After at least 20 heists in Florida, a trio suspected of stealing family heirlooms and other valuables from cemeteries is now in custody.
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Angela Garrett, 52, and Drake Milam, 33, were arrested in Indiana, while Porsche Bancroft, 32, turned herself in to the Seminole County Jail. All three will face a slew of charges, including injuring or removing a tomb or monument, disturbing the contents of a grave or tomb and grand theft, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
The trio — a mother, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend, according to the Associated Press — targeted niches containing cremated remains in Orange, Seminole and Hillsborough counties and in Winter Park, escaping with more than $35,000 in stolen property.
“But the dollar amount is not what’s important,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “Having a loved one’s final resting place disturbed and cherished family heirlooms taken is deeply painful, and we recognize that no arrest can undo what these families have experienced.”
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Garrett, Bancroft and Milam — all Indiana residents — also “went on a tour of the eastern half of the United States,” potentially breaking into niches and mausoleums along the way, according to the AP.
The sheriff’s office confirmed the trio made appearances in multiple other states, including Texas, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Iowa, New York and New Jersey. But the agency but it did not say if they were suspects in robberies in any of those places, nor respond to requests for additional information.
Though the tomb raiders have been arrested, the total number of robberies is still unclear. Some may still be unnoticed, the sheriff’s office said, encouraging people to check their loved one’s burial sites.