WWII Veteran Gravestone Found in Parking Lot

In a strange discovery Sunday morning, employees at Woburn Bertucci’s found a tombstone in their parking lot that was meant to be sent to Natick Veteran's Services.

According to Woburn Police, Officer Mark Shaughnessy was dispatched to 17 Commerce Way for the odd discovery at 11 a.m. Sunday.

“It is unknown at this time how the grave marker ended up in Bertucci’s parking lot,” said Officer Shaughnessy. “There was no damage to the stone.”

Restaurant Manager Arghishti Gukasyan told police Sunday he saw an item in the parking lot earlier, but assumed it was trash. When two other employees arrived, they told Gukasyan that it was a gravestone.

Gukasyan went outside and took the gravestone inside the restaurant “out of respect and for safe-keeping,” said police.

When Woburn Police arrived, Officer Shaughnessy discovered that the stone was a granite grave marker for Ralph Meade, S2, U.S. Navy, World War II who died Feb. 2, 1999. A cardboard box with the stone showed that the marker came from the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. and was addressed to Veterans Services in Natick. Meade’s gravestone was placed in a cruiser and brought to the Woburn Police Station for safekeeping.

Director of Veterans Services Paul Carew was baffled by the incident. "I have no idea why it got there or wasn't delivered," said Carew, who explained the package was addressed to the office's old address. "It weighs over 100 pounds, it's not something that's going to drop off the UPS truck." 

The director said he regularly requests grave markers so that they can later be sent to the veteran burial grounds in Ashland. The Ashland Office of the Veteran's Agent was not immediately available for comment.

According to Woburn police, Meade had a previous address of Ashland.