BELFAST (AP) – Belfast police are looking for a hand-carved tombstone from the Revolutionary War era that once marked the graves of two brothers in a Vermont cemetery.

Two slate grave markers that recently turned up in a basement in Belfast were traced to a cemetery in Vermont, where they had been reported missing some 35 years ago, said Belfast Police Det. Mike McFadden.

After the markers were discovered, Belfast Cemetery Supervisor Steve Boguen took them to his maintenance shop and repaired one of the stones that was cracked. When the stone was left outside the shed at Grove Cemetery to cure, it was stolen.

The headstones had marked the burial location of two brothers – ages 3 and 7 months – who died in 1775 in Vermont.

The stones, which stand about 40 inches tall, and are arched at the top with carved images of what appear to be human faces or skulls, linking them to a particular stone carver who worked in New England in the 18th century, McFadden said.

The detective contacted someone from the Vermont Old Cemetery Association who said he knew just what markers they were.

“He said, ‘We’ve been looking for them for decades,”‘ McFadden said.

McFadden said the stones were apparently brought to Belfast by a man who worked as a photographer and was preparing a piece for publication on the stone carver. The man, who is now in a nursing home and has no recollection, brought the stones home to Belfast, perhaps motivated by a misguided effort to preserve them.

The man’s wife found the stones last week in the basement, where they apparently had sat for the last 35 years, McFadden said.

McFadden said he is most interested in locating the stone, not in arresting somebody. Stealing or possessing a grave marker or tombstone is a felony, he said.

—

Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-09-23-06 1300EDT