Infant's headstone found abandoned at Mableton gas station

MABLETON, Ga. - A Mableton man is on a mission to reunite a headstone he found with the family to which it belongs.

The man found it in the parking lot of the Exxon Gas Station in Mableton.

“Right there behind the dumpster,” Smokey Lynam said.

It’s not uncommon to find Smokey Lynam at the Exxon gas station on Mableton Parkway a few times a week.

“It was just laying there. Tossed out there, Lynam said.

It was an unexpected find Thursday that shook up his normal routine.

“I saw it and looked at it and I realized it was a couple of months old,” Lynam said.

Lynam found a grave headstone memorializing Brandon Douglas Berry in the parking lot. According to the headstone, the baby was born in March 2008 and died just four months later.

“If it was anyone else’s baby, you would think you would do the right thing,” Lynam said.

Smokey said he couldn’t leave it there and is now on a mission to reunite the headstone with the appropriate family.

“It didn’t fall off a truck. Evidently, somebody took it,” Lynam said.

Smokey said he’s checked a few cemeteries, but nearby, there are so many.

“I don’t know. There are plenty of them around here and I don’t have the time or gas money to go,” Lynam said.

The owner of the gas station is reviewing the surveillance video which will help fill in the missing pieces to this puzzle.

“That’s not a way to treat anything,” Lynam said.

Anyone who may know anything that could help reunite the headstone with the family should email Smokey Lynam at Inlineoffire@hotmail.com.

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