Mortgage Broker in Moncks Corner, SC

|Updated: Nov. 9, 2024 at 7:39 AM EST

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - The alleged delay in installing gravesite markers at a Moncks Corner cemetery is causing upset among loved ones.

Edna Essington and her brother, William Champion, purchased burial plots at Plantation Memorial Gardens in 1987. As of April 23 of that year, the plot and marker were paid for, according to internment records.

Champion passed in August of 2023. The family designed his marker with a steam engine train car, the same figurine he was buried with.

Fifteen months later, his marker is still missing.

“We signed a contract with them, my parents, my brother, myself, my sister and her husband,” Essington said. “It’s been so long since Bill passed away in August, to now, and nothing.”

Essington claimed she spoke to the cemetery staff in October and they told her the foundry did not have a set date for delivery or installation.

“Waited, waited and waited. I called again, and they told me the foundry they ordered his headstone from was holding it up,” Essington said. “I don’t know what to do from here. I really don’t.”

In a state hearing in September, overhead company Faithful Heritage Holdings testified issues with the bronze company which makes certain gravesite markers. The group also testified to having a full-time on-site worker who is responsible for installing markers that were delivered to the grounds.

Photos provided by loved ones at the cemetery show dozens of markers worth thousands of dollars, uncovered and waiting to be placed.

One of those markers belonged to William “Bill” Bradshaw, Champion’s nephew, who lost his son in February.

“My son’s came in four to five weeks ago, instead of setting it, they waited four to five weeks and thankfully did it today,” Bradshaw said. “Why should we wait four to five weeks? You’re paying three or four grand for these markers. For them to sit out here on the ground and nobody mounts them is disappointing.”

His son’s marker was installed on Friday by cemetery staff.

“It’s been frustrating as a family to go through this, we want closure for these graves, and you have to wait months and months for it to happen. It’s not fair,” William “Bill” Bradshaw said.

“I just can’t settle down and say he’s safe. It’s very frustrating and it makes me very angry,” Essington said. “Other people have paid their money too. Is theirs the same as ours? Have their things been paid for, and they’re waiting around too?”

In 2019, another family claimed a similar issue where their prepaid headstones were not installed.

Plantation Memorial Gardens did not respond to repeated calls for comment from Live5News.

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Waves of color lit up Lowcountry skies the night of Oct. 10, thanks in part to a geomagnetic storm that caused an aurora borealis, aka the Northern Lights, to appear much further south than usual.

It was the second time this year the spectacle reached South Carolina and other parts of the Southeastern U.S.

An aurora borealis is caused by magnetic storms that are prompted by solar activity like solar flares, according to NASA. When charged particles from the sun enter Earth's magnetic field and interact with the nitrogen and oxygen in the upper levels of the atmosphere, the particles give off different colors.

Similar phenomena occur around the South Pole, where they are known as aurora australis, or the Southern Lights.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a strong geomagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection — when gas bubbles are ejected from the sun's outer layer — earlier in the week caused the lights to appear Oct. 10 as far south as Alabama.

This wasn't the first time this year that people across the state witnessed the natural light show. In May, many South Carolinians were able to witness the attraction — some for the first time.

A potential downside to the stunning sight is that the same solar activity that causes auroras can also have negative effects on communications and satellite infrastructure. The solar activity carries the potential to disrupt satellite and high-frequency communications, power grids and GPS services.

Power grids weakened by the recent hurricanes and navigation systems used in recovery efforts were of particular concern, NOAA said.

The Space Weather Prediction Center — the NOAA office that monitors solar activity and geomagnetic storms — had updated FEMA and other agencies involved in disaster relief efforts on the situation.

Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster with the prediction center, said the chances of seeing an aurora over South Carolina the night of Oct. 11 are much slimmer.

"There is a very low likelihood of G4 (Severe) storm levels again tonight — so the major concerns with technological infrastructure operations and hurricane relief efforts is less," Dahl said in an email to The Post and Courier. "There are still some issues that are a possibility such as GPS degradation periods and satellite operations because even though storm intensity has lowered the atmosphere still has to recover."

"So, tonight has much lower chances of any aurora materializing over South Carolina," he added.