Louisiana Families Ask Why Personal Belongings Are Being Removed From Graves

Families in New Iberia, Louisiana are asking why some of the belongings they placed on loved one's gravesites are being tossed away like it's garbage.

Billy Reaux posted several photos of personal items on the ground, behind a shed at the cemetery, that he placed within a plot he purchased to honor his daughter who died of COVID in 2021.

Reaux tells me that his daughter's final resting place is in the mausoleum at Holy Family Cemetery, but that his family purchased a plot around a tree so that they'd have a place to go to honor her.

When they purchased the plot, the Reuax family cleaned it and were told that they could place anything they wished around the tree, as long as it was within the brick perimeter surrounding the tree.

Now, some of the items that Reaux and his family left behind to remember his daughter are allegedly being removed by a Deacon. The items that were removed were found on the ground behind a groundcrew's work shed.

Reaux tells me that he has been decorating the tree for 3.5 years and has never had an issue with what they leave behind, until now. A new Deacon is allegedly going around gravesites in the New Iberia cemetery removing items that he does not approve of, and disposing of them.

I should note that Reaux tells me that some of the items that were removed from his daughter's plot around the tree were blessed by the church.

In a statement sent to me, Reaux had this to say about decorating the tree that is there in his daughter's memory:

'We decorate her tree to bring joy to the boys and to help us get thru her passing. We can not buy anything for her now that she is gone. So we buy decorations which we know would bring her joy. This is beyond heartbreaking."

I've reached out to Fr. Savoy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and we are waiting to hear back from him in regards to items being removed from gravesites and disposed of without the family's permission.

If we hear back from the church, we will update the story here.

Reaux tells me that since he posted on social media what has been happening at the cemetery, other families have reached out to him detailing things missing from their loved one's resting places too.

In one case, parents who buried their baby report that an angel they placed on their baby's gravesite was removed and thrown to the ground behind the shed.

Here's the photo.

Here are more items that were found behind the shed in New Iberia.

Since the story was originally posted, a link to the rules and regulations at the cemetery was sent to me via social media. You can read the rules as posted on their website, HERE.