CHARLOTTE, N.C.–The family grave site of George and Nancy Nelson is the only headstone visible from the corner of Dorman Road and Muskerry Drive in Pineville.
It’s part of the old St. John’s Church Cemetery. Online burial records say it’s been here since as early as the 1920’S. Photos obtained by WCCB from 2003 show at least six other grave markers in the trees and overgrown vegetation.
“I think something should be done about it,” said the cemetery’s neighbor Betty Phillips. Phillips is worried the cemetery is going to be destroyed by nearby construction.
Now Phillips and others are watching and waiting to see what’s next for the final resting place of the Nelsons. “Yeah, you have to take care of cemeteries. That’s the only way to prove somebody lived or died,” said Phillips.
It’s illegal to move or alter a cemetery in North Carolina. Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities says it used radar and an excavation crew to re-route it’s sewer project away from the cemetery.
