Updated at: 07/30/2010 3:20 PM | KSAX.com

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Vandals Knock down 27 Gravestones

ALEXANDRIA, MINN. - Vandals dishonored the dead by damaging a cemetary, leaving gravestones scattered across the ground.

Family members said they couldn't believe what happened at Lake Mary Cemetary until they saw it with their own eyes. Vandals disgraced the gravestones of their loved ones, knocking them over and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

A total of 27 gravestones were damaged Friday at the cemetary just south of Alexandria.

"They're tipped over, every direction," Carol Radil, the secretary treasurer of the cemetary said. "You know it isn't the wind or anything like that, cause nothing else was disturbed."

Jim Norling will make the cemetary his final resting place and has a stone of his own there. His was not damaged, but he said his grandparents and cousins' gravestones were snapped from their foundations and are still lying on their sides.

"It's hard to take, why people could stoop so low to destroy a cemetary," Norling said. "Because that's our last resting place for all of us."

Radil said it won't be cheap to repair the gravestones, but hopes she can find family members who could help with the costs.

"I'm hoping that the one's whose stones are down, even though they may be grandma and grandpas or great-grandmas and grandpas, that they will try and get ahold of us and offer something so that we can pay whoever puts it up," Radil said.

Authorities said they are looking for more details on the case and no arrests have been made.

"I would like (the vandals) to step forward, but you know they won't. They will never step forward, and I hope the law can take care of it and find them," Norling said. "Because, they're not due to have good freedom. They're just not that quality of people."

Written for the web by Joe Nelson.

jonelson@ksax.com