Gravedigger stole body parts to use as smoking accessories

Police say a gravedigger stole body parts including a skull and a thigh bone from broken casket at a church cemetery and took them home as smoking accessories.

"While he was digging a grave, a casket was broken open, so (investigators) believe he took the body parts to make an ashtray and a pipe," Police Lt. Kevin O'Brien told the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg. He said a police report didn't identify the grave, which was at St. Bernard's Cemetery.



Keith Chartrand, 30, of Fitchburg, also is accused of killing his wife's dog. Police charged him with removing a body from a grave and cruelty to animals.

Fitchburg District Court Judge Arthur Haley III ordered Chartrand held on $50,000 bail at a court hearing on Wednesday where Chartrand told the judge the charge against him was "bogus."