Vandals strike cemetery dating to 1860s

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

Vandals smashed vases and toppled 16 headstones at the Lihu'e Cemetery Friday night. A $1,000 reward has been posted for their arrest.

Vandals also muddied the marble markers with their slipper prints. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

Headstones dating to 1884 were among those smashed.

The damage was assumed to have been done by a gang rather than one or two people because of the different sizes of muddy slipper prints left on broken, white marble headstones.

"We've had vandalism before, but not like this. I guess somebody's at war with themselves," said Lihu'e Cemetery Association Vice President Michael Ellis.

The cemetery dates to the 1860s and represents a time when ethnic groups were buried in separate areas. Ellis said grave markers were damaged in portions of the cemetery serving the Caucasian, Japanese and Hawaiian communities.

"It was just general damage," he said.

The association is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Meanwhile, cemetery officers are considering laying all headstones flat in the future to prevent further damage of this kind, he said.