thatvoodoochick's blog: "Mindless Ramblings Of Me"

Burr Oak Cemetery won't re-open by Aug. 1 after all, the troubled graveyard's court-appointed overseer said Monday Roman Szabelski said it will take longer than he previously expected as crews transfer burial records from index cards to a database. Eventually there will be an online search mechanism so loved ones can find deceased relatives' gravesites more easily. "Hopefully that will reassure them," said Szabelski, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries. Szabelski spoke with reporters after emerging from a meeting with the Cook County judge who appointed him to oversee the sprawling south suburban cemetery, which has been named a crime scene. "I am in charge and that's with the direction of the court," Szabelski told reporters. A management consultant who has been running day-to-day operations at the cemetery for owner Perpetua Holdings of Illinois was the surprise guest at the meeting. In the days after four cemetery employees were arrested and charged in a scheme to dig up graves and resell the plots at the cemetery near Alsip, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart called the company MIA. But Trudi McCollum Foushee, the consultant who showed up for Monday's meeting, told the Chicago Sun-Times over the weekend she's been there almost daily since the employees were arrested nearly two weeks ago. After the meeting, she told reporters she'd abide by the judge's orders for Szabelski to run the cemetery.