‘Person of Interest’ Identified in Case of Damaged Historic Gravestones at Hawkins Church, Tennessee

Surgoinsville Police Chief James Hammonds used Google on Tuesday to learn the identity of a man who allegedly vandalized several historic tombstones recently in the cemetery of one of Tennessee’s oldest churches.

Hammonds said he has identified a “person of interest” who is suspected of damaging several historic graves with a wire brush recently at the New Providence Presbyterian Church on Stoney Point Road in Surgoinsville. The church was founded in 1780, and many of the graves in the cemetery date back to the 1700s.