Police seek information about casket found on side of the road; holes dug at cemetery near Newton

The Wichita Police Department is seeking information about a casket found on the side of the road early Thursday morning.

At 7:15 a.m., the department received a call that the casket had been found near the 3800 block of North Seneca. That’s just south of I-235 and north of the Little Arkansas River.

In the photos released by the police, the handles on the side of the metal casket have been removed, and the lid has been pried open.

There was no body in the casket, said Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza.

“We just don’t know where it came from or anything like that,” Espinoza said. “We’re trying to identify the coffin and the markings, trying to identify if there are any markers.”

Wichita police are asking anyone with information about the origin of the casket to call the Larceny Section at 316-268-4195.

This is not the first incidence of potential graveyard desecration this week.

On Monday, the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that it was looking for suspects who had dug at least two holes at Missionary Church Cemetery, near Newton.

Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said Friday afternoon that he had not heard of the found casket.

“The bizarre folks are out,” Walton said. “It wouldn’t be from the graves that they dug here because they never got down that far or that wide.”

Though the department’s Facebook post has been shared 588 times since, it has received no leads. Deputies think the digging in Harvey County happened sometime last weekend.

Deputies have put together a map of all cemeteries in Harvey County and will be checking if any more have been dug at, Walton said.

“The vehicle who had been doing this parked along the side of the road, because you have to walk in,” Walton said. “It was probably done at night, and done, I would say, in somewhat of a disorganized and frenzied manner. This is solid ground – it’s not soft or anything. They dug and just threw the sod and dirt instead of putting it alongside the hole.”

Walton said he has not seen similar incidents like the found casket and the dug graves since his early days as an officer.

“Many, many years ago, when I was a young officer, we have a cemetery – Greenwood,” Walton said. “Someone had gotten into one of the vaults and pulled out the coffin, opened it up and gone through it. That was the only time I had ever heard of. We never understood why they did it. It’s just so bizarre.”

If anyone has information about the Harvey County grave desecration, call the Sheriff’s Office at 316-284-6960.

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Police seek information about casket found on side of the road; holes dug at cemetery near Newton."