US man’s gravestone missing for 150 years was being used to make fudge; recognised during auction sale

In an unusual and bizarre case, a gravestone that had been missing for almost 150 years was recently recovered from a house in the US where it was being used to make fudge. The 5-feet-tall gravestone was being used as a marble slab to make fudge for a living and has recently been returned to its original position in a Michigan cemetery.

The tombstone has the name Peter J Weller engraved on it. He was a Lansing pioneer and businessman who died in the year 1849. As per the Friends of Lansing’s Historic Cemeteries (FOLHC), the tombstone had gone missing 26 years after Weller’s death in 1875, when it was moved to Mt Hope Cemetery. FOLHC is a group that takes care of and maintains historical cemeteries in Michigan.

Meanwhile, FOLHC President Loretta S Stanaway told CNN that she was informed about the tombstone in August. She was also surprised to know that a woman had been using it to make fudge for a living and she was recently moved into a care facility for Alzheimer's. “Life and Times of man whose monument was used to make fudge,” reads a Facebook post by FOLHC.

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After being moved into the care facility, the woman’s belongings were listed for auction. However, Brad Stoecker of Epic Auctions & Estate Sales was shocked after finding a five-foot-long white slab in the house. On realising it was a tombstone, they removed it from the sale.

“No one in the family knew how or when they came to be in possession of it. We had no way to find out whether the family knew it was a legitimate monument or if they thought it was just a throwaway or something,” Stanaway told CNN. She further added that on enquiring, the homeowners mentioned that they used the backside of the slab to make desserts. But, how this granite tombstone reached home in Okemos is still a mystery.

For the unversed, fudge makers use big square marble slabs to cool their creation by transforming the liquid portion into solid.