WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — Valerie Baskerville’s brother, David Baskerville, was supposed to be laid to rest last month at Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. The day before his funeral, Valerie said the cemetery made them cancel services.
“They called the day before the services and said that I wouldn’t need to come back out and pick another plot because some things needed to be moved around,” said Valerie.
Three years ago, Valerie purchased three crypts at Olinger Crown Hill’s Garden Mausoleums—one crypt for her brother, one for her mother, and one for herself.
“We want to be buried next to my brother [Michael Baskerville] that’s why we did this early,” said Valerie.
“The plan was to be buried next to my father,” said Valerie’s niece, Denise Baskerville. “He’s been buried here for 24 years. The whole purpose for buying the plots here is so that my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, and my father can all be buried together.”
The three spaces that Valerie purchased were part of a six-person community crypt.
A spokesperson for Olinger said when they sold the three spaces to Valerie, three people were already buried in the community crypt and no one checked to see if they could access the other three remaining spaces. Then last month, as they were preparing for David’s funeral, the cemetery’s spokesperson said they discovered another casket was blocking the door to get into the community crypt. The spokesperson said moving the casket could cause damage to the structure.
“I’m not here to make enemies,” said Valerie. “I just want to bury my brother so that we can grieve properly. It’s taking a toll on my whole family. All I want them to do is make this right.”
After a lot of back-and-forth on Tuesday, the cemetery found a way to fix the problem.
“This is highly unusual, but we have gotten all necessary approval to open the space,” said Olinger’s spokesperson. “We will be doing that this week, so it is available next week for the family. We are thankful we are able to work this out for the family.”
