Family in Shock After Headstone at Detroit Cemetery Falls on Infant’s Head

A mother from the Detroit area is still in shock after a headstone from Gethsemane Cemetery fell on her baby's head on Mother's Day.

How does something like this happen? Well, that's the question everyone is asking.

Apparently, the mother was taking a photo of her 10-month-old girl in front of her late grandmother's headstone when it somehow fell over on her.

Get our free mobile app

The mother says she didn't know if her baby was alive or dead. She couldn't hear or see her little girl under the headstone which literally landed on her head.

The headstone was so heavy that it left the little girl with a fractured skull. She's obviously still in the hospital recovering from the incident.

According to Fox 2 Detroit, attorney Jonathan Marko who is representing the family said that in addition to the headstone not being properly installed, the cemetery is not being properly maintained because of short staffing.

Jonathan Marko:

It’s not like lightning struck and this tombstone suddenly fell down. This tombstone was a disaster waiting to happen. We have preliminary information that because of the staffing shortages they had to cut back on what they were able to do, but this is what happens when we cut funding and put a bare-bones operation in our public services – they don’t operate the way that they’re supposed to do operate.

The family said there were other headstones at the Detroit cemetery that had also tipped over at some point too.

The city of Detroit owns the cemetery and had this to say about the incident:

The city extends its well wishes to the family and hopes for a full recovery for the child.

Headstones are installed by third party companies hired by individual families. The cemetery operator has no record of any concerns about this specific headstone being in danger of falling, nor had it fallen and been previously reset.

It's amazing how many people on social media think the woman's story is "fishy." I hate to think that someone would do something like this on purpose.