10 Bizarre and Disturbing Cases of Grave Robbery

Across different cultures, customs and personal convictions about the afterlife differ significantly. For instance, Mesopotamians held the belief that failing to provide a proper burial would result in the deceased's ghost coming back to torment the living. Conversely, the Maya conducted burials in ways that guided the soul to the underworld. A common thread among these beliefs is the wish for the spirit to transition peacefully and for the body to remain undisturbed. However, this isn't always the case. Grave robbery is a grim practice that has persisted and will likely continue, driven by motives as perplexing as the act itself.

10. Ghostly Brides

In China, love can be found even beyond the grave. Although rare, ghost weddings are an ancient tradition meant for those who passed away unmarried. These ceremonies are thought to pacify restless spirits, ensuring they are preoccupied with their posthumous marital bliss rather than haunting the living.

The process involves families of two deceased singles agreeing to bury them together, uniting them in sacred, posthumous marriage. However, in a recent incident, brides were being stolen from their graves without their families' knowledge. A group of grave robbers was apprehended for selling corpses to families as 'ghost wives' for their late sons, irrespective of whether the women were single at the time of their death.

The bodies of the women were exhumed, cleaned, and sold with fabricated medical records for $38,000 each. The group managed to illegally sell 10 such corpses before being caught and sentenced to 28 to 32 months in prison.

9. Research Through Desecration

A probe into a string of grave robberies in Russia led authorities to Anatoly Moskvin, a local author and historian. The 45-year-old was discovered with over 20 female corpses in his apartment during an unplanned visit by his parents, who promptly alerted the police. The bodies, aged between 15 and 25, had been dressed and restored by Moskvin, who referred to them as his 'dolls.' He confessed to exhuming them, bringing them home, repairing them, and keeping them as part of his 'research' for his ongoing book.

Moskvin sourced his collection primarily from nearby cemeteries, though he explored a staggering 750 burial sites nationwide. He didn't always remove bodies; occasionally, he only took the clothing of deceased women. The video above, captured during the investigation, highlights the scale of his crimes. While in Russian, skipping to around 1:25 reveals the interior of Moskvin’s home. The narrator chillingly states, “These dolls are crafted from mummified human remains.” Truly unsettling.

8. Conflicts Over Religious Beliefs

Not every instance of body snatching begins underground—some corpses are seized before they even reach a grave. In June 2014, Teoh Cheng Cheng, a 38-year-old waitress, took her own life following a dispute with her boyfriend. Originally Buddhist, she had converted to Islam for her partner, sparking a debate over her final rites. Both her parents and her Muslim boyfriend agreed she would have wanted a Taoist funeral, so plans were set in motion.

However, during the funeral, officials from the Penang Islamic Religious Department (Jaipp) arrived and seized the body, insisting that as a Muslim, Cheng Cheng required an Islamic burial. The grieving family initially complied but soon initiated a legal dispute over the appropriate burial method. Stuck in limbo, Cheng Cheng’s body remained in a mortuary as lawyers debated her spiritual fate. After days of contention, the Teoh family prevailed, and Cheng Cheng was cremated following Taoist traditions.

7. In the Name of Science

The quest for scientific and medical progress has long driven the illicit trade of human remains. As far back as 1319, medical students were discovered pilfering corpses for anatomical studies. This practice soon evolved into a broader market, with bodies and even individual body parts being stolen and sold for purposes like transplants.

Eileen Currier became an unwitting casualty of this grim trade. At 72, she succumbed to lung cancer, and her children arranged for her cremation, scattering what they believed were her ashes in San Diego. Shockingly, they later discovered the ashes weren’t hers—Eileen’s body had been sold for medical research without their knowledge or consent.

Beyond the ethical dilemmas, this trade poses significant health risks. With no oversight, there’s no way to ensure the safety of the body parts being traded, as they could carry dangerous diseases. The driving force is profit: a brain fetches $600, while an elbow or hand can sell for around $850. A single corpse, when divided, can generate thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, making this illegal enterprise highly profitable and showing no signs of decline.

6. A Grim Family Reunion

Losing a loved one is an emotionally devastating experience, and Vincent Bright of Detroit struggled profoundly with this. In an extreme act of grief, he admitted to stealing the body of his 98-year-old father, Clarence Bright, from Gethsemane Cemetery on January 14, 2013. Vincent took his father’s remains home and stored them in his freezer, harboring hopes of reviving him someday. While Vincent was known for his deep religious convictions, his belief in his ability to bring the dead back to life remains unexplained.

