A family who set up hidden cameras to catch the culprit who had been defecating and urinating on their mother's grave were shocked to discover it was her ex-husband. Linda Louise Torello died aged 66 in 2017 after a long battle with cancer and was laid to rest at Tappan Reformed Church cemetery in Orangetown, New York.
However, her grieving family started to find faeces and urine at her headstone "almost every morning" and decided to secretly record the site to catch the disgusting vandal. Linda's son, Michael Murphy, 43, then shared an incriminating video on social media of the man getting out of his car and urinating on the headstone as if it was a "normal routine", the Mirror reports.
The family were able to identify the man as Linda's ex-husband, whom she had been briefly married to almost 48 years ago. They were divorced in 1974 and had not been in contact since 1976 - however it appears the former partner is still bitter about the relationship.
Michael wrote on Facebook with the accompanying video: "THIS IS BREAKING MY HEART. A man from Bergen county New Jersey has been leaving bags of poo and p*****g on my mother's tombstone almost every morning like a 'normal routine' assisted by his wife also.
"We have weeks and months of evidence. It has been reported to the police and the news outlets. No one in my family has had contact with him since 1976 or so.
"How he found my mothers grave site we are not sure. But this stems back to a problem almost 50 years ago. Pray for us thank you and please share this!!!"
Michael and his sister Renee Eichler Barragan gained permission from Tappan Reformed Church to use the hidden cameras to find the offender. The family also found that the New Jersey man's wife usually accompanied him on his morning trips to the grave.
It is believed that the breakdown of Linda's first marriage was due to a fallout when she became pregnant and the man did not want responsibility for the child, her children told Daily Voice. The video was recorded on Sunday, September 18 on Michael's phone and he said he had evidence of the man going four days in a row.
Local police was contacted, but could not prosecute the offender. Michael is hoping to take the complaint to a judge as New York State law states cemetery desecration is only a crime if damages are in excess of $250 (£231.28).
He believes he has surpassed that threshold after "paying a hazmat company to remove all her decorations that are soaked in urine and have the headstone properly cleaned and some of grass ripped up and replaced, plus the permits to let these companies enter the cemetery", he told Daily Voice.
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