Crime & Public Safety
Historic angel grave marker reported stolen from Bushnell cemetery
Sumter County deputies are investigating the theft of a grave marker reported missing from the Wild Cow Prairie Cemetery in Bushnell. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office posted that the missing piece is a knee-high statue of an angel crouched with its face between its knees and large wings extending upward. The department described the statue as modeled after “The Angel of Grief Weeping over the Dismantled Altar of Life.”
According to the sheriff’s office, a public works employee discovered the marker was missing and reported it, prompting detectives to open the case as a theft. The department is collecting information, searching records and attempting to locate surviving relatives who may confirm the marker’s provenance. The office noted the cemetery is a historic site established in 1849.
Some local volunteers who care for the cemetery reported the statue had been present in recent years and believe it marked cremated remains placed there in the 2000s; the sheriff’s office has also indicated the statue may have been stolen and recovered in the 1990s. Those points are described by the agency and community members as possibilities rather than confirmed facts.
The investigation remains active. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office asked anyone with information to contact Detective Ashley McCaig or Crimeline, and referenced case No. SCSO26OFF005761 in its public notice.
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