Maryland family looking for answers from cemetery

SUITLAND, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - A Maryland family says cemetery staff had no idea where their son was laid to rest.

The confusion reportedly began after the family finally had enough money to place a proper headstone on their son's burial site.

According to officials at the cemetery, the tombstone is now in the correct place, but there's no indication when that correction was made.

The family says they have not been notified about the correction. They say that, for the last two weeks, staff at Cedar Hill Cemetery say they were trying to research and figure out their son's grave site location, and there's been no update since.

Alejandro Herrera was 19 when he unexpectedly died following a seizure in 2016.

"When we had to do the funeral arrangements, we had to do a lot of things on credit cards," said Kathryn Watts, Alejandro's mother.

Watts says the family had to finance her son's headstone.

"We were told that we could make a plan with them to basically have a monthly payment and pay off a tombstone and in the meantime, they would provide a temporary marker that would mark the gravesite," she said.

Watts says Cedar Hill Funeral Home's cost for the tombstone increased by more than $1,000 after three years, forcing the La Plata family to purchase tombstone from an outside vendor.

The vendor went out to the cemetery and they placed the tombstone down where they were instructed.

"When we went out to see the tombstone, we went out with flowers, teddy bears, everything, the first time seeing the gravestone and it wasn't there. It wasn't in the place it was supposed to be, we spent 90 minutes looking for it and we had someone from the cemetery come out... it wasn't at the gravesite where it was supposed to be," Watts said.

A representative from Cedar Hill Cemetery says the headstone is and has been in the correct location at the cemetery.

The family, however, was never been notified, and they still haven't been told where it's located.