Stolen Tombstones Found at Loma Linda Home

UPDATED: THURSDAY, 2:30 p.m.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies made a grisly discovery in the back yard of a Loma Linda home Tuesday.

About 24 granite tombstones, many with custom inscriptions, were found after deputies from the Sheriff's Solution Oriented Policing Team went to the home at 10926 Cabrillo Loop with a search warrant, according to a department news release.

But after finding sellable amounts of methamphetamine and two firearms in the home, deputies made the discovery of the grave markers in the yard. After further investigation, police found the tombstones had been stolen from Montecito Memorial Park and Mortuary, a cemetery in Colton. The value of the tombstones is about $48,000.

"Some of them may be from other cemeteries," said Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman told Patch's sister publication, The Huffington Post. Investigators were trying to locate family members in order to return the markers to the proper graves.

Montecito officials are puzzled by the discovery because no markers appear to be missing from the cemetery, said their spokewoman Lisa Marshall.

At least one grave marker does belong to a person interred at Montecito, Marshall said. But that grave site has a current marker, she said.

"We don't know where they got that," Marshall said. "We don't know if it's an old marker that maybe was incomplete or had a mistake on it." 

"Right now we're working with law enforcement to find out what happened," Marshall said. "We don't believe that monuments are missing from the cemetery. Obviously we have to look into this because they made kind of a startling discovery."

Sheriff's officials said Thursday that a family member was able to identify one of the tombstones, and that it had been stolen from Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery in Colton.

Officials are still working to identify other grave markers and trace where they came from. They have received numerous calls from the public, and anticipate many more looking for information about the stolen markers.

Only one person in the home, John Bleuer, was arrested and charged with possession of stolen property, methamphetamine sales and possession of a firearm while in possession of narcotics. Several other people were also in the home selling methamphetamine.

Anyone with information about these suspects can call the Sheriff's Department at (909) 387-3545. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call We-Tip at (800) 78-CRIME.