03/28/2024
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By Erin Smith

An Elizabethtown woman was charged for damaging a cemetery in the Kelly community on Monday. The Garden of Memories cemetery located on NC 53 in the Kelly community suffered an estimated $3,000 in damages in the incident.

Bladen County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Larry Guyton said damages occurred to five tombstones when Allanda Darine Parrish, 66, of 107 Alexander Street in Elizabethtown, drove her car into the cemetery. 

Guyton said the incident was reported between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday. 

“A man living across the road from the cemetery heard a loud crash and looked out and saw a car in the cemetery where it shouldn’t be,” said Guyton. 

He said the car had run into five different tombstones and damaged them. Guyton said when Parrish was confronted she drove off towards White Lake. 

White Lake Police Chief Bruce Smith stopped the vehicle and Bladen County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived on the scene where Parrish’s vehicle was stopped. 

Parrish is charged with five counts of disturbing a grave, one count of driving while impaired and one count of reckless driving to endanger. She was released from the Bladen County Jail under a $4,000 secured bond. 

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