FRAUD INVESTIGATION | Former cemetery worker in Louisville accused of 'stealing from the dead' | Local News

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A former employee at a Louisville cemetery is accused of stealing from the dead by taking money for headstones she never provided.

The Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed an active fraud investigation after several complaints were filed this month against former Green Meadows Cemetery employee Tiffany Watkins.

"You don't do that to people. You just don't," said Kristy Bratlett, who said she paid Watkins about $5,000 for a three-foot monument for her husband's grandmother, Augusta Martin. "It's hurtful and fills me with rage."

Martin died in September 2019, and Bartlett said she paid the monument in full in one lump sum in March of this year. But Wednesday morning, it was hard for her to find Martin's grave at the cemetery off Shanks Lane as an empty cement slab is all that sits on the ground.

Bartlett's tale is far from the only one. A few plots away at Green Meadows, Lavette Thomas' mother Jesse Jones was laid to rest. Jones' died in November 2017, but it took the family until May 2020 to fund a marker for her grave. Thomas' daughter, Shay, finished paying off the nearly $2,400 for a headstone with plans to surprise her mother on her birthday.

But all she has to show for it is an invoice marked zero due, a rendering and orange spray paint in the grass.

"We are a family that lives paycheck to paycheck," Lavette Thomas said, beginning to cry. "We struggle. That's why it took us so long to be able to pay that headstone. To have someone take advantage of you in a time of grieving it's just sickening."

And there's more trouble across town at Louisville Cemetery off Polar Level Road.

Bank records show Alfreda Tucker's $1,650 check was cashed the day after she wrote it in March, but five months later, nothing marks the spot where her nephew lays at rest.

"Wrong is an understatement," Tucker said. "Words cannot express the feelings that I had, the emotions that I had when I figured out what she'd done."

A Facebook post connected these families when it tied what they called a scam back to Tiffany Watkins, who is the daughter of Terry Watkins, one of the owners of Green Meadows Cemetery.

"She was in charge of monument sales," Terry Watkins said. "Some money came up missing, and she was terminated for that."

Terry Watkins said at least $12,000 was missing from his business, but he's not sure exactly how many people didn't get their headstones, because he can't find all of his daughter's records.

"Tiffany went through a very bitter divorce, and that's when her whole personality changed, to be honest with you," Terry Waktins said. " I suspect that's why ... We hadn't had any problems or concerns out of her in 16 years. "

Terry Waktins said his business partners fired his daughter on March 4, but Green Meadows did not notify police about the missing money.

"Mainly, the partners did it because of me," he said. "They didn't want to to prosecute Terry's daughter."

With no investigation, Kentucky business records show Tiffany Watkins launched her own monument company days after her termination. She filed papers with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office for Awesome Love on Monuments on March 11.

In a phone call interview with WDRB News, she denied stealing from her father's company or her customers. She said her new business is not a scam, but she experienced delays filling orders related to the coronavirus and setting up credit agreements with wholesalers.

"The production of stones have started for the ones that have been approved by the families," she said in a statement. "The families will be receiving their monuments. Sorry for the inconvenience."

While LMPD has launched an investigation due to a number of complaints, no charges have been filed against Tiffany Watkins.

Bartlett, the Thomas family and Tucker were all skeptical of Tiffany Watkins' story. They said they've been given a number of excuses for months.

"She was telling us because we had black granite it was going to take a while because they had to get it off the mountain," Bartlett said.

"I wrote her a check in March," Tucker said. "She dodged my calls then told me she placed an order and they were behind because of COVID, but the wholesaler said it wasn't paid for. She lied, she lied, she's stealing from the dead."

Green Meadows said it will replace any incomplete monument order contracted by Tiffany Watkins prior to her termination March 4.

"I apologize as her father for any families that may have been hurt," Terry Watkins said.

That's good news for the Thomas, whose contract dates back years but leaves others in flux as their deal was with Awesome Love On Monuments, the company Tiffany Watkins started after she was fired.

Tucker said she purchased a new headstone for her nephew through Green Meadows and is working with her bank to get a refund on the $1,650 paid to Tiffany Watkins.

As of this reporting, Bartlett has gotten no refund and said she has little faith in getting a headstone at all.

"In September, it will be a year our grandmother has no headstone," Bartlett said. "Not that the family was negligent and didn't buy it. We bought it, and we don't have it."