Photos show damage by vandals at 300-year-old NJ cemetery

METUCHEN — The search goes on for the vandals who toppled over historic gravestones in this Middlesex County borough.

Tyreen Reutuer, a member of the board of directors of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society, said Mayor Peter Cammarano updated the board on Thursday at their meeting about the investigation into the vandalism.

"They haven't found who it is yet, but the (Metuchen) police are working very hard asking a lot of questions, checking all video cameras that are in the area and talking to people," Reuter said.

Ten gravestones in the 300-year-old Old Colonial Cemetery in Metuchen were knocked over a week ago by unknown vandals.  The Historical Society, which maintains the graveyard, has created a donation page to help with repairs to the damaged gravestones.

The cemetery is the final resting place of 66 veterans of the Revolutionary War.

"We can fix them It's not great what happened. It's very difficult to fix them properly because they're so heavy and you need to choose the right materials," Reuter said.

The Nathan Bloomfield marker is one that may not be able to be repaired. Bloomfield was a private who served in the State Troops during the Revolutionary War. He died Oct. 30, 1823.

"It's a brownstone that wasn't in really great condition to begin with. When it went over it shattered in a bunch of places so there's probably not a lot we can do for that one," he said.

"The stones that got damaged were taller so a vandal couldn't get any leverage on them. They didn't go for some of the smaller ones that are older and easier to get over."

Reuter asked anyone with information about the incident to call Metuchen police at 732-632-8500.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.