break-in of the sarcophagus.

"I don't know if someone thought there was going to be something in it," he said. "I would assume that's probably what they thought."

With regard to the chicken heads found near the Lemon Street and New Holland Avenue area of the cemetery, Smoker said, "I think that was some sort of ritualistic practice that was going on."

At Woodward Hill, board treasurer Ken Norman said he believes whoever recently smashed or broke stones at the cemetery had a target in mind.

"It was specific to our sacred monuments," he said. "That was strange to us."

The attempted break-in at the small brick chapel building at the center of the cemetery also raised eyebrows at Woodward.

"That's definitely unusual," groundskeeper Luis Cruz said. "The doors were sealed shut. There was no way for anyone to open it, unless they brought a crowbar and that's exactly what it looked like they did."

Greenwood has has no incidents but Majors said he's been on alert since police patrolled through the cemetery on Friday the 13th, the day the Riverview grave robbery was discovered.

City police continue to investigate the grave robbery, Chief Keith Sadler said.

It's possible that the recent events at other cemeteries are somehow connected to the grave robbery, Sadler said, but he was reluctant to make that leap just yet.

"Until we make that determination, I'm not quick to make a broad statement like that," he said.

Investigators haven't ruled out anything and aren't embracing any theories in the case, as they are open to where the evidence leads, he said.

"The whole thing is strange," he acknowledged. "It just is. It's almost mind-boggling that someone would go to that length."

[highlight]The robbery happened six months after a contractor found two chicken crates and a circle of candles in a small clearing, all in the woods across South Duke Street from Riverview, near the Conestoga Greenway Trail.

That activity could be evidence of ritualistic activity of practitioners of spiritualist religions, such as Palo Mayombe, an African-Cuban religion, an expert said.

The religion began when African slaves brought their traditions to Caribbean nations, disguising them behind Catholic-like practices.

Palo practitioners have been linked to, and prosecuted for, grave robberies in other states, said Dawn Perlmutter, a Bucks County resident, former college professor, author of "Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crime" and consultant to law enforcement on such cases.

Practitioners believe human bones hold special powers and collect them to bid them to carry out their wishes, Perlmutter said.

They also use sticks in their rituals. Palo means "wooden stick" or "branch" in Spanish.

Practitioners of spiritual or magical religions, including Santeria and Voodoo, purchase items for their practices at small stores called botanicas.

At least one botanica in Lancaster sells bundles of sticks and individual sticks labeled for Palo use, visible to two reporters who visited the shop Wednesday. Also for sale in the tiny shop were seashells, candles, a small preserved alligator head, a tiny wooden crutch, a floor wash advertised as promoting love and statues of the different magical faiths' "saints."[/highlight]

Whether or not the grave robbery was connected to local Palo practitioners is not known.

Botanicas operate in cities across Pennsylvania, Sadler said, adding, "Home Depot sells shovels, too."

"I've seen that kind of nonsense in horror movies," he said.

He added, "Nothing is ruled out, like in any investigation, until something points in a specific direction.

"I don't care what someone's beliefs are," he said. "A crime was committed and no justification is going to satisfy any of us or that little girl's family. Nothing gives you the right to desecrate someone's burial site."