Woman claims husband's $10K gravestone vandalized

More sorrow for a Charlotte woman who says her husband's newly placed gravestone has been the target of a random act of vandalism.

It’s been one year since Anne Coleman's husband Willie passed away.

“My husband passed last year, March 19, unexpectedly from back surgery at Carolina Medical Center,” Coleman said. 

To cope with his loss, Coleman says she does a lot of gardening and spends a lot of time with the couple's dog Sammy.

The two visit Willie’s grave daily at Mount Olive Presbyterian Cemetery.

“Just a very peaceful and relaxing situation, you know, when I go there,’ Coleman said. “I go every day, twice a day to visit my husband.”

As Coleman and Sammy were leaving their house to visit the cemetery for the second time Tuesday, Coleman never imagined she would find the couple's $10,000 head stone damaged.

“My husband was such a wonderful man; he wouldn't hurt a fly,” Coleman said. “And I just couldn't understand why someone would pour something on the headstone. It’s only been out there two weeks.”

But with the one-year anniversary of Willie's death just weeks away, Coleman says she and Sammy are learning to forgive and forget.

“Today, I said, I’m putting it in the past and moving forward,” Coleman said. “It's already done and everything will be fine because I got my faith and trust in God. And it will be fine. It will be fine.”

After Coleman and friends made several attempts to remove the substance and weren't able to do so, Coleman decided to file a report with CMPD.

She's waiting to hear back from the company who designed the headstone to find out if the damage can be reversed.