Bronze Cross Stolen From Montville Grave

MONTVILLE, NJ — A local family is devastated that a handmade cross attached to the grave of their 1o-year-old son was stolen from a Montville cemetery.

John Vreeland, Jr. was just ten when he died in a car crash in 1982. His father, John Thomas Vreeland, handmade the brass cross for the gravesite in memory of his son.

Then someone stole it.

Sometime between Dec. 5 and Dec. 19, someone entered the cemetery at Montville United Methodist Church and removed the cross, Montville police told Patch. It's three feet tall, an inch in diameter and weighs about 45 pounds.

Scott Vreeland, the younger John's cousin, said the theft was difficult for his family to process.

"[My aunt and uncle are] still very broke up about this. My cousin was only 10 years old when he was killed, and he was an only child, and my aunt and uncle were never the same after that," Vreeland told Patch. Although only 14 when his cousin died, Vreeland said he still remembers it "like it was yesterday."

"Whoever stole it took some time to do it because they unbolted it from the pipe, they didn't just break it off," Vreeland said. Although Montville police warned him it might be a lost cause, the deliberate nature of the removal left Vreeland with some hope.

"You can see the pipe in the top of the headstone where the cross used to be. I'm just hoping that since they were so careful about unbolting and removing the cross instead of just breaking it off, that maybe it is still in one piece," Vreeland said.

Vreeland told Patch he's offering a $100 reward for the safe return of the cross. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Montville Township Police Department at 973-257-4300.

Image via Scott Vreeland, used with permission