'It is pretty bizarre': Messy camper dumps sewage at western Manitoba cemetery

Cemeteries are meant to be places to bury and honour the dead, but people in a small western Manitoba hamlet have been left wondering who would think their graveyard was a good place to dump a load of sewage. 

Don Yanick, mayor of the Rural Municipality of Yellowhead, said sometime in mid-July, someone backed a camper onto the grounds of the Holy Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery — at the outskirts of Menzie, Man. — and dropped a load of sewage onto the cemetery lawn.

"Just to think that somebody would dump their sewage into the cemetery, you have to wonder what people are thinking," Yanick said.

• 'It's senseless': Dozens of headstones toppled at Winnipeg cemetery
• 'That's a sacred ground': Man dismayed at vandalism of family gravestones

Menzie is a hamlet located along Highway 45 on the southern side of Riding Mountain National Park, about 250 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. The hamlet is largely abandoned, consisting of just a handful of homes, a row of postal boxes and a small church.

Only three families still live in Menzie, Yanick said, adding that officials aren't sure if anyone in the town noticed any suspicious activity in the cemetery last month.

The cemetery is located just outside of the community along the highway.

Groundskeeper discovered sewage 

Yanick said the mess was discovered when a groundskeeper was mowing the cemetery lawn and noticed bits of tissue and solid waste flying through the mower. 

• 'My mother's grave is now a driveway': Winnipegger shocked to find tire tracks over grave
• Cemetery vandalism 'chronic problem' in St. John's

"The guy who was cutting grass said he could smell it and it wasn't a very nice smell," Yanick said, adding that the sewage was mainly liquid and soaked into the ground, meaning there was little cleanup that could be done.

He believes the culprit was pulling an older style camper trailer, based on a broken, round tail light that was found on the ground. He said that was the only evidence left behind and he doubts the culprit will be identified. 

"[The cemetery is] not easy to get into anyway, so I don't know why a camper would have went into there, but I guess they did," Yanick said. "They're gone now so we'll probably never find out who did it." 

Yanick said an RCMP report was filed. An RCMP spokesperson told CBC News on Thursday that the sewage dump was reported to officers at the detachment in Elphinstone, Man., on July 21.

"Nobody has been identified as being responsible and it would be highly difficult to identify them unless a witness comes forward," said Sgt. Paul Manaigre in a statement, adding that the cemetery is located in a high-traffic area for campers and RVs near Riding Mountain National Park.

Yanick said that the municipality is now looking at keeping the cemetery gate locked.

As for why someone decided the cemetery in Menzie was an ideal location to dump a load of sewage, Yanick said it's anyone's guess. The lagoon in Oakburn, the next town to the west along Highway 45, has a dumping station for campers. 

"Probably figured this was more convenient to do it this way," he said. 

Still, he said, it's left locals wondering. 

"It is pretty bizarre," Yanick said. "You wonder why people would dump in a cemetery."