SALT ROCK— A man was arrested Wednesday in connection with an infant corpse and broken casket found at Baylous Cemetery in Salt Rock last week.
Matthew Ray Fortner, 49, was charged with a felony for the disinterment or displacement of dead body and damage to cemetery or graveyard, and a misdemeanor related to excavating or removing human skeletal remains or disturbing burial grounds.
According to a criminal complaint written by Detective Jason Howerton of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Office, Fortner was employed as the only grave digger at Baylous Cemetery.
Fortner dug up a plot for a woman’s burial Feb. 20, according to the complaint. While digging this plot, he struck and dug up an infant casket belonging to Charles J. Balwin, who was born and died in 1982.
Fortner then discarded the casket by dumping it over a hillside near the gravesite, Howerton wrote in the complaint.
At some point, and by unknown means, the baby was removed from the casket and his remains were found in the middle of the cemetery, according to the complaint.
The bottom of the casket was broken and several pieces were found along the hillside and in the new gravesite. The pieces of casket found inside the grave match that of the casket that was found, according to the complaint, and after digging beside where the infant casket should have been, a void was found with the casket missing.
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