HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A former grave digger at a Cabell County cemetery has been indicted in a bizarre case in which a child’s casket and corpse were removed from a grave.
The Cabell County grand jury handed up the indictment this week in the case of Matthew Fortner. He’s charged with transporting unlawfully removed human remains from a cemetery and then lying to investigators about the removal of those remains.
According to investigators Fortner dug a grave in the Baylous Cemetery in Salt Rock back in February of 2025 and hit a casket. The casket contained the remains of a baby buried in 1982. Investigators say he dug up the casket and dumped it over a hillside near the graveyard.