How moss helped convict grave robbers of a Chicago cemetery
Ars Technica • • science
Key Points:
- In 2009, employees at Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago were found to have exhumed old graves to resell plots, desecrating between 200 and 400 graves, including that of Emmett Till; they were convicted in 2015 after a thorough investigation involving forensic evidence.
- A new 2026 study published in Forensic Sciences Research details how moss samples found buried with reinterred remains helped establish a timeline proving the grave robbing occurred during the accused employees’ tenure.
- Researchers used chlorophyll degradation in moss—a plant with unique metabolic properties—to determine the moss was less than six months old, linking it to the crime scene and refuting the accused’s defense that the disturbances predated their employment.
- The study
