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Senseless vandalism found on Veterans Day
COCHRANTON, Nov 13, 2009 (The Meadville Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The family of U.S. Army Cpl. Timothy J. Lauer, who was killed while serving in Iraq three years ago, has been dealt another blow -- someone has vandalized the veteran's grave at Cochranton Cemetery.
"It's senseless," a shaken Jon Lauer, 27, said Thursday. He is the late Cpl. Lauer's younger brother.
The headstone on Cpl. Lauer's grave was discovered marred with white paint around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon -- Veteran's Day -- by his father, Vince, said the younger Lauer.
The paint mars not only engravings on the marker, but a painted scene of Lauer serving in Iraq as well as a poem that's on the opposite side of the headstone.
"My dad came down to look at the site and he noticed it," Lauer said. "They (the vandals) pulled the flowers out of the ground around it so they could paint everything."
The Lauers initially were to meet a reporter at the site Thursday, but were too distraught to talk in person.
Valerie Lauer, Timothy's widow, is shaken by the incident.
"I have no idea why this happened," she said in a brief telephone interview Thursday. "I'm at a loss for words about the whole thing."
She was prepared to take her five children to put flowers on her husband's grave Wednesday afternoon after her registered nursing classes at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville. She received a phone call about the vandalism from her brother-in-law just after her classes had ended.
"I didn't believe this was happening," said Valerie. "It takes me back to the day I lost him. I have the same sick feeling in my stomach. I can't focus on anything. I'm still numb."
Jon Lauer said that when he called his mother, Debby Dye, who now lives in Texas, about the incident, she said, "I feel like they killed him all over again."
Cochranton police are investigating the matter, Jon said.
Chief Mike Phillips was out of town Thursday afternoon and unavailable for comment.
The Lauer family isn't sure if the grave was being singled out -- it's located at the rear of the cemetery and appeared to be the only one vandalized.
"We don't know if it's personal or what," Lauer said. "We don't know who might have done it."
Mark Roche, caretaker for Cochranton Cemetery, said there have not been vandalism problems at the cemetery. Cochranton police routinely patrol the cemetery, he said.
Grounds crews were at the cemetery last week raking leaves and didn't notice anything amiss, said Roche.
"I'm completely taken aback by this," he said.
Cpl. Lauer's headstone should be able to be cleaned, though it make take some time, according to Greg Borland of Borland Memorials of Leeper, the company that fashioned the headstone.
"We'll have to take it out, strip it with solvent and then recolor it," Borland said. He estimated the cost at approximately $1,000.
Timothy J. Lauer was 25 when he was killed Oct. 14, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq, while serving on a convoy resupply mission. He was a member of the U.S. Army's Company C, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas.
Lauer and two other soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near Lauer's vehicle.
Lauer was a 2000 graduate of Cochranton Junior-Senior High School and the Craw-ford County Area Vocational-Technical School.
He is one of three Crawford Countians killed in action either in Iraq or Afghanistan.
James D. Mowris, 37, of Conneaut Lake, was killed Jan. 29, 2004, when a weapons cache exploded outside Ghazni, Afghanistan.
David M. Veverka, 25, of Jamestown, was killed May 6, 2006, when a makeshift bomb exploded near his unit's cargo truck during combat operations in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, on May 6, 2006.
There is a Cpl. Timothy J. Lauer Scholarship fund, established in 2007 through the Crawford Heritage Foundation of Meadville. It currently awards a $250 scholarship for post-secondary education annually.
Tax-deductible check donations may be made out to: Crawford Heritage Foundation of Meadville with Cpl. Timothy J. Lauer Scholarship noted on the memo line. Donations should be mailed to Crawford Heritage Foundation of Meadville, P.O. Box 908, Meadville, Pa., 16335.
To see more of The Meadville Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.meadvilletribune.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
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