Wheelersburg , Scioto County , Ohio

Some people in Southern Ohio say their local cemetery is burying the dead on top of the dead.

The Vernon Township Cemetery outside of Wheelersburg has plenty of graves dating back to the 1800's, but some people say old graves are being disrupted with new grave being dug right on top.

Long-time resident Shirley Piguet says she has ancestors buried at the cemetery and questions why there are new plots all of the sudden in the area where she and many other people believed there have been old graves for more than two centuries. Piguet said, "I feel awful about it really. They're disturbing the dead, taking away from the dead that should be left in peace."

Shirley isn't alone with her concerns, many other folks who live in the area question the same thing. Eyewitness News contacted a Vernon Township Trustee who says it's all a big misunderstanding and that the area with new graves is where an old building once stood. Township Trustee Mark Wicker said, "The old graves have not been disrupted."

According to the Funeral and Cemetery Association, some cemeteries have their own guidelines. If a family still has the deed to a plot, that grave can't be disrupted. But, in some cases, burying the dead on the dead is legal.

Vernon Township Cemetery is a public graveyard.

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