The National Cemetery Administration is investigating after a Mountain Home man revealed that a resident in Ozark County, Mo., built a walkway using military grave markers.
Ed Harkreader, a 55-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, traveled to Ozark County earlier this month after a friend told him about the walkway, made from hundreds of grave markers, he said. Harkreader posted pictures of the walkway on social media, and they were shared thousands of times.
The National Cemetery Administration -- a division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs -- found out about the walkway from Harkreader's online posts, spokesman Chris Erbe said. The administration is currently researching to determine whether the markers were government-issued.
In a written statement, Erbe said knowingly converting government property to private use is a violation of federal law.
"We are definitely looking into it," Erbe said in a phone interview Tuesday. "It's not proper or even legal to own them like that and to use them like that."
Erbe said the National Cemetery Administration would pass its findings to the VA's inspector general's office.
The Ozark County, Mo., sheriff's office also is investigating. Sheriff Darrin Reed was not available for comment Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Harkreader traveled to the walkway site again and talked to the homeowner. Harkreader said he would not disclose the man's name or address to anyone other than investigators out of fear someone would retaliate against the man.
Harkreader said the man told him he obtained the grave markers from a headstone company in Gainsville, Mo., that had once had a contract with the federal VA and disposed of imperfect markers. After talking with the man, Harkreader said, "I don't believe he meant any disrespect or anything malicious at all. He didn't understand what the situation really was."
In his statement, Erbe said markers are supposed to be "disposed of properly" if they're damaged, are of poor quality or include inscription errors, among other things. The inspector general's office may pursue a criminal investigation into the improper disposal of federal property, he said.
According to information from the National Cemetery Administration's nationwide grave site locator, veterans whose names are on the stones were laid to rest in cemeteries from California to Connecticut.
One marker Harkreader photographed was inscribed with the name of an Arkansas man buried in Anitoch Cemetery in Beebe. According to the marker, Cleo Ace Hall was a World War II veteran and a Purple Heart recipient. He died in 2000.
Joe Belew, an Antioch Cemetery committee member, said he checked Hall's burial site Monday, and a marker was still there.
Metro on 08/19/2015