SOUTH BEND — “I feel like a tidal wave of human sorrow has come over me,” Brian Maholmes says.

Sometimes, he’s numb. Other times, he’s outraged.

How could someone have possibly ransacked his father’s grave as well as others and be so disrespectful of the remains?

Maholmes and his brother, Jeffery, both South Bend residents, are looking for details about Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill., which is being investigated for allegations cemetery employees disinterred caskets and then re-sold burial plots to unsuspecting families.

To date, four cemetery employees have been criminally charged for their roles in that scheme, which those involved say affected hundreds of graves, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

On Friday the sheriff's office and FBI said they had concluded the physical portion of their criminal investigation at the cemetery and were handing the cemetery over to a court-appointed receiver.

And so far, the brothers’ efforts have been frustrating, they say.

The question for the Maholmes brothers is, can we get in to check on our daddy?

Roosevelt Maholmes, of Chicago, was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery some 21 years ago. To his four children, he was a good but strict father who loved them and taught them right from wrong. He was a veteran and was proud to have served his county. His only daughter was the apple of her father’s eye.

So when he died, family members said, Burr Oak was one of only two places around the area where black people could be buried. The family laid him to rest Feb. 1, 1988, right off the highway, so they could have quick access to his gravesite.

On Father’s Day 2008, Jeffery went to the cemetery to put flowers on the grave and to spend some time with, as he said, “the best father ever.”

After more than two hours of searching, Jeffery couldn’t find the grave, he said. He left feeling empty and confused.

Back home in South Bend, he couldn’t get his father’s grave out of his mind.

Earlier this summer, Jeffery said, “I was listening to the radio on my way to work when I heard that (allegations that bodies had been dug up at Burr Oak). I was so upset that I had to pull over, and I just sat there for a minute.

“Then the thought crossed my mind: ‘Could they have removed my daddy?’ ”

He called Brian, who had read the news in The Tribune, and the brothers met to talk about it.

Last week, the brothers were preparing to go to the cemetery when they heard from a relative the cemetery was still closed.

After making many calls to Burr Oak, Jeffery finally was able to talk to someone at the sheriff’s office, who directed him to a Web site to determine whether their relatives were among those whose graves had been disturbed.

But the search there didn’t get him any more information, he said.

Brian said he is outraged because no one has been able to answer questions.

“I can’t sleep at night, wondering if someone has touched my daddy’s grave,” he said.

“You hear all the time that black men don’t take care of their family,” he said. “Well, my father taught me and my three brothers the meaning of family, and he was a good man.

“I just need to know something.”

The Maholmes have five other relatives buried at Burr Oak, but for now the focus is on the father.

“I just want to get into the site to see if my father is still where we laid him,” Brian said.

“I just need to know, is my father in his grave or not?" he said. “Did they move the headstone or did they move his body? ... It is so unimaginable.”

Staff writer May Lee Johnson:
mjohnson@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6326