State investigators spent a full day combing the grounds of one of Atlanta's oldest cemeteries this week, examining Greenwood Cemetery after officials reported potentially misplaced remains at the southwest Atlanta property. The Georgia Secretary of State's office served paperwork at the cemetery and conducted inspections as part of an investigation into whether Greenwood failed to meet some terms of a consent order.
As reported by WSB-TV, the cemetery remains subject to an ongoing investigation, with investigators and inspectors spending the day examining Greenwood's grounds in Atlanta. The scrutiny follows an earlier case in which the state opened a probe into a woman's claim that Greenwood may have mismarked her husband's grave location, according to a separate WSB-TV report. That report detailed how Vera Blount learned her husband Edson Blount Jr., whose interment service took place back in November 2019, had a headstone and marker that cemetery staff said had been placed in the wrong spot and later moved. An attorney was assigned within the Secretary of State's office late on a Tuesday to look into the family's claims, the station reported.
A Pattern of Complaints at the Cascade Road Property
Greenwood Cemetery on Cascade Road has fallen into disrepair under private ownership, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. Winding lanes inside the cemetery are worn down and full of potholes, the outlet reported, while several large dead trees loom over dirty headstones, signage is broken, and the land is eroding in swaths. Chartered in 1904, Greenwood is known for the Memorial to the Six Million, a site listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, and the property is owned and operated by F. Coll Bowen III, formerly run by his father, Frank Bowen Jr.
The disrepair has coincided with a string of legal complaints. Michael G. Lambros and John Ioannides filed a civil lawsuit in February alleging that Greenwood violated the Georgia Cemetery and Funeral Services Act by intentionally refusing to properly maintain the cemetery grounds and buildings, per the same Rough Draft Atlanta report. Nine of Lambros' family members are buried in Greenwood's Greek section, according to the outlet.
Another Family Alleges Records Failures
A separate lawsuit filed in November 2025 by Ketrina Laster alleges that Greenwood could not locate her daughter's remains and grave site after the burial eight years prior. That suit alleges the cemetery failed to maintain adequate records, failed to properly mark the grave site and failed to maintain proper systems and procedures, the report notes. When asked to respond, the Georgia Secretary of State's office told Rough Draft Atlanta it could not comment because it has an open administrative proceeding against the cemetery.
Greenwood is registered as a perpetual-care cemetery, meaning a portion of each plot sale is supposed to be added to a trust fund and used to restore and maintain the property in perpetuity, according to the outlet's reporting. Georgia's Secretary of State broadly regulates perpetual-care cemeteries, merchandise dealers and preneed sales agents through its Cemeteries Division, per the Georgia Secretary of State, and the state's Cemetery and Funeral Services Act is supplemented by rules the office promulgates.
City and Private Group Eye Greenwood's Future
Atlanta officials are actively pursuing conversations about taking over the property, Rough Draft Atlanta has reported, while Lincoln Memorial Group is separately in talks with Greenwood's owners about a possible acquisition, according to Axios. Neither discussion has resulted in a confirmed deal. Under Georgia law, local governments are also given authority to assume care of an abandoned cemetery as defined in state statute, per the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Greenwood's troubles echo other Georgia cemetery disputes making headlines this year. In Lakemont, the owner of the century-old Eden Cemetery had all its grave markers transported to an unrelated cemetery, citing concerns about vandalism, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Descendants there filed a civil suit alleging desecration of the graves and a lack of records showing where bodies rested relative to the stones, and a judge ruled that family members could visit the property monthly while that lawsuit continues.
The full scope and findings of the Georgia Secretary of State's investigation into Greenwood Cemetery have not been disclosed. For families with loved ones buried at the historic southwest Atlanta site, the state's renewed inspections mark the latest chapter in a fight over who is accountable for the ground where their relatives rest.
