Verdugo Hills Cemetery landslide

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On February 10, 1978, after days of torrential rains, a massive landslide occurred in the Verdugo Hills above Burbank, California. The result was the unearthing of a large section of the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and corpses being strewn throughout the area. The rain had been pouring into holes made by groundhogs and saturated the earth. When the slope gave way, rotted caskets broke open and their contents were carried away.

Ocording to Dr. Thomas Noguchi's book "Coroner" some 100 bodies were sent plunging into homes, businesses and city streets. He even sites that one such body was wedged into the entrance of a supermarket. The resulting task of trying to identify the remains and rebury them under their correct markers is documented in the book. When they arrived, bodies were everywhere. Some, he states were "grotesquely standing upright."

The situation was handled and the bodies were all put back in their proper places, but this incident still raises questions regarding the practice of below ground burial of human remains and their impact on the environment.