UT Woman's New Home Came With An Old Mystery, 19th Century Tombstone Found

A Utah woman recently found a tombstone from the 1890s in the yard of her new home after the snow melted enough to see the ground, reported CNN.

Elise Armand was sifting through her belongings in her storage shed when she noticed the tombstone on the ground between the building and her garage.

She closed on her Salt Lake City home just last month and hadn't ever noticed the stone before because it was covered in snow.

Three names of three children were engraved on the headstone. Two of the names belong to a set of twins that died in 1898 and 1899.

After Armand investigated deeper, she found that the children's grave is in Mount Olivet Cemetery located across the city.

She told CNN, "My first thought when I saw a tombstone in my yard was that this doesn't belong here and it must have been stolen."

She contacted the cemetery and they said the grave stone had been replaced so they didn't want it back.

According to a neighbor, the home was previously owned by someone with the last name as those on the headstone.

Armand found out that the three children were all less than three years old when they died and were the original homeowner's aunts.

Armand said, "What happened is her sister had paid to replace the stone as it got worn and wanted it for her garden in the Seattle area. But before she could get it to Seattle, I guess her husband said 'I don't want the tombstone in my garden,' and then she never figured out what to do with it."

Armand contacted local historic preservation groups to find a new home for the stone.

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