DETROIT – The family of 19-year-old Roland Moore says they spent years visiting his gravesite, believing he was buried alone, until they learned a decade later that another person had been placed in the same grave.
Moore was killed in 2011. His family says they routinely visit his headstone at Gethsemane Cemetery, located near the Coleman A. Young International Airport, marking holidays, birthdays and the anniversary of his death.
In 2021, Moore’s sister, Carlessta Bell, said she arrived at the gravesite and saw a new headstone placed directly in front of her brother’s marker — for a woman the family does not know. The woman also died in 2011.
“When I came one day, this is what I saw, and I’m like, hold on, if this is his head — why is this so close?” Bell said.
Bell said cemetery management told her their family had authorized a double grave and that Moore and the woman had been buried in the same grave on the same day. Bell said she later heard the same explanation from Butler Funeral Home, which the family used to arrange Moore’s burial at Gethsemane.
Local 4 previously investigated Butler Funeral Home after co-owner Charita Butler was caught on a voicemail telling an employee to give a man someone else’s ashes during a family dispute over his late wife’s remains.
“I went into Butler, and I said it’s a mistake that went on at the cemetery,” Bell said. “They said my brother’s in a double grave and they just shut me off real quick.”
Bell said her family never would have knowingly had him buried with someone else. She provided a cemetery work order she filled out the same day, reporting that Moore’s grave had been disturbed. She also provided Moore’s interment record and paperwork the family signed with Butler Funeral Home. The family said none of the documents mention a double grave.
Bell said neither the cemetery or funeral home ever showed documentation proving the family approved a shared grave.
Butler Funeral Home told Local 4 the family would have had to sign a form authorizing a double grave burial. Charita Butler said Gethsemane would not bury someone in a double-depth grave without a signed authorization and that the funeral home typically brings that form to the cemetery along with payment.
However, the cemetery was not able to provide that record.
In a statement, Butler Funeral Home said the $900 paid to Gethsemane matched the cost of a double-depth grave and that any accompanying forms are the cemetery’s responsibility to maintain.
“Upon Roland Moore’s death in July 2011, Butler Funeral Home made arrangements with his next-of-kin Mamie Moore, his mother, in accordance with Michigan’s right of disposition law, who chose to have her son buried in a double depth grave at Gethsemane Cemetery. The Statement of Funeral Goods and Services you provided indicates a payment of $900 for “Gethsemane”, which conforms to the amount for a double depth grave in effect at the time. Any cemetery forms indicating that the grave was double depth would have been--as in all burials—transported to the cemetery at the time of Mr. Moore’s interment. The cemetery is responsible for maintaining records of its interments and interment ownership rights.
As indicated on the Statement of Funeral Goods and Services you provided, the $900 cemetery charge was considered a “cash advance.” This means that for the convenience of grieving families, cemetery charges are sometimes, as in this case, placed on the funeral bill. But the funeral home is merely acting as a pass-through entity for the convenience of the family. The charge, and any accompanying forms, are the cemetery’s, and the funeral home does not maintain those records. That’s the cemetery’s responsibility.”
Butler Funeral Home
Crystal Perkins, director of the City of Detroit General Services Department, also said in a statement that the amount paid reflects the cost of a double grave. Perkins added that because of the age of the records and the fact that cemetery operations have been managed by multiple contractors over the years, the city cannot definitively verify what information may have been communicated to the family at the time of purchase.
“The City of Detroit extends its sympathies to the Moore family and understands the concerns raised regarding this matter.
Following a review of the available records, we can confirm that the amount paid for the burial plot reflects the cost associated with a double-depth burial space. However, due to the age of the records and the fact that cemetery operations have been managed by multiple contractors over the years, we cannot definitively verify what information may have been communicated to the family at the time of purchase.
We acknowledge that historical recordkeeping practices have not always been as accurate or consistent as they should have been. As a result, there are limitations to the information that can be verified today.
Based on our review, Mr. Moore was interred first, and a second burial subsequently occurred within the same plot. The issue came to light when a headstone associated with the second burial was installed in 2021, prompting questions from the family regarding the status of the burial space.
The City remains committed to reviewing all available records and working with the family to provide as much information as possible regarding the circumstances surrounding this matter.”
Crystal Perkins, City of Detroit General Services Department Director
Local 4 also asked the city if there were documents to show the family of the woman buried with Moore had authorized a double grave. Perkins said the cemetery is still sorting through records to determine if the cost that family paid matches the cost of a double grave, but said the family has not reached out with concerns about her grave.
Gethsemane Cemetery has been the subject of previous investigations and litigation.
In 2023, Local 4 spoke with dozens of families that said headstones were moved or misplaced.
Attorney Mark Rossman filed a class-action lawsuit in 2021 after a police investigation found multiple bodies in locations different from where above-ground markers indicated they would be. No one was charged, and the city was later granted immunity, while several cemetery management companies filed for bankruptcy, Rossman said.
After speaking with more than a hundred families, he said he was able to get a settlement for just two plaintiffs.
“We went down into the crypt, and we reviewed their documents going back years and years, and it was abysmal,” Rossman said. “It was files that were upside down and missing. It was like going into your great-grandfather’s basement and looking through his old files everywhere.”
Rossman said one common concern raised by families was that they were not allowed to watch their loved one’s burials. Moore’s family said that was also their experience.
“It hurts,” Bell said. “Because we would have never buried him in that cemetery had we known they had all this going on.”
“In order to really determine where all of the bodies were, we were prepared to do a sonar investigation of the site. Because when we saw the records room, we knew that there was no way that could be pieced together effectively and that’s exactly why people were getting the run around,” Rossman said.
The family said the discovery has raised new questions.
“We are still grieving but to have to think that – is this my brother in the grave? Why is he in a double grave? There’s just so many questions and they don’t have any answers,” Bell said.
Gethsemane Cemetery is no longer selling burial plots, and the current management company only maintains the grounds.
Perkins said families with questions regarding their loved one’s gravesites at Gethsemane can reach out to alewea@detroitmi.gov.
Rossman said families can help protect themselves by making pre-arrangements with a cemetery — even if they cannot prepay — including choosing a cemetery and reviewing terms and conditions in advance.