Stone from child’s 1912 grave that sparked paranormal legend stolen from Morgantown cemetery

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Morgantown Police Department is asking for information after a gravestone was stolen from the Oak Grove Cemetery, but it’s not just any headstone.

The police department said in a Facebook post that the gravestone marking Harry Spitz, who was born July 9, 1909, and died Sept. 8, 1912, was recently stolen from the city’s oldest cemetery, just days after what would have been his 115th birthday.

Although the child passed away in 1912, he became part of paranormal legend in 1975 when a groundskeeper discovered a hole in the sod allowing them to the broken lid of a concrete vault with Harry’s casket and body inside.

Media outlets at the time reported that experts removed the casket and body, attempting to find what caused the vault to be unearthed, but no answer was ever found. Vandalism, methane, gas from the decaying body and other possible causes for the vault to “have been pushed up from the inside” were ruled out, the Charleston Gazette reported in 1976 .

The 3-year-old’s well-preserved body was reburied a few weeks later after scientists from West Virginia University and beyond found no conclusion. The grave is still considered a phenomenon, and its story has been told on a number of paranormal websites, podcasts and channels. Some even believe that the cemetery is haunted by the young Harry Spitz, who is buried next to his parents.

The Morgantown Police Department did not specify when the gravestone was taken, but asks that anyone with information about the its whereabouts contact the Detective Division at 304-284-7454.

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