A 64-year-old Sylmar man is facing felony grand theft charges after deputies say he stole more than $4,000 worth of brass flower vases straight off headstones at a Newhall cemetery, some of them belonging to grieving families’ deceased parents. Walter Price was arrested at his Sylmar residence on Tuesday following a months-long investigation into the thefts at Eternal Valley Memorial Park.
The case began in August, when deputies received a report of brass flower vases stolen from the cemetery, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station. One victim told investigators that vases had been removed from her deceased parents’ headstones, and as detectives dug deeper, they learned other families had experienced the same violation at their own loved ones’ graves. As Hometown Station reported, the total value of the missing vases exceeded $4,000.
Detectives eventually identified a suspect and secured an arrest warrant. Crime Impact Team deputies tracked Price down at his Sylmar home on Tuesday and took him into custody on felony grand theft charges. He was booked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station jail and, per the station's report, remained held on $35,000 bail as of Wednesday afternoon.
A Cemetery Already on Edge
This wasn't the first time Eternal Valley Memorial Park had been targeted. An earlier CBS News report found that at least 113 bronze flower vases attached to headstones had been stolen from the same Newhall cemetery in July, with CBS News detailing that 100 vases disappeared on July 18 and another 13 to 15 were taken a week later on July 25. That earlier theft carried a stated retail value of at least $14,125, since the vases reportedly sell for $125 or more apiece. The evidence gathered for this case does not establish whether those July thefts are connected to Price's arrest.
CBS News also noted that the Newhall thefts were described as part of a broader pattern, calling them the latest in a series of valuable metal thefts across the Santa Clarita Valley.
Part of a Wider Pattern Nationally
Cemetery vase theft has become a recurring problem well beyond Santa Clarita. In Tennessee, workers at East Lawn Funeral Home & Memorial Park in Kingsport reported that 70 vases had been stolen from gravesites, with most of the thefts striking children's burial sites, according to WSMV. That station reported that police are seeing more bronze vase thefts because thieves are scrapping the metal for cash, and detectives in that investigation recovered about 131 vases believed stolen from cemeteries in Tennessee and Virginia, worth an estimated $75,000 combined. The owner of a recycling facility, 74-year-old Robert Clark, was arrested on a charge of possessing stolen property in that case.
Similar schemes have surfaced elsewhere in the country this year. In Maryland, two men, Trey Franklin Mason, 25, and David Anthony Downing, 34, were arrested in connection with thefts of bronze memorial vases from Trinity Memorial Gardens in Waldorf, according to cleveland.com, which reported the stolen items were taken during two separate periods in June and July and were estimated at a combined value exceeding $100,000. The Fresno County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, said it arrested four men and one woman after fielding numerous reports of bronze vase theft from Fresno Memorial Gardens Cemetery between April and late July. That office estimated roughly 500 vases worth more than $40,000 were taken during that four-month stretch, netting the thieves around $15,000 once recycled, according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office.
Price has been charged with felony grand theft, though the evidence available does not include a case number, court filings, a plea, or a hearing date, and an arrest and charge are not proof of guilt. No response from Price or his attorney, or further comment from the cemetery, was available. Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to contact Detective Camberos at 661-260-4000, extension 5613, or to reach L.A. Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or through www.lacrimestoppers.org.