Vincent’s guilty plea and the emotional context of his actions led prosecutors to avoid seeking the maximum 10-year sentence typically associated with body disinterment. The legal team agreed that Vincent would benefit more from mental health support than from incarceration.

5. Dark Rituals of Black Magic

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, 40 bodies vanished from Gurabo’s oldest cemetery. Authorities, while relocating graves, found many coffins empty. Initially, the theft of steel coffins for the black market was suspected, but closer inspection revealed that even the bones were missing. Rumors of Santeria rituals surfaced, prompting Santeria priest Arlene Gonzalez of Templo Yoruba to defend her faith. She clarified that their rituals involve animals, not humans, and suggested that practitioners of Paleria might be behind the thefts.

Palo Mayombe, meaning 'wooden stick,' resembles the dark magic depicted in films: large staffs, cauldrons, eerie symbols, and human bones, often skulls. Though it shares Afro-Caribbean origins with Santeria, Mayombe is far more sinister, used to control, curse, or even kill. Many Santeria practitioners fear its 'death magic,' calling it brujeria, or black magic. Every Mayombe ritual, regardless of intent, demands human bones, meaning its followers are inevitably involved in grave robbing.

4. A Quest for More Space

In 2009, Carolyn Towns, the director of Burr Oak Cemetery, was arrested for reselling occupied burial plots. She confessed in 2011, revealing her scheme: after families paid for caskets, funerals, and plots, Towns would destroy the graves for profit. She ordered bodies to be exhumed and dumped elsewhere in the cemetery, sometimes crushing vaults and caskets to free up space or stacking them haphazardly to accommodate new burials.

Towns admitted to embezzling over $100,000 from the cemetery. By reselling graves that had already been purchased, she funneled the money into her own pockets, as corporate oversight failed to detect the illicit transactions. Initially, around 300 graves were believed to have been desecrated, but an archaeological team later discovered more remains, pushing the estimate to nearly 600—with the possibility of even more yet to be uncovered.

3. A Final Evening

On August 27, 2011, two Denver men, Robert Young and Mark Rubinson, decided to recreate their own version of Weekend at Bernie’s. After discovering their friend Jeffrey Jarrett had passed away, they chose not to inform the authorities. Instead, they loaded his body into their car for a final night out. Using Jarrett’s credit cards, they dined and enjoyed drinks, all while his lifeless body remained seated in the back of the vehicle.

After a second diner visit, they returned home and placed Jarrett’s body in bed. With the corpse settled, they ventured out again, withdrawing $400 from his debit card. The pair claimed the funds were for a strip club outing, humorously suggesting their deceased friend was funding their escapades. Finally, after a late-night snack run, they flagged down an officer to report Jarrett’s death. Both men were later charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation, and abuse of a corpse.

2. The Kidnapped TV Icon

Beloved Italian television personality Mike Bongiorno passed away in 2009 at 85, but his story didn’t end there. During a routine visit to the family tomb, it was discovered that Bongiorno’s coffin had vanished. Initially, police suspected a ransom scheme, but no legitimate demands were made. Two individuals attempted to exploit the situation with a fake ransom call, but authorities quickly identified their fraud and arrested them, as they had no knowledge of the body’s actual whereabouts.

Nearly a year after the theft of Mike Bongiorno’s coffin and remains, they were discovered in a ditch. Strangely, the motive behind the crime seemed to be nothing more than a macabre desire to spend time with the deceased. The thief kept the body for almost a year before abandoning it by the roadside. Bongiorno’s family, relieved to recover his remains, chose to cremate him to prevent any future incidents.

1. The Chaplin Kidnapping

Charlie Chaplin’s legacy is well-known, but few are aware that his body was stolen from its grave in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. Oona dismissed the demands, believing her late husband would support her decision. The thieves escalated their threats, targeting her two youngest children, but Oona remained resolute.

After a five-week investigation, police arrested Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev, two car mechanics who admitted to stealing Chaplin’s body out of financial desperation. Wardas received four and a half years of hard labor for grave robbery and extortion, while Ganev was sentenced to 18 months for his lesser role. Chaplin’s body was recovered from a nearby cornfield and reburied under a layer of concrete to deter future thefts.