In 2009, employees at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, were discovered exhuming graves and dumping remains to resell burial plots. A new forensic study details how moss evidence from the crime scene was used to help convict the perpetrators in 2015.
The research paper aims to highlight the forensic value of mosses and similar plants, which can preserve timeline and habitat information. The authors hope to encourage investigators to more routinely recognize and preserve such botanical evidence.
The cemetery, founded in 1927, is a historic resting place for many prominent African Americans. The grave robbing, which involved removing headstones and remains to make space for new burials, led to a major investigation involving the FBI.
Main topics: A historic grave-robbing scandal, the forensic use of moss as evidence, and the significance of the cemetery involved.
Back in 2009, residents were scandalized when employees at Burr Oak Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip were accused of exhuming old graves in order to resell the burial plots, unceremoniously dumping older remains in another area on the grounds. The perpetrators were tried and convicted in 2015, but the forensic evidence of the moss that helped convict them has now been detailed in a new paper published in the journal Forensic Sciences Research. It’s a follow-up to a 2025 paper concluding that mosses and other bryophyte plants have been used as evidence in forensic cases only a dozen or so times over the last century.
“The focus was an attempt to elevate the profile of these small, often overlooked plants,” co-author Matt von Konrat, who heads the botany collections at Chicago’s Field Museum, told Ars. “Mosses are ubiquitous, resilient, and capable of preserving timeline and habitat information in ways that complement other forensic tools. Our recent publications help consolidate these cases into the scientific record and, we hope, encourage investigators to recognize and preserve botanical evidence more routinely. [We also wanted to] highlight the use of natural history collections and their stories and how they can be applied to questions and applied in ways we have yet to imagine.”
Burr Oak Cemetery dates back to 1927, when it was founded to serve as the final resting place for Chicago’s African American population, which had grown significantly since the turn of the century due to migration from the South. Among the luminaries buried there are Emmett Till, heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles, and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington.
The grave robbing was first discovered in June 2009. Sgt. Jason Moran, who led the local investigation, told reporters in 2019 that on his first visit to Burr Oak, he saw skeletal remains sticking up out of piles of dirt. After interviewing employees and family members of those buried there, he concluded that graves were being desecrated, and any original headstones removed, to make room for new burials. That’s when the sheriff’s office called in the FBI.
Meridiano
