Local mother heartbroken after finding her daughter’s gravesite empty

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A mother is heartbroken after finding everything at her daughter’s grave gone.

Other families have reached out to Action News Jax claiming the same for their loved ones.

Kellie Fowler explains, “My daughter passed away at nine months old. She had a failed heart transplant and this is the only way that I can visit with her.”

For 12 years now, Fowler has visited her daughter at Arlington Park Cemetery. The one thing that has been at her gravesite since the beginning had been a metal frog sitting in a chair with her daughter’s name on it — but now, it’s no longer there.

“That was on my daughter’s grave before her headstone was even put out, so it’s been out here about 12 years.”

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Inside the cemetery, there are annual spring cleanup signs that ask lot owners to remove all grave decorations before Feb. 15.

We were given viewer screenshots from the cemetery’s Facebook page that show March 1 as the deadline.

However, the cemetery says the cleanup date was always Feb. 15.

“I was out here Feb. 5 for my daughter’s birthday, and I put flowers on her headstone. There were no signs, nothing showing that they were going to do any of this.”

Fowler says had she known, she would have picked up her daughter’s decorations. She says she tried to retrieve her daughter’s items Friday.

She sent us pictures of what she claims to be the area where they are storing all of the items.

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“They were in a concrete vault where they just threw stuff in. It’s not even separated. It’s all thrown in there, ceramics, everything.”

In a statement to Action News Jax, Arlington Park Cemetery said:

“We are aware that we have some families that did not see the notification of Spring Clean Up in the cemetery. We have kept any items that were not collected if they were not broken or destroyed. Our leadership team is happy to help anyone who needs help retrieving their items. Please reach out to the location for help.”

The general manager tells us families have until March 15 to pick up their items. Fowler says she’s not the only one who has lost items.

Cox Media Group