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Woman's burial plot sold to another family

Burial plot’s multiple deeds stir outcry

The plot next to Patricia Withrow's grave at Mt. Zion Cemetery in Beavercreek shows where another person was buried, removed and fill back in with dirt and replanted with grass. Pamela Wood of Dayton saw the open grave site before the man was buried in May, but did not produce the actual deed until late that month.

Mark Gokavi The plot next to Patricia Withrow's grave at Mt. Zion Cemetery in Beavercreek shows where another person was buried, removed and fill back in with dirt and replanted with grass. Pamela Wood of Dayton saw the open grave site before the man was buried in May, but did not produce the actual deed until late that month.

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By Mark Gokavi, Staff Writer Updated 7:33 AM Monday, November 21, 2011

BEAVERCREEK — A man was buried in May, then later exhumed from Mt. Zion Cemetery and moved to another location after Beavercreek city officials realized the man’s family was sold a plot that actually belonged to someone else.

The story of multiple deeds to the same plot, questionable deed transfer practices and possible legal action has led Beavercreek to revamp and expand its cemetery policies and procedures.

“Clearly there was an individual who was buried in the wrong location,” Beavercreek City Manager Mike Cornell said. “That family was very supportive and understood the dilemma that existed with the transfer of the deeds, but were disappointed they had to relocate their father.”

In Ohio, townships are obligated to care for cemeteries that have been abandoned and cemeteries on public land. Since Beavercreek was a township before it became a city in 1980, it continues to operate Mt. Zion Cemetery and six other cemeteries.

City officials have determined errors were made in the case involving the Wood family.

An internal investigation found that cemetery sexton Bill Bellew exercised poor judgment in the transfer of grave sites by acting as an escrow agent for two parties and even taking checks written to him and not notifying the city. Officials said this process happened a handful of times each year.

The investigation did not turn up any evidence Bellew profited from the sales.

“Unfortunately, loose procedures and a somewhat misguided, if not dumb desire to help owners through the transfer process has brought us to today’s situation,” Public Administrative Services Director Dave Beach wrote in an email to Cornell obtained by the Dayton Daily News using open records requests.

Bellew has not yet been disciplined since Beach and Cornell said there is no proof of city policy being broken, though Bellew did not ask for identification when transferring deeds.

Error discovered

Pamela Wood of Dayton appeared in front of Beavercreek’s City Council on Oct. 10 to tell of her disappointment about learning someone was to be buried next to her mother’s grave.

“On Mother’s Day while visiting my mother’s grave, I discovered that the city was getting ready to bury another person in the cemetery lot that we’ve owned for over 25 years,” Wood said. “I questioned a city employee and was told that the lot had been sold to another family.

“Since Mother’s Day, there has been a lot of phone calls, emailing, meetings and discussions of which a lot of promises were made and have not been fulfilled.”

The city’s investigation found the following time line:

1985: Wood’s father, Hubert Withrow, purchased six plots at Mt. Zion Cemetery. Wood’s mother, Patricia Withrow, dies and is buried there.

1990: Hubert Withrow remarries Margaret Withrow.

2000: Hubert Withrow dies and is buried in Kentucky.

2002: Margaret Withrow transfers the remaining five family plots — through cemetery sexton Bill Bellew — to another local family.

May 2011: An unrelated family buries a man in the Withrow plots.

May 27, 2011: Patricia Wood presents her family’s original deeds to the plots to city officials.

2011: Late July or August city disinterred a casket and reburied it in a Kettering cemetery. The city pays $650 for the reburial.

City’s response

In a letter to the city also obtained by an open records request, Wood said she asked Bellew to postpone the May burial, which already had been delayed multiple times due to rain and water in the grave site.

City officials said Bellew thought the deed the other family had was legitimate and would agree to Wood’s request to delay the burial again.

Wood wrote that Bellew offered to move her mother to any other open location, which she said made her ill. She also alleges the city once offered to pay $2,000 for her attorney’s fees in exchange for not suing or publicly disclosing the burial error.

Wood’s attorney did not respond to messages seeking comment or to say whether there is any legal action being taken by Wood against her father’s second wife, Margaret Withrow.

The family of the relocated man did not want to address the situation on the record, but one family member said the reburial was like opening “old wounds.”

Moving forward

On Nov. 13, council was presented with a 13-page draft of a document outlining new cemetery policies, procedures and action in case of violations of procedures.

The new policies — obtained by an open records request — will include placing original deeds in a fireproof filing cabinet, scanning deeds into a computer database and verification and documentation of transfers. Deeds will only be allowed to be sold back to the city.

Beach said Bellew — a 13-year cemetery employee — said he learned procedures from former cemetery worker, Gary Brown, who died earlier this year.

“It’s been the growing process with the city as we transitioned from our old township days,” Beach said. “We’re still finding old habits and old procedures that are residuals from when we inherited those cemeteries into the township. Frankly, they may have gone on now had not this mishap happened because, frankly, Mr. Bellew has done an excellent job out at the cemetery.”

In her letter to the city, Wood expressed her apologies to the other family. She also urged people to check their family’s own records and deeds.

“The city has had the task of unearthing this body and relocating it to a different cemetery at the city’s expense,” Wood said. “All of which did not need to happen or take place if the city had better policies and procedures in place.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDaily News.com.

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