‘This is like a nightmare’

By: 
Stephanie Taylor Ferriell, Print Editor

Louise Osborne summed up the damage to Kay’s Chapel Cemtery with one word: “Heartbreaking.”

The small, country cemetery located on the grounds of the historic Kay’s Chapel Church sustained substantial damage Aug. 12 when the driver of a white Camaro ran through it, leaving a wake of mauled stones in her wake.

Tiffany De Palma, Hardinsburg, claims she lost control of her car and crashed through the cemetery. After the incident, she removed the license plate from the vehicle and called a friend to pick her up. Once home, she called police to report the Camaro as stolen.

Ten stones were damaged in the cemetery, located about a mile north on Kay’s Chapel Road, off US 150, east of Hardinsburg. One had just a vase knocked off one side, but the other nine were knocked off their bases, some dragged many feet, some knicked, scraped and left with with broken edges.

Monday afternoon, Osborne was at the cemetery, visiting her mother’s grave. She received calls shortly after the incident, from friends worried her mother’s grave – her mother died just six months ago – had been damaged.

“I couldn’t believe the damage,” she said, especially given she had been at the cemetery with her uncle just hours before it apparently happened. “I just couldn’t believe a car could’ve done that,” she said, shaking her head as she walked among the scattered stones.

See the full story, as well as a story about the young woman arrested, in The Salem Democrat, on newsstands this evening.

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