Trial Begins for Brothers Accused of Burr Oak Cemetery Desecration

By Morgan Searles (Patch Staff)

Attorneys delivered opening statements Wednesday in the trial of brothers Keith and Terrence Nicks, who are accused of digging up and dismembering bodies buried in the historicBurr Oak Cemetery.

State prosecutors argued the brothers took bodies out of graves in the nearly-full cemetery to resell the space for new burials, and bodies were double stacked improperly, according to the Chicago Tribune.

But according to the defense, the state’s case uses mostly circumstantial evidence, double stacking isn’t illegal and the brothers didn’t get any money as a result of the movement of the bodies, the Tribune reported.

The state called FBI Special Agent Doug Seccombe as its first witness. Seccombre said 1,500 bones were found over the month-long cemetery investigation in 2009, according to media reports. Human remains, caskets and burial vaults were dug up and left in an out-of-the-way part of the cemetery grounds.

The former cemetery manager, Carolyn Towns, is currently serving 12 years after pleading guilty in 2011 to charges that included desecrating human remains, according to the Tribune. A fourth cemetery employee who was a backhoe operator, Maurice Dailey, is awaiting trial, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Keith Nicks is expected to take the stand during trial to tell his side, the Sun-Times reported.

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