Final part of the headstones in the backyard story?

The mystery of a patio in far southern Missouri that was built with national cemetery gravestones has been solved to the satisfaction of the local sheriff and the veteran who raised the alarm.

Ed Harkreader, a Navy veteran, took pictures of the patio and staircase and posted them on Facebook last week. Some of the stones were installed face up, showing the names and dates of death of veterans and spouses. Harkreader's postings created an outcry on social media.

The patio was at an isolated residence in Ozark County, Mo., near Lake Norfork and the Arkansas border. Harkreader, who lives 15 miles away in Mountain Home, Ark., said he posted the photos because he considered the use of the stones offensive to veterans and their families.

The federal National Cemetery Administration in Washington announced it would investigate.

On Monday, Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed said the stones had been cut by a local monument company and, because of spelling errors or blemishes, were tossed into a landfill. Reed said a local man admitted to taking them and using them on his property.

Reed said he sought no charges because Chaney Monument Co., which cut them, never billed the federal government for the defective headstones, and because the local man hadn't realized the significance of his pilfering.

"The guy used poor judgment and taste," Reed said. "He kept apologizing to us. He's a very simple sort, and he told me he didn't think the thing through."

Reed said sheriff's deputies and members of a local fire department removed the stones on Sunday. He said they will be buried Tuesday afternoon on county property in a ceremony that will include a veterans' honor guard from nearby West Plains, Mo., and local Cub Scouts.

A spokeswoman for Chaney Monument said the company had a contract from 1982 to 2007 with the Department of Veterans Affairs to cut headstones for national cemeteries. The work ended with the death of the former owner, W.D. Collins. Reed said the company made about 7,000 stones that were delivered across the country, which explains why three of them in Harkreader's photos were intended for graves in California, Texas and Alabama.

"The defective ones never left the county," he said.

Government regulations require unused gravestones to be destroyed. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City, which covers Ozark County, said the office probably will take no action.

Other cases have resulted in charges. On July 28, a former employee at a national cemetery in Rhode Island pleaded guilty of stealing about 150 discarded gravestones to pave his carport. Sentencing is set for October. Prosecutors recommended one year of probation.

But Harkreader said he was pleased with the outcome in the Missouri case. He said he and other local veterans were going to meet with the property owner this week to help him replace the patio.

"We want to make something good of this," he said.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/veterans-grave-markers-used-to-pave-patio-are-removed-no-charges-filed-1.364490