THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406240527
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940624 LENGTH: ARLINGTON
Arlington police were called to the Abbey Mausoleum last week after a caretaker reported someone had tampered with eight crypts.
{REST} Two coffins had been opened, exposing remains, Arlington police detective Stewart Chase said. He said satanic rites, random vandalism or a search for valuables are all possible motives in the break-in.
The remnants of satanic practices appear to be several years old, Chase said.
The mausoleum, built in 1927, is in the Henderson Hall Marine Base next to Arlington National Cemetery. It fell into disrepair in the last 20 years and has been broken into at least six times in the last 15 years, according to the site's trustee, Frank B. Tavenner.
Chase said the most notorious incident occurred about 15 years ago, when 45 corpses were decapitated and the skulls mounted on broomsticks.
Vandals typically enter the locked building through a basement window and climb into the burial chamber by removing a grate in the floor, Tavenner said.
Tavenner, 72, of Falls Church, said he does not have the money to maintain the site. Previous directors used up most of the operating endowment of the mausoleum.
``Some sick-heads try to pull bodies out, there's nothing I can do,'' Tavenner said.
He said a caretaker visits the mausoleum only when a problem is reported or someone asks to visit a crypt. The recent vandalism was reported by someone visiting a relative's crypt, he said.
The mausoleum contains about 300 crypts and 100 urns. Among those interred there is George Sutherland, a U.S. Supreme Court justice who died in 1942.
{KEYWORDS} VANDALISM CEMETERY by CNB