Document text
CLOUDY Temp: 56 °F Wind: NNW at 5 mph Saturday, June 21, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend May 25, 2003 Jackson County sheriff�s Detective Colin Fagan would like some help in solving a 32-year-old mystery over where this intricate headstone for Aggie Webber belongs. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Aggie Webber, rest in ... where? She lived for 3 months, but the mystery of why her headstone has been held in storage lives on By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune The victim has been dead more than 130 years and investigators have little to go on — a slim manila folder of research that has turned up no answers, a tattered tag deputies use to mark found property and a headstone with no grave. This is no ancient murder, though. It’s a forgotten tombstone that has sat in storage at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for decades. "It’s the ultimate cold case," said Jackson County sheriff’s Detective Colin Fagan, looking at the intricately carved marble slab resting in his office. It memorializes Aggie Webber, who died in 1869 when she was 3 months old. He wants to solve the mystery of why her headstone is at the sheriff’s office, where her grave site is and how to get the marker back to the grave. Advertisement "All of us are quite troubled that she’s resting without her headstone. It’s not representing her," Fagan said. He added that it is a crime to take a tombstone or otherwise desecrate a grave. According to a sheriff’s department property tag yellowed with age and taped to the tombstone, a deputy collected one marble tombstone for an unknown owner July 21, 1971, to "hold for proof of ownership and safekeeping." The headstone, with a carved relief of a dove and the inscription "Aggie, daughter of J. & A. Webber, Born Jan. 5, 1869, Died Mar. 8, 1869," languished in storage until it caught the eye of new property clerk Anne Greene in 1983. "I would see it in evidence and think ‘What can I do?’," Greene said. "I want her to have her headstone back." Greene found the original police report for the case number listed on the property tag. It was a traffic stop in which a deputy found marijuana and charged the driver with drug possession. The report didn’t mention a tombstone. Greene tracked down the man arrested in that case, but he knew nothing about a headstone. She called the deputy listed on the property tag, J. Davis, but he had long since left the department and remembered no cases that involved finding or seizing a tombstone. Another longtime deputy, Spencer Smith, now a county medical examiner, vaguely remembered deputies finding a headstone under a bridge in Gold Hill in the early 1970s after a flood. Greene couldn’t track down any details on that case that might link it to Aggie’s stone. Greene combed county death records looking for Aggie’s death certificate and searched probate records to find J. or A. Webbers that might have been Aggie’s parents. Death records didn’t go back that far and Greene didn’t turn up any likely relatives for Aggie. Greene worked with the Southern Oregon Historical Society, local genealogists and cemetery record keepers, but hit only dead ends. When C.W. Smith was sheriff, he took the tombstone on TV to seek public help. People shared ideas about where to do more research, but the leads led nowhere, Greene said. "This one has bothered me," she said. " I think about it a lot." When Fagan became a detective last summer, Greene tapped him to help in her mission. He hit the Internet, checking genealogy Web sites and a national headstone registry. "I haven’t had the time to research it like I would like to," Fagan said. He would like a volunteer to tackle the mystery and would provide work space, a phone and a computer at the sheriff’s office for the search. Interested volunteers or people with information can call Fagan at 774-6815. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] . Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Rogue Valley Auto Finder Rogue Valley Job Finder --> Rogue Valley Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times