Saturday, October 16, 1999
Church settles over lost grave
Consultant will search cemetery
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rosa Lee Bentley filed a lawsuit in March, hoping it would force Bethel AME Church to find her mother's remains in its Beech Grove Cemetery.
The coffin hasn't been found, but the Westwood woman will get $27,500 as part of a settlement reached this week — hours before the case was scheduled to go to trial.
“She is very pleased to have this over with and she is also grateful to the church for bringing about the settlement, especially Rev. (Calvin) Hooks,” said Mrs. Bentley's attorney, Robert Newman.
The deal also calls for the Lockland church to provide up to $6,000 to hire a cemetery consultant who will be authorized to use resources, including church records and church personnel, to find Georgia Mae Sneed's remains.
The consultant will have permission to “do diggings” in order to find Ms. Sneed's grave. But, according to the settlement, no digging would occur unless the consultant has a reasonable expectation the remains can be found. The consultant, who is to be chosen by Mrs. Bentley, could take up to 90 days to complete all work.
If her mother's body is found, Mrs. Bentley can remove it from Beech Grove Cemetery and have her reburied elsewhere. But if the body is not found, Mrs. Bentley will be able to place a headstone at an unoccupied grave at the cemetery.
Mr. Newman has instructed Mrs. Bentley not to talk about the case because he fears it would nullify the settlement. Cemetery officials did not return calls Friday.
In March, Mrs. Bentleytearfully removed her mother's red marble gravestone from the mostly African-American cemetery because she didn't know the whereabouts of the remains. She put the gravestone in her basement next to a vacuum cleaner.
Mrs. Bentley visited a gravesite regularly for about a year after the April 6, 1994, burial service. The visits stopped, but resumed soon after.
In February 1997, the family bought a headstone and had it delivered to the cemetery. At her Easter visit, Mrs. Bentley noticed that the headstone had not been placed at the grave.
That's when she inquired about her mother's location. The cemetery operator checked the burial book and later some computerized records. Mrs. Bentley was told records of her mother didn't exist.
Eventually, Mrs. Bentley said she was told by a minister at the church that he did not know where her mother was buried, and that she was buried without a marker.
On Jan. 29, caretakers dug up a grave they thought was her mother's. It wasn't.
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