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Moss Evidence Aids Conviction in Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal

3/8/2026

Summary

Story summary

A 2009 Burr Oak Cemetery exhumation scandal led to convictions in 2015, and a new paper in Forensic Sciences Research details how moss helped convict the perpetrators.
The scandal involved employees exhuming graves to resell plots and dumping remains, uncovered in June 2009 and triggering an FBI investigation.
Burr Oak Cemetery was founded in 1927 for Chicago’s African American community and is the burial site of notable figures such as Emmett Till.

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Story summary

A 2009 Burr Oak Cemetery exhumation scandal led to convictions in 2015, and a new paper in Forensic Sciences Research details how moss helped convict the perpetrators.
The scandal involved employees exhuming graves to resell plots and dumping remains, uncovered in June 2009 and triggering an FBI investigation.
Burr Oak Cemetery was founded in 1927 for Chicago’s African American community and is the burial site of notable figures such as Emmett Till.