Residents speak out after Cedar Grove cemetery vandalism

CEDAR GROVE, Tenn. — A piece of history now sits in pieces.

The Palestine Church Cemetery in Carroll County was vandalized over the weekend, leaving the community wanting answers.

“It seems nobody in the community really knows when this stuff happens here,” Wesley Collins said.

Collins was born and raised in the community and said although the church hasn’t had a congregation since the 1950s, he still has family buried here.

“It makes one mad that it happens, and we don’t see any point in it. We don’t see how it helps anybody in any way,” Collins said.

“My great, great-greats and great-great greats are buried here.”

Mary Ann Arnold says seeing the damage simply tears her apart. “This breaks my heart because it’s senseless, there’s no reason for it and it makes me wonder about the people that would desecrate a church and a cemetery.”

Not only was there destruction outside in the cemetery, but there was also destruction inside the church as well.

Pews are left knocked over and a pulpit toppled, and Collins says it’s not the first time this has happened.

“This is not the first time destruction in the cemetery. It happens every few years.”

And this community has had enough.

“If they are trying to prove a point, then come and tell us what the point is because we are failing to see the point,” Collins said.