PARIS — When Joan Parker went to the Annex Cemetery last week to clean around her husband’s grave and plant flowers, she found something unexpected — someone had stolen his headstone.

Her husband, Marlton Parker, passed away in 1987 and is buried in the cemetery on Paris Hill Road.

“I have been over there and they definitely filled in where they took it out from,” she said by phone Tuesday.

She wanted people to know that grave robbery “can happen right here in this little town.” Parker said Maine has quite the reputation for cemetery vandalism.

“I am not really sad — sad only that people would do such thing,” she said. “I just think it’s sick that people would rob a graveyard. They don’t know if stuff means a lot to the little people or not. For some people, it will be a tragedy.”

Parker reached out to the Paris Police Department, which doesn’t have a lot of information to go on. Chief Michael Madden confirmed this Tuesday, saying the case has been assigned to Lt. Jeffrey Lange.

“(It’s) kind of a stab in the dark,” Madden said. “It’s unusual. Usually if you see stuff like that, it’s usually vandalism and it’s the only case we’ve had like this in a while.”

Anyone with any information about the stolen gravestone can call the Paris Police Department at 743-6832.

“It would be nice if they came forward with any information. I doubt that’s going to happen,” Parker said. “I will probably have to replace it myself. …  In fact I don’t have money to replace it right now, it would take me some time.” —EP