Prosecutors probe missing cemetery funds

BELLEVILLE -- Prosecutors from St. Clair and Madison counties and Illinois State Police were scheduled to meet this week in a probe of $300,000 in prepaid burial funds that are missing from two area cemeteries.

St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida says the group will organize the investigation of Mount Hope Cemetery in Belleville and Valley View Cemetery in Edwardsville.

In October, the office of Illinois Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes discovered that the money was missing from more than 450 prepaid accounts at the two cemeteries.

Alan Henry, a spokesman for Hynes' office, says the money disappeared from May of 2005 to July of this year from the cemeteries' trust funds, which are set up to maintain money people have paid for prearranged burials.