Juneau police are investigating the destruction of property at a cemetery on Douglas Island.
Sometime Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, an unidentified driver drove a silver Jeep through the Eagles Cemetery on Douglas Highway.
Merrill Sanford, whose family owns and maintains the property, said the driver took out a length of fence and damaged at least two headstones.
“In fact, one of the headstones that was broken in half was a headstone from 1913,” Sanford said. “I don’t know how to put a price on that.”
Sanford said the vehicle continued on, uprooting a 50-year-old lilac bush and destroying another fence before it stopped and the driver fled from the scene.
For decades, Sanford and his family and friends have been responsible for care and maintenance of the headstones, grass, fences, and flag at the property.
“It touched me,” Sanford said. “We’ve done a lot of care for that cemetery, the whole family.”
Sanford said many early Juneau and Douglas residents are buried there.
