FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A grieving mother said her 18-year-old son is not resting in peace and she blames the Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale.
Vivienne Williams said the anniversary of her son’s death is coming up in about a week. Javen Williams died 17 days after he was injured in a car crash.
About a month after the burial, she said she noticed that the ground at his gravesite in the city-run cemetery at 3201 NW 19 St., started to cave in.
“There were deep holes that your foot could go down in there.”
Vivienne Williams said the workers’ temporary fix felt like a desecration and a manager told her that they needed a funeral director to disinter his remains and bury him in another spot.
“They have him there like an animal with some black plywood and just a little bit of dirt.”
City officials told Local 10 News that his vault was encroaching on another vault and attributed this to rain and flooding. During the process of disinterring his remains, workers noticed the lid of the casket was broken. Before doing anything else, they want an assessment to see if there was water intrusion.
“I hope that they move my son,” the mother said. “We’re told to respect the dead, you know, this is so unfair.”