Inset: Katherine Taylor. Screenshot: Taylor allegedly stealing items off graves at a cemetery in Palatka, Florida (Putnam County Sheriff’s Office).
Cops in Florida have arrested a woman after she allegedly stole mementos from graves so she could use them as lawn art at her home.
Katherine Taylor, 61, stands accused of two counts of criminal mischief, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
A family discovered that items they left on their parents’ grave sites at Etoniah Cemetery in Palatka were being stolen. They noticed this disturbing behavior occurring about 35 miles southwest of St. Augustine.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
In April, after realizing that some of their belongings were missing, the family decided to take action. They reported the thefts to the authorities and set up a camera, hoping to capture the perpetrator in the act.
Apparently that’s exactly what happened.
The footage from the camera revealed a woman, later identified as Taylor, wandering around the grave site where the family had placed various keepsakes. The video showed her attempting to take a wind chime and struggling to remove another one from its place.
More from Law&Crime: ‘I still can see that guy’: Family horrified after funeral home places wrong corpse in casket for viewing, then insists it was really him, lawsuit says
Detectives received anonymous tips identifying the suspect as Taylor. Cops went to confront her at her home in Interlachen, but they say they didn’t have to look very far for the stolen items. They were featured prominently in her yard, cops say. Aside from the wind chime, they also found a bird feeder previously stolen from the grave site, among other items, a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said.
Taylor told cops this is not the first time she was caught stealing from a cemetery. The Palatka Police Department arrested her in 2020 for stealing from the East Oak Hill Cemetery after she took an item from a grave. She was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to six months probation, records show.
The suspect, whom police dubbed a “habitual cemetery thief, was arrested for her latest theft and taken to the Putnam County Jail where she has since posted a $5,000 bond. She did not have an attorney listed.
