A cemetery with no bodies? Owner who moved grave markers now faces civil suit

LAKEMONT, Ga. - A judge ordered a Rabun County property owner to allow descendants connected to a century-old cemetery to make regular visits, while a civil dispute continues over whether anyone is actually buried there.

Hundreds of small cemeteries on private land are scattered across our state.

Even if they don’t own the property, Georgia case law allows family members to visit those cemeteries as long as they do it regularly and maintain the grounds.

Some of the tombstones from the late 1800s that were moved by a Rabun County property owner.

The Eden Cemetery in Lakemont has been around for more than 100 years, with a few dozen grave markers memorializing the passing of some of the original members of the community, the Ellerds, Taylors, and Harkins.

"My great-grandfather is James Watt Ellerd, Junior," said James Cunningham. "He was buried in 1885. And he’s rested there since."

An earlier picture of Eden Cemetery taken by family members.

Or has he? One fact is certain. His tombstone — and dozens of others — are no longer there.

"It's just devastating," said Shirley Harkins, another descendant.

Starting in 2021, a new property owner Lauren Versaggi filed criminal trespass reports with the Rabun County Sheriff's Office about vandalism in the cemetery, saying the top of a coffin "had been pulled back" and later "headstones had been moved." No one was ever arrested.

This summer, Versaggi said she had all the markers transported to an unrelated cemetery to prevent further damage. The ground below remained untouched.

Georgia law says before removing a burial object like a tombstone you have to have a study from an archeologist. Develop a plan to notify all the descendants. Even hold a public hearing.

Descendants of the people whose headstones were moved filed a civil suit demanding they be put back where they've been for the last 100 years.

The FOX 5 I-Team interviewed a half dozen descendants. None said they had any idea the tombstones were moved until they visited the property this summer.

"I'm really upset that someone would do this," said David Carswell.

"It doesn't matter to me that it's a modern grave site or an ancient grave site," complained another descendant Dee Dee Arrowood. "You do not do this without at least letting us know about it."

That's why the descendants filed a civil suit against Versaggi and her company Lake Rabun Lodge, accusing her of "desecration of the graves by removing the headstones..." and keeping "no record or evidence of where the bodies were in relation to the stones…" She’s not accused of any crime.

Property owner Lauren Versaggi testified in a hearing for the civil suit that she moved the markers because she was worried about vandalism.

But Versaggi responded to the civil suit with an unusual defense: how do we know there were ever any bodies there in the first place?

"It was my understanding that there was no one buried there," she testified in a court hearing. "That these monuments were just relocated at the time that the lake was flooded."

She provided no evidence to the court to back up that belief. Neither did her attorneys. The FOX 5 I-Team checked with Georgia Power, the utility that built Lake Rabun in the 1920s. They had no record of a cemetery being flooded there.

An email between Versaggi and a Rabun County employee asks if she needed a permit "to reposition the graves within the same property?"

The descendant’s attorney Michael Cummings pointed out that Versaggi has benefited from paying no taxes on that portion of her property because it’s listed as a cemetery on tax records. He also revealed an email she sent to the county asking if she needed "any form of permit to reposition the graves within the same property?"

The county responded "there are no permits required to improve or relocate the graves that are on your property. You are free to proceed forward with the proper burial of those graves."

Instead, she only moved the markers, and to a place she doesn't own, 15 miles from her property.

"I used my own money and dedicated my own time to taking them to a place where I thought would honor them in the most loving way I could," Versaggi explained from the witness stand.

This is what the Eden cemetery looked like when the FOX 5 I-Team last visited.

Versaggi agreed not to move forward on any development of the land until the lawsuit is resolved. Plans submitted to the county show a proposed well in the area near the cemetery.

Judge Bill Oliver ruled that family members could visit the property monthly while the lawsuit continues. They also have to pay for a survey of the land to show the exact location of the cemetery tract.

Versaggi’s attorney Taylor Wilson sent the FOX 5 I-Team a written statement.

"For years, the headstones on this property were vandalized, desecrated, and broken by unknown trespassers, resulting in multiple reports to law enforcement. The headstones were neglected and subject to further desecration. Various individuals in the community expressed that these headstones were moved from their original location when Lake Rabun was constructed, but that any associated gravesites may still be in their original locations. To protect the headstones and the dignity of those whose life they memorialize, the landowner sought permitting and direction from the County and various other government agencies and was instead advised that no permit was required, and the landowner was free to proceed in relocating the headstones. At the landowner’s expense, the headstones were safely transported to a nearby cemetery overlooking a lake, in a tranquil and beautiful location where they will be cared for and kept safe. At no time was evidence of actual interment of human remains discovered during this process. Throughout this process, the landowner has sought to respect the dignity of the headstones and treated them with the utmost care."