The Boston Globe

South

Holbrook

Vandals topple gravestones in Holbrook cemetery

Vandals toppled historic gravestones and tore up flowers at Wendell Cemetery in Holbrook over the weekend, police said. The vandalism was reported to Holbrook police at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Police said the front sign and flowers were ripped up, six gravestones were knocked over, and one headstone was destroyed. “It was just a shock,” said Dorothy Koeppel, a lifelong Holbrook resident who serves as head of the Wendell Cemetery Association. She has been volunteering and helping to maintain the cemetery since 1985. “I just can’t believe that anybody could do something like this.” Wendell Cemetery is a small private cemetery located off South Franklin Street (Route 37). Some stones there date back to the 1700s, according to Koeppel. Volunteers have been working hard on repairs, and Koeppel said on Tuesday that everything was looking back to normal. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday afternoon.