WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — A man has been arrested in connection with the theft of body parts from a mausoleum at Crown Hill Cemetery earlier this month, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies said John Belknap, 46, was arrested by Denver police on Tuesday night after a warrant for his arrest was issued earlier Tuesday. He is being held in the Jefferson County jail on charges of felony criminal mischief, abuse of a corpse, third-degree burglary, theft and desecration of a venerated object, the sheriff's office said.
The sheriff's office said the morning of Oct. 11, deputies were called to the Crown Hill Cemetery to investigate damage to a mausoleum. Deputies found the front of the private mausoleum was severely damaged, as were the crypt and casket inside.
The sheriff's office said it appeared someone had entered the cemetery overnight, broke into the crypt and gained access to the casket, which contained the remains of a person who died in 1919.
According to an arrest affidavit, some fabric from the casket was lying on the ground. Part of that fabric had fresh dried blood on it, the affidavit says.
The casket had been pried open and parts of the body inside were removed, the sheriff's office said. The sheriff's office said there were three crypts in the mausoleum, but only one was disturbed.
Investigators determined the decedent's skull and other bones had been removed from inside the casket and were missing, the affidavit says. They searched the cemetery grounds, but nothing was found.
According to the affidavit, investigators tested the DNA of blood found inside the crypt and on the fabric casket liner. That DNA matched the suspect's DNA, the affidavit says.
They said there does not appear to be a relationship between the suspect and the people who were entombed in the mausoleum.
According to the sheriff's office, the same crypt was broken into, and the same person's remains taken, in 2000. The remains were recovered, put back in the casket, and re-shuttered in 2002. The sheriff's office said that case was unrelated to this one.
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