It's a mystery that may never been solved: How did the headstones of Thomas and Elizabeth Reay wind up on a former Batavia resident's property in Bethany?
The Reays lived and died in the 19th Century and were buried in Elba's Maple Avenue Cemetery.
The woman who owns the property where the stones have been kept for years, if not decades, told Deputy Chief Jerome Brewster of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office that her uncle stole the headstones a long time ago.
Brewster said the displaced headstones have bothered her for years and she wanted to find a way to return them but wasn't sure what to do.
Nobody in Elba, however, knew they were missing.
Steve Davis, the current cemetery caretaker said that as best as he can figure, the Reays' headstones were replaced in the 1950s.
It's impossible to know if they were replaced because the old stones were stolen or the family wanted to have uniform headstones for its plot.
The family is Graham, but not the Grahams who currently reside in Elba and Oakfield, as near as our research can determine.
Barbara Graham, and other residents confirm, that up until the 1970s, two sisters named Graham lived alone in Elba. Barbara Graham believes they were distant cousins of her late husband's.
There is an Agnes and Carolyn Graham buried in the same plot as the two current headstones for the Reays. The group of headstones all uniformly match.
Thomas Reay dies Aug. 1, 1887 at the age of 89. His wife Elizabeth died in 1893.
We can find no Reays currently living in Genesee County.
If the headstones were stolen, the statute of limitations has surely run out, according to Brewster. Besides, the supposedly "slightly wild uncle" who took credit for the theft is long ago deceased.
The location of the headstones came to light when a reader contacted The Batavian anonymously a couple of weeks before Halloween and said he knew about some headstones stolen from a graveyard in Elba.
We contacted Brewster to see if there were any reports of stolen headstones. There was nothing on record, but ever the investigator, Brewster began the process of tracking down the property owner -- who now lives in New Mexico -- and seeing what she had to say about the headstones.
According to Brewster, she eagerly gave him permission to go onto her land and retrieve the stones so they could be returned to Elba.
The Elba Historical Society took possession of the stones today and will display them on their property.
Even though recovering the headstones brought no criminals to justice, so to speak, Brewster said he felt like getting them back to where they belonged was a good deed.
"It feels good when you can do something to give back a little bit," Brewster said.
Pictured above are incoming society president Ron Komer, society member Earl Roth, Chief Brewster board member June Rowcliffe.
