Forensicwx
Final Roll Call 4153. STLCO 10-42 10/13 @ 1519
A 74-year-old man's wife watched in horror as her husband was crushed to death by a tombstone as they hung Easter decorations at their family plot Monday morning, police said.
Stephan Woytack of Scranton, Pa., was tying a cross around the grave marker in Throop's Saint Josephs Cemetery when its top unexpectedly tilted off its base, Throop Police Officer Andy Kerecman told the Daily News.
"It landed across his waist and it pinned him," Kerecman described the horrifying scene just before 10:30 a.m.
The man's shocked wife initially tried moving the massive stone herself before desperately running for help instead, he said.
"She literally, when it fell over, she ran and they're in their 70s — 74, 73. She probably ran a good 200 yards because the caretaker just happened to come to the cemetery," he said.
When Kerecman arrived he saw the caretaker trying to move the monument as well, but again without success.
"There is no way that any one person could lift that up," Kerecman said. "It was a pretty heavy stone."
took the caretaker's and Kerecman's joined strength to finally free the man, but by then it was too late.
"It crushed him," Kerecman said.
The victim, who Kercman said was described to him as a deeply religious man who was "very active in church," was given his last rites at the scene by a nearby priest, he said.
"It's just a terrible, unfortunate accident. I've never seen anything like that. I'm going on almost 30 years," Kerecman said while further describing it as "freaky."
The caretaker said the couple regularly stopped by and recently purchased two plots in the cemetery, according to Kerecman.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...lled-falling-tombstone-cops-article-1.2167345