Florida Couple Learns Cemetery Plots They Purchased 2 Decades Ago May Already Contain a Body

“I think it’s obscene,” Sue Artiga, one of the owners of the plots, said while speaking to local outlet WFLA

NEED TO KNOW

• A Florida couple said they were told the cemetery plots they purchased in 2006 may already contain graves
• Sue and James Artiga said the City of Tampa initially declined to refund them their $1,800 purchase price, which Sue called “obscene,” while speaking to local news outlet WFLA
• The city eventually issued the couple a full refund, according to the couple

A Florida couple got an unwelcome surprise when they learned that the cemetery plots they had purchased nearly two decades ago may already contain human remains.

Sue and James Artiga say they bought two burial plots at Woodlawn Cemetery in Tampa in 2006, according to local news outlet WFLA.

After moving away from the area, the couple said they planned to sell the plots online, transfer ownership to the buyers and use the profit to make different end-of-life arrangements.

However, Sue and James said they then received some startling news from the City of Tampa, which had acquired Woodlawn Cemetery three years prior: a metal probe suggested someone may already be buried in the plots they had purchased.

While speaking to WFLA back in May, Sue said that the City of Tampa offered to give them two new plots, but refused to refund them the $1,800 that they had initially paid for the grave sites.

“I think it’s obscene,” Sue told the outlet, adding, “That’s not gonna fly.”

In a statement to WFLA at the time, the City of Tampa said it was working to find a solution while also protecting taxpayers from potential liability for decisions made when the cemetery was privately owned for more than a century.

The situation changed, however, when Sue received a recent phone call from a city representative.

“They called and said, ‘I need an address because the City of Tampa is going to be sending you a check for $1,800,’ ” she recalled, according to WFLA.

Added Sue, “I almost fell out of the chair because they had just said the month before that there was nothing they could do and that was it. That was the final thing.”

Lawrence Hollyfield, the Communications Coordinator for City of Tampa Parks & Recreation, told PEOPLE in a statement: “We were pleased to be able to accommodate them.”

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Sue said the dispute over the plots came at a particularly stressful period of life, explaining that her husband has been fighting cancer.

“They did cause us a lot of stress, and I’m already under stress with James with cancer,” she said. “I didn’t need any more stress. I said, ‘God, it’s up to you. If we’re supposed to have this $1,800, it will come, and if not, just leave it.’ And it came.”

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