New Owner, Same Problems

Loved ones aghast at conditions in cemetery

By Robert Jordan
Dunn Daily Record

Harnett Devotional Gardens is once again under new ownership, but the problematic issues plaguing the Fairground Road cemetery remain and, according to customers, have gotten worse. The North Carolina Cemetery Commission was hopeful the new owner, Faithful Heritage Holdings LLC, would correct the issues so many complained of, but the complaints keep coming. Some family members are so disgusted, they are now completing their own lawn maintenance before and after burial at family plots.

A freshly cut path among weeds led guests to a recent graveside service. The trail was cut just hours before — by a member of the grieving party.

Joan McElroy and her sister were visiting the graves of family members Friday, saddened by the fact this once great burial ground now looked as it did. The weeds overshadowed the graves they visited. McElroy said she would return Saturday with a weed trimmer to fix her family’s plots.

“I am not coming out here and have his grave looking like that,” McElroy said.

Her husband, Perry, died in January. It took her months to get his remains properly put to rest, but only weeks for his grave to be hedged by weeds.

The cemetery has faced grave concerns for years.

Missing funds from trust accounts, the cemetery in receivership, deteriorating driveways, crumbling walkways, sunken graves, hit-and-miss lawn care, a leaking roof in a foul-smelling mausoleum and other complaints have all caused family members to wonder what happened to the perpetual care once advertised.

Harnett Devotional Gardens is defined on its Facebook page as “an established perpetual care cemetery, (that) offers burial products and services to families, both before and at the time of need.”

“Our cemetery is one of the most beautiful in all of Harnett County,” Devotional Gardens touts on its Facebook page. “Our trust fund allows us to continue maintaining the grounds, even after no more space is available.”

Several family members with plots at the cemetery disagree, complaining of little to no care given to the graveyard.

The Daily Record went to the property to investigate.

Stained ceilings and walls inside the mausoleum gave clues to a leak that saturated the carpet floor after a rain storm Friday. More stains under tombs showed the rain infiltrated them, too, washing out a substance that turned its black marble walls white with streaks.

Odors of mold and mildew permeated the mausoleum’s inner chapel. Rags and trash were on the floor and outside near niches for cremated remains.

The grounds outside were even worse. Weeds grew around the graves, stretching taller than the flowers that marked them. Some vegetation was nearly knee-high. Holes of sunken dirt posed traveling hazards to visitors.

“This used to be the prettiest cemetery there was in the town of Dunn,” said McElroy’s sister. “It has been a mess for a long time.”

“On Mother’s Day … we came out here and I put flowers on mama’s grave, it had not been cut. And you can hardly see the graves and it’s sad,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion as she looked out on the sprawling burial grounds high with weeds and low with sinkholes. “It is sad … I don’t understand it.”

The Daily Record reached out to the local office at Harnett Devotional Gardens and the executive office of Faithful Heritage Holdings in Gainesville, Florida.

The person who answered in the local office denied any difficulties with the ownership in maintaining the facility. “We have a person mowing the grass, and he’s working when he can. We plan to plant grass seed to make things greener,” she said.

No official with Faithful Heritage Holdings responded to requests for comments as of press time.

The Daily Record reported on these problems in March 2021 after people complained of buying tombstones that weren’t delivered. The North Carolina Cemetery Commission found a “total deficit of $135,063” was missing from Harnett Devotional Gardens’ trust accounts, according to an inspection report submitted to the commission on Oct. 21, 2020. Lenual Primus, who purchased the cemetery in 2016 and owned it at the time, served as a member of the commission.

A new buyer was supposed to remedy the trust fund deficiencies, according to minutes of a meeting in July 2021. The commission recognized the new buyer, Ruth Thornquest, at a meeting in January.

Thornquest’s Faithful Heritage Holdings owns 26 other cemeteries across the country. She could not be reached for comment.

The Daily Record continues to investigate these problems.