Forty headstones at the Elmwood Cemetery, some dating back to the 1870s, have been left damaged.

Staff arrived on Friday morning to the disappointing sight.

“People we don’t know came into our heritage section. We presume it was vandalism. From the cameras on our building, I could see flashlights off in the distance, but I couldn’t actually see the people, so we don’t know who it is,” Elmwood Cemetery Superintendent Sara Hope says.

She adds that most of them were completely knocked over, while some of them are cracked and have pieces broken off. Vases are also missing from the top of headstones.

“The monument companies don’t make those headstones anymore, and they don’t really make the pieces for those headstones anymore. A lot of them are made of marble, which isn’t common, and so it’s going to be hard for us to try and repair them. They’re also quite large, with some of them around ten feet all,” Hope commented.

Staff have expressed how disrespectful this is for someone to do this for absolutely no reason. “We’re a small staff and we’re trying our best to make everything right, but there’s only so much we can do. I just can’t understand why someone would want to come and do this,” Hope said.

The cemetery has dealt with vandalism in the past, but not to this extent. It has them considering more security for the 42 acres.

Hope stated that they have cameras around the building currently because that is where most of the security has been in the past, but they are going to look at other options.

RCMP were notified, and they are investigating the incident.