CONWAY COUNTY, Ark. — A Conway County man is devastated after items from his late wife’s gravestone were stolen. It happened at the Wilder Cemetery off of Highway 92 just north of Plumerville.
Wade Ledbetter stops at a graveyard in Conway County along his route to work in Little Rock. “I pass this route everyday,” he says. “I always look over give it a wink and a smile and a wave.”
It’s where his 26-year-old wife, Ruth, is buried. “Her favorite color was yellow,” he says, looking down at a picture of her grave-site.
After her tragic death in 2017, he decided to honor her by decorating it every holiday.”This one is for Halloween,” he says. But he slowly started to notice something was missing each time. “They stole the little statue,” he says. “I had an angel sitting on a stone – and they stole that first.”
Wade says many of the items stolen aren’t costly, but hold a deep place within his heart. “It’s the principle of going out to someone’s final resting place and it’s so solemn to me,” he says.
Now, he wants stiffer penalties for people caught stealing from grave sites. “Be respectful of other peoples loved ones and put yourself in their shoes,” he says.
He hopes the next time he comes to visit his late wife, those sentimental, irreplaceable items will still be there. “I had to defend her, I couldn’t take action in this life to keep her alive, but I’m going to make sure that no one does this to her solemn resting place,” he says.
