Twelve headstones at Sunnyside Cemetery were toppled over late Thursday night or early Friday morning, according to city officials.

“Staff has determined that they will be able to right the stones and are in the process of doing that now,” said Parks Department spokesperson Jane Grobaty.

The Long Beach Police Department is investigating the case as vandalism but they currently have no suspects, according to a department spokesperson.

The vandalism was apparently first discovered Saturday when Julie Bartolotto, executive director of the Historical Society Of Long Beach, visited Sunnyside Saturday in preparation preparing for the society’s annual Historical Cemetery Tour, which takes place at the end of October, she said.

She counted at least six toppled headstones during her visit, Bartolotto said.

The Historical Society posted photos of the vandalism on Saturday.

“The City of Long Beach is aware and hopefully the headstones will be uprighted soon,” the society posted on its Instagram page. “These are so heavy it takes special skill to repair them.”

The toppled stones marked the graves of residents who died as early as 1913 and as late as 1965.

Approximately 16,000 people are buried at Sunnyside, including about 200 former Union soldiers and a good number of Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II.

Vandalism at Sunnyside happens periodically, every few years or so, Bartolotto said. “And that’s sad,” she said. About five years someone damaged stones with a tool, according to Bartolotto.

In 2011, thieves stole the bronze plaques from a Civil War memorial at the cemetery.

In 1994, Dean Dempsey, Sunnyside’s former owner, stole more than half a million dollars from the cemetery endowment fund to pay for a Mercedes-Benz, alimony and rent, according to the Los Angeles Times. Dempsey was later convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to four years in prison.

The theft cost the cemetery more than half of its annual operating funds, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The city of Long Beach took over management of the cemetery in 2019.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include information from the Long Beach Police Department.

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Anthony Pignataro is an investigative reporter and editor for the Long Beach Post. He has close to three decades of experience in journalism leading numerous investigations and long-form journalism projects for the OC Weekly and other publications. He joined the Post in May 2021.