Attorney General handling complaints about local cemetery
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HURON – More than two dozen formal complaints lodged against Restlawn Memory Gardens south of Huron are part of an active investigation being conducted by the South Dakota Attorney General’s office.
Public Information Officer Sara Rabern confirmed that an investigation is under way.
Late last summer, the Beadle County State’s Attorney’s office began getting calls from clients of Restlawn Memory Gardens, complaining that they had been waiting for six months to more than a year for markers and headstones for loved ones buried at the cemetery.
Many of the calls were referrals from the local funeral homes, said State’s Attorney Mike Moore.
“Primarily the concern that we were originally dealing with was that they (Restlawn clients) weren’t getting memorials placed,” he said.
“They had paid for these memorials and they weren’t getting placed,” he said.
Moore issued a press release and also began referring the callers to the attorney general’s office. He said he has also been advising callers they could pursue a small claims case in civil court against Restlawn, but that it didn’t appear to him to involve anything criminal.
Photo:
Restlawn Memory Garden has been the focus of an investigation by the S.D. Attorney General’s office, after numerous complaints about markers paid for, but not yet received and placed.
Photo by Angelina Della Rocco/Plainsman