MECHANIC FALLS – Authorities in Mechanic Falls are investigating an overnight vandalism spree discovered early Monday that left dozens of historic headstones in one of the town’s oldest cemeteries either toppled over or cracked in half.

“It’s pointless. There can’t be any satisfaction in it,” Mechanic Falls police Chief Jeff Goss said of someone knocking over between 30 and 40 headstones at Maple Grove Cemetery on Marshall Street. “It’s just foolishness.”

Goss said the destruction was reported Monday around 8 a.m. by a neighborhood woman who walks in the cemetery everyday. The case remains under investigation, but Goss said he believes there was more than one suspect involved.

While some of the headstones will simply need to be set upright again, Goss said that others completely cracked in half and will need to be repaired or replaced. He added that some markers even dated back more than 100 years.

“It created some very serious damage and whoever did it, they should be severely punished because they made a real mess,” said Alvin Strout, 74, cemetery superintendent.

Strout said the cemetery’s trustees will bring a company in this week to assess the damage done to the headstones, as well as estimate how much it will cost to repair those headstones that can be repaired and replace those that will need to be replaced.

“I’d just like to know why. I don’t know what fun they got out of destroying property,” Strout said. “Some of it is irreplaceable. A lot of them dated way back.”