(The following report appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on February 6.)
ANTHONY, Fla. — More than two dozen headstones appeared overnight near a railroad line in Marion County, and authorities have no clue where they came from.
A man stumbled across the headstones while taking his daily walk Tuesday and notified authorities.
Marion County deputies responded to the 2100 block of Northeast 98th Street in Anthony, where they found 29 headstones arranged in neat lines next to a railroad track, according to an incident report.
At first, deputies thought the stones came from nearby Anthony Cemetery, but no headstones were missing from the cemetery, and none of the names on the stones near the railroad matched the cemetery’s records.
Area residents told deputies that they heard loud thumps coming from around the railroad tracks after midnight Monday, according to the incident report.
Jenifer Fisher, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said deputies called funeral homes and cemeteries, asking them to cross-check the names on the headstones with their own records, but there haven’t been any matches. It leads deputies to think the headstones may have originated outside the county.
The names on the headstones are Jacob Mangold, Dublin Beck, Alice Roberts, Leroy Allen, Samuel Ratliff, Anna M. Hodge, Dillion Griffin, Edith E. Johnson, Donnie R. Flaniken, Gladys Argyle, James Millitan, Johnthan Pigford, Nathan Whittemore, Robert Brown, Nolan Swilley, Lee Thomas, John Cook, Charles A. Park, Geraldine Sapp, Glen Davis, Ruth Watkins, Jacqueline Thomas, David G. Beier, Peggy I. Windsor, William Grovitt, Michelle Sepia, Doc Tyler, Louise Farrior and Morris Thomas.