SOLEDAD, Calif.- Family members said he was a proud veteran. Now about eight months after his death, they make an unsettling discovery at his gravesite on the Central Coast.
A local family shares their frustration and confusion over a mismatched headstone on their loved one's grave. They tell us they're still healing and grieving after burying him in a local cemetery.
The headstone reads Andrew Salinas Garcia, but it should say Alfred Holguin. Alfred's family members in Soledad, or Freddy as they call him, said this confusion is digging up a lot of emotion. Family members said he's an Army veteran and was buried with military honors last June after he lost a battle with cancer.
"He was a very proud veteran," said Freddy's sister Rosann Telles.
His plot sits right next to his brother-in-law Andrew Garcia, also an Army veteran, who passed away in November. But when Andrew's headstone arrived, it ended up in the wrong place.
"It was upsetting for my nieces because they've been waiting for a while for the plot," Telles said.
Some family members said they've known about the mistake since Friday. But Freddy's sister Rosann said three days ago, her niece called the cemetery to find out what went wrong.
"She said I feel like they're digging my dad up again and that was her biggest disappointment today," Telles said.
Family members said a few days ago they were walking by the Soledad Cemetery and thought they saw Freddy's headstone finally put in place. It wasn't until they walked a little closer, that they noticed the wrong headstone was laid on his grave.
"She was all excited because she saw the stone on top of his plot and when she looked at it she noticed it was the wrong stone," Telles said.
So on Wednesday, the cemetery switched it out. But family members are still wondering why it happened in the first place.
"Still very upset over him passing, it's devastating," Telles said.
The Soledad Cemetery is managed by five board members appointed by County Supervisor Simon Salinas. We told the group about the mix-up for the first time Wednesday night. We spoke with one of those board members on the phone. He extends his condolences to the family and plans to call a meeting with the cemetery to find out where they went wrong and how to keep it from happening again.
