The cemetery says the crypts were returned, but family says they never gave them back.
Tito Bastianelli and his brother Emidio Bastianelli . Tito had promised two crypts to Emidio, but the cemetery sold them to another family, they said. A devoted Catholic — father to seven, grandfather to 18 and great-grandfather to 16 — Bastianelli frequently visits his deceased relatives’ graves at St. Catharine’s Cemetery and Mausoleum in Sea Girt.
Tito’s wife Maria died suddenly from a stroke in June 2009, and he again returned to the cemetery, but the only crypts available were in a separate area that Tito knew his wife didn’t like, Patricia Bastianelli said.“He found out that a lot was available to build a private mausoleum about 50 feet away from the crypts of his parents and in-laws,” she said.“He planned to move his parents and his in-laws into that mausoleum,’’ Bastianelli said.
Tito used to go to visit the grave every day, Bastianelli said, and he still goes once a week, but what happened during a visit in March 2019 was a shock. Tito was unable to find the deed, but he and his family asked the cemetery to provide proof that Tito returned the crypts. The cemetery has not produced it, the family says.
“Tito felt the situation was all still a terrible error and the cemetery would handle it quietly,” Patricia Bastianelli said. Soon after, the situation became urgent. Tito’s sister-in-law, to whom he promised the crypts, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.