VIDEO — ‘Heart-Wrenching’: Veterans’ Graves Among 50 Destroyed at Maine Cemetery

Community members in Montville, Maine, are working on restoration efforts after the Halldale Cemetery, where many veterans are buried, was targeted by vandals.

Montville Cemetery Committee member Dan Masessa told WMTW he was driving past the cemetery over the weekend when he noticed something upsetting, the outlet reported Tuesday.

Masessa saw an American flag on the ground and when he stopped to investigate, he realized there were more and that nearly 50 of the gravestones at the site had been busted up.

“They ripped out every American flag off the veterans’ graves, specifically broke them and threw them on the ground. But what’s worse than that is they toppled over and broke scores of old cemetery headstones — anywhere from 150-plus years old, some of these stones. Some of them were actually picked up and smashed,” he explained.

An image shows several headstones that were toppled from their bases:

Another member of the committee, Chris Schmidt, expressed shock over the devastating mess.

“I kind of lost my breath when I’d seen the extent of the damage. Some of those stones in the process, snapped in half and some of them actually shattered,” Schmidt commented, according to WGME.

The outlet said damaging gravestones in the state amounts to a Class D crime. People committing such crimes can face jail time and fines.

Masessa said there was at least one Revolutionary War veteran who had been laid to rest at the cemetery, along with veterans from the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Officials with the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the apparent vandalism.

Committee chair Hannah Hatfield said it could cost thousands of dollars to restore the cemetery, adding, “I know that there has been damage in other cemeteries like this, but I’ve never heard of one quite as extensive as this. If there’s some that have to be completely remade, you know, we all know that having even a brand-new memorial is thousands of dollars, so this is a big deal.”

In a social media post Sunday, Hatfield said the committee is “offering a monetary reward for any information leading to the conviction and accountability of those responsible.”