Family demanding apology from cemetery for allegedly misplacing baby’s grave marker

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT/Gray News) - It was nearly seven years ago that Bryan and Katie Black’s daughter Avery was, what some may say, born sleeping.

“I still had to go into labor, deliver her, all the things. We just didn’t get to bring her home from the hospital,” Katie Black said.

Katie Black said all they have left of their daughter is some photos, a few of her baby items she didn’t get to use, and her grave at the Lexington Cemetery, which they visit often.

“We go multiple times a year,” Katie Black said.

“Birthday, sometimes Fourth of July, just to decorate and spend the holidays that we don’t get to share with her,” Bryan Black added.

It was this past Memorial Day that the Blacks made an annual visit to see baby Avery’s grave when they discovered her grave marker appeared to have gone missing.

“Just by chance I glanced over, there’s a little cross on her marker and I noticed that in a row. We’ve got pictures after picture after picture of all of our children out at that site, and that all happened in a different spot,” Katie Black said.

Confused as to why their child’s grave was moved to a different spot nearly 30 feet away, the couple contacted cemetery staff, who they say told them she had been buried where her marker was moved to all along.

“The gentleman that came out very defensively, to talk to us about what happened, he kept telling me, ‘No she’s buried here, she’s buried here.’ And I said how do I know that for sure?” Katie Black said. “It took seven years for them to realize her body and her marker were in different spots. I know that it’s not her, it’s just her body, but I feel like I hadn’t been visiting her.”

The family is now asking the Lexington Cemetery for a formal apology.

“We’ve been asking for them to produce us actual proof on who signed off on it and who actually dug it. Is this where she’s supposed to be? And we’ve got nothing but scribble or no response or no sympathy,” Bryan Black said. “I want a written formal apology. I want a public apology. I want apologies for everybody else that they affect.”

“And I know, even though she’s little and she was a baby, she was still a human and needed to be respected that way,” Katie Black added.

The pair said they were given a hand-drawn map showing where their daughter was buried, but they added they have no formal proof that she’s buried there unless they exhume her body.

Lexington Cemetery declined to comment regarding the situation.

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