Apopka police investigating vandalism, theft of headstones at local cemetery

APOPKA, Fla. — Two mothers in Apopka say they’re furious after their sons’ gravestones were vandalized over the weekend and one of them was stolen.

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Apopka police officers responded to Edgewood Cemetery on East 1st Street at 8 p.m. Saturday for reports of damage to a burial headstone.

The victim told responding officers that the damage was done to a family member’s headstone.

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The next day, police went back to the cemetery after it was discovered that a second headstone had been damaged and removed from the cemetery completely.

Apopka police say they’re actively investigating both “appalling crimes.”

A video clip shared to social media shows a group of teens shooting at the headstones and throwing one of them at the other before stealing it.

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The graves belong to 20-year-old Carnelious Dennison and his six-year-old brother Camari.

Carnelious was shot and killed in 2018. Camari died in 2017 when his bike was hit by an SUV.

“The hurt is not only for my son, it’s for his brother also,” Camari’s mother Monica Zow said. “They are supposed to be resting here. This is their final destination and they can’t even rest.”

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The brothers were laid to rest together. Police say their families have been devastated by the lack of empathy displayed by the suspects.

”It just makes me feel like I’m reliving what happened to my son on October 23rd,” Carnelious Dennison’s mother Tequila Cook said. “Takes me back to those emotions…the frustration and hurt.”

Cook says she thinks this weekend may not have been the first time vandals visited the grave sites.

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“I normally sit down, and when I did sit down, it was wet and I saw brown stains,” Cook recalled from a previous visit. “It alarmed me that someone had been out here and they urinated on his grave.”

Both mothers say they’re seeking justice for their sons and calling on police to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“At this point, I’m praying that this could bring some closure or something for me,” Cook said.

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“I pray that whatever time comes behind this, I hope that they throw the book at them,” Zow added. “Because this is disrespectful.”

Both moms are asking anyone with information on the case to contact police.

Meanwhile, they’re trying to find a way to replace one of the tombstones and repair the damage done to the other.

Click here for the GoFundMe organized to help the family.

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