Man horrified after he says his mother's grave is moved

Darby, Pa. (WTXF) - A man flew across the country to pray at his mother's grave at a Delaware County cemetery, but when he got there she wasn't there.

"Who's grave am I praying at? What body or what spirit that I'm attaching myself to that's particularly in my mother's grave that's not my mother?"

The horrifying questions Shawn Porter began asking himself after visiting what he thought was his mother's grave at Eden Cemetery in Darby, Delaware County, following a flight in from California.

"I travel home twice a year to pray with her at her grave. We were that close and we're spiritual people," he explained.

The first sign of trouble? He says the new headstone he bought for her was missing.

It got worse when he says the cemetery admitted to moving his mother to another plot entirely and without notice. Porter says he demanded cemetery staff show him his mother's casket.

"I physically was sick to my stomach and got a little dizzy because I had to watch them dig a grave up that had my mother in it," he said.

FOX 29 called and visited cemetery management for comment and heard back from them Wednesday. A manager apologized for what Porter is going through and said his mother's body was moved after they realized her original plot was actually owned by someone else.

"What sort of behavior do you indulge in to desecrate a grave and move it without the consent of the family?" he asked.

Cemetery management apologized for not contacting Porter about the plot change.

They also say the contractor who delivered the headstone accidentally placed it on the wrong grave.

Despite the apology, Shawn Porter says the pain won't go away.

"I'm just hurt and I hope that it doesn't happen to anybody else."

The cemetery said they will give him a full refund.