Call Kurtis Mystery: Abandoned Grave Marker Found Thousands of Miles from Grave

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) - The marble monument meant to memorialize the life of a man who died 81 years ago was found dumped on the side of a road in El Dorado County. Ron Tarasiewicz spotted the marker that was blackened around the edges while driving by. He pulled over, carefully scooped it up and brought it home.

"This is something sacred to any family," he said. "I wasn't going to leave it there."

Afraid the grave for J.L. Crecelius who is pictured on the stone went unmarked, he made it his mission to return it.

"I know if it was one of my loved ones, I'd want it back where it belongs," he said. "There were times I'd talk to it and say, 'Dude, I'm going to find your family one day.'" After five years of trying, he turned to CBS13. '

Who is J.L. Crecelius?

We started our quest to find out more about J.L. Crecelius who was born in 1858 and died in 1934. We scanned El Dorado County cemeteries enlisting the help of volunteers at the El Dorado County museum. Volunteer Jeanette Barrett says her team searched century old county records for this name, but couldn't find anything.

Lost Souls Cemetery

Lost tombstones are more common than you might think. The El Dorado County museum created the Lost Souls Cemetery. It's a garden outside the museum where dozens of abandoned tombstones found on roads and on people's properties are placed. Barrett leaves us with an open invitation to return with this grave marker if we can't find its home.

Our Search Expands

We expanded our search nationwide and got a hit in the small town of Miller, South Dakota. We found a Jacob Lewis Crecelius who was born and died the same year. He was buried in the GAR Cemetery. I reached out to the man who runs that cemetery who ran out to check the Crecelius family plot. He relayed to us that Jacob Lewis has a tombstone. It appears our trail runs cold yet again.

Monument Maker's Theory

We brought the stone to Royce Ann Ruhkala Burks of Sacramento's Ruhkala Granite and Marble Co. Her family has been making monuments for sixty years. She confirmed it's a genuine tombstone and after studying it, came up with the theory that Jacob Crecelius of South Dakota has a second headstone.

"Because maybe the kids lived in one place, and maybe they said, 'I want to have stone where I live,'" she said.

Mapping Out the Family Tree

We traced the family tree learning Jacob Lewis of South Dakota had a son named Hiram. We learned he moved from South Dakota to California during the great depression. He lived inside a South Sacramento home before he died in 1985. His only son, Walter also died. Our trail runs cold yet again.

Biggest Clue Yet

Then we struck gold with our biggest clue yet, at a library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There we found a book called "Our Coulter Clan and Allied Families" By Steven Coulter. Inside this book, we found the Crecelius family history. Flip to page 147 and we found a picture of Jacob Lewis Crecelius with his family. We asked Genealogist Curt Witcher to compare that photo with the picture on the tombstone.

"He has a fairly pronounced nose, a straight but long nose," he said. Similarities with the nose, the closeness of the eyes and the shape of the face, leads Witcher to believe these pictures are of the same person.

Living Relative

We continued mapping out the family tree and tracked down a living relative in Butte County, California. When we first contacted Great Granddaughter Denise, she admitted she was creeped out that we knew so much about her family. As she looked at the picture on the stone, her eyes welled up with tears because she remembers seeing photos of this same man when she was a little girl.

"I lived with my grandparents and they had this vanity with all of our family pictures in it. I played with them. I seen all those pictures," she recalled.

It's Him!

Denise then pulled out the only photo she has left of her Great Grandfather Jacob, showing him when he was a much younger man. Putting the three pictures next to one another, she is 100% certain this grave marker belongs to her great grandfather.

"I believe it with all my heart," she said.

Why Isn't It in South Dakota?

One theory of why it's not in the GAR Cemetery in South Dakota; all of the grave markers for the Crecelius family plot now match even though the family members died decades apart. Was Jacob Lewis' original stone swapped out as other family members passed away so they'd all look the same? Denise also zeroed in on the blackened edges around the stone and believes it smelled charred. "You can see how it was burned in a fire," she said. She says Jacob's son Roy died in a house fire in South Dakota in the 1970s.

"The house burned down with him in it. My father Walter and my grandfather went to claim anything that was left," she said.

Denise thinks her father and grandfather returned to Sacramento with this gravestone.

Bringing Our Findings to Ron

We returned to Ron with our findings and the book with the Crecelius family history. He's amazed at the similarities in the pictures on the stone and in the book.

"Oh my God," he said. "That does look like him younger. That looks a lot like him."

He's happy to hear we found Jacob's family ending his five year mission. .

"To me that's peace. It can rest in peace," said Ron.

One Question Remains

"How did it end up on the side of the road?" Ron asks. That we may never know. Denise knows where it belongs now. She plans to return it to South Dakota and her Great Grandfather's grave.

"I think it's gone full circle and needs to go back," she said. "I think it's where it should be."