Grave Robber Decorated Home With Stolen Memories: Police

If what police say about a southeast Michigan woman is proven, she robbed not only graves in two cemeteries of more than 180 items, but also stole the peace of mind of people who had placed benches, statues and other memorabilia at the final resting places of people they loved most in the world. Lisa Corcoran, 44, of Vienna Township, is charged with felony larceny, a crime that could send her to prison for five years.

Police said Corcoran used the items, valued at about $1,000, to decorate her home. The items included a colorful mosaic bench, lovingly crafted from 3,000 tile pieces by a grieving mother to memorialize a daughter whose life was cut short after a decade-long battle with ovarian cancer, and other metal and ceramic items placed at grave sites by mourners.

When she discovered the bench missing late last month, Marie Heath’s heart broke again. Wendy Heath had been gone for five years, and her mother made the bench in her favorite color, purple, to honor her loving, giving spirit. The bench was irreplaceable, like her daughter. Health called it a “contemplation bench,” where she and others who loved Wendy — a large group of people, including bereaved family members Wendy had comforted as part of her job at an area funeral home — could sit in quiet reflection.

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“You know,” Heath told WNEM-TV, “I don’t know why somebody would do something like that. Why you take something from a grave? But you know, I guess as long as there's been graves there's been people who steal things from them.”

Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell turned the same question over in his head.

“To steal from the dead is an unimaginable act that defies description,” Pickell told MLive.com. “This is a new low.”

No one has to tell Mitchell Neeley that.

His wife, Dana, died of a heart attack two springs ago, three years after they had been married. Neeley and Dana Morley, who went on to become a classically trained musician and once performed at Carnegie Hall, sang together in junior high choir before life separated them. They reconnected in 2011 and were married a year later.

After his wife’s death, Neeley honored their love by placing sentimental items from their wedding ceremony at her grave at West Vienna Cemetery in Clio. They were among the items Corcoran is accused of stealing to decorate her home.

Neeley misses his wife desperately. “To have this happen,” he told WNEM, “it was reopening those same wounds all over again.”

At least six graves in the West Vienna Cemetery and Woodlawn Cemetery were robbed, authorities said. A break came Memorial Day when a witness reported seeing Corcoran driving away from a condominium development in a silver Pontiac loaded with flowers from porches and back lawns, police said.

In all, police recovered 188 stolen items, which are now being returned to the people who filed police reports.

“We’re hoping that this will be able to restore some peace for the loved ones," Pickell told MLive.

Corcoran, who was arrested Wednesday, remains in the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bond.

Photo of Lisa Corcoran via Genesee County Sheriff’s Office