Vandals infuriate grieving mother

By Clifton French, WSBT-TV correspondent

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Terri Chamberlain says her son's grave has been vandalized multiple times, but nothing will keep her from making it beautiful. (WSBT photo)

Terri Chamberlain says her son's grave has been vandalized multiple times, but nothing will keep her from making it beautiful. (WSBT photo)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Jun 11, 2009 at 7:41 PM EST

Story Updated: Jun 18, 2009 at 12:06 PM EST

On the anniversary of her son's death, Terri Chamberlain found something that made her angry. Someone had taken items left as a remembrance from Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in South Bend.

Now the angry mother is speaking out.

Come rain or shine, you can count on finding Terri Chamberlain with her dog Myla visiting her son's grave.

"My son was three-and-a-half when he died, and I spend a lot of time here, grieving my son," said Chamberlain.

Ryan Chamberlain drowned in a pool nine years ago.

On Monday, Terri went to the cemetery, only to find three planters missing from his grave.

"Now I know that economic times are hard,” she said, “but I don't think you can go much lower than desecrating a grave or stealing flowers off a grave. I really don't."

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Chamberlain says her son's grave was vandalized three years after he died. That time the toys that sit on his head stone and an angel figurine were destroyed.

"I feel devastated that people without a conscience would come here and destroy the place that I come to for solitude,” said Chamberlain. That I come to in order to grieve for my son."

Chamberlain says nothing will keep her from making her son's grave beautiful.

"I need to be able to leave flowers freely,” she said. “They're going to stay there now, and I hope to God that no one takes them."

The vice president of the cemetery board told WSBT’s partners at the South Bend Tribune that thefts have increased, most of which have been hanging plants. He says the police are aware of the crimes.

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