A woman’s body was stolen from her grave last week, 16 years after she was laid to rest in a New Jersey cemetery.

Police are searching for the people responsible for stealing the body of Pauline Spinelli, who was entombed with five other family members in a mausoleum located in a secluded area of Atlantic City Cemetery in Pleasantville, N.J. She died in 1996 at the age of 98.

“I’m going to miss grandma, even though she’s dead,” Pauline’s grandson, Rocco Spinelli told NBCPhiladelpia.com. “They’re sick people, they’re crazy.”

Police say sometime late Thursday or early Friday of last week, someone removed the lock from the mausoleum, got inside, smashed a heavy marble slab, pried open an aluminum casket, and left with Spinelli’s body.

Cemetery officials discovered the empty coffin around noon on Saturday and alerted police to the theft.

“The glass was broken by some type of means,” Pleasantville Police Capt. Rocky Melendez told NBCPhiladelphia.com. “The person who came here came with the tools necessary to break into that.”

Police have no leads, but they believe several people likely used heavy duty tools to break into the mausoleum and steal Pauline from her final resting place.

Family members say they believe that a cult has something to do with the theft of Pauline’s body.

“What can these people possibly be believing in to take a 16-year-old dead body?” Spinelli said. “I don’t want to see somebody desecrate her body, chop her up or make some kind of voodoo dust out of her.”

Police say they're investigating all possible motives in the case. 

Melendez said other areas of the state have dealt with similar incidents before, including in 2006 when police arrested Michael Mastromarino, the CEO of a New Jersey human tissue recovery firm and the head of a body snatching ring. Mastromarino and his employees netted millions of dollars illegally harvesting human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from more than a thousand individuals awaiting cremation.

Police say they are reaching out to other police departments in New Jersey. There are no security cameras near the Spinelli mausoleum.

“If you’re done with her, bring her back,” Spinelli said. “If anything works in their minds, grandmom’s going to haunt them for the rest of their lives.” 

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CHICAGO -- Firefighter John Francis Minich died after saving many lives from a burning building 60 years ago, but until Saturday there was nothing to mark his grave site.

“One of the lives saved that day [was] my mother, pregnant with me,” said Debbie McCann, who discovered Minich’s unmarked grave and brought it to the attention of officials.

The Chicago Fire Department along with the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 joined with McCann Saturday afternoon to honor the anniversary of Minich’s death with a permanent grave marker.

See the original report at NBCChicago.com

His name is etched in granite at the Stockyard memorial and his badge is mounted on the Wall of Honor at the Quinn Fire Academy in memory of his heroic actions. However, there was nothing to honor the hero in the All Saints Cemetery, where his body was laid to rest.

“This was something that had to be made right,” said Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 President Tom Ryan. “He gave his life and made the ultimate sacrifice for the people he served, and that needed to be recognized.”

McCann’s mother was one of 12 people Minich rescued during an arson fire on Oct. 25, 1952. After carrying the pregnant mother to safety, he took off his crucifix and put it in her hand, said McCann, who considered him her guardian angel.

Shortly after the rescue he collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where he died. Doctors described the cause of death as a heart attack and smoke inhalation. Minich was 43 years old.

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McCann began searching for her guardian angel and tracked down his grave site at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, only to discover there was no marker in place for this hero. She then worked with the cemetery’s field manager John Stewart to correct the oversight.

“She went to great lengths to contact our office,” said Ryan. “She originally planned to pay for the headstone on her own.”

Ryan said he told her it was not necessary and motions were put in place for the permanent marker that now marks the place of a Chicago hero and guardian angel.

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Construction at a portion of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has stopped in San Jose, Calif., because crews have unearthed pine boxes filled with the bodies of those whose families couldn't afford their proper burials, NBC Bay Area has learned.

The pine boxes date back to between 1875 and 1935, and were discovered in February when construction crews were doing seismic survey work, Santa Clara County counsel Michael Rossi said Tuesday.

For more, visit NBCBayArea.com.

He said the county had no idea there was a cemetery on the property.

"It’s a potter’s field or a pauper’s graveyard. Between 1875 and 1935 at Valley Medical Center, people who died indigent, whose families couldn’t be found were buried at this site," Rossi said.

There are as many as 1,445 bodies on the site. The county filed a petition with the court to get permission to remove at least 100 of the pine coffins to make room for construction.

The county is looking into hiring an archaeologist who specializes in this type of find, Rossi said.

If anything identifiable is found, Rossi said they would publish the information in the newspaper to give families time to claim the remains.

After that, the county will ask the court's permission to dispose of the bodies in accordance to law.

A county map from 1932 shows the cemetery, but by 1958 there was no indication it existed. By 1966, there was an employee parking lot on top of the cemetery.

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An officer investigates evidence at Mount Hope Cemetery.

A father is in custody, accused of attempting to sacrifice his own son in a San Diego area cemetery.

Joseph Ramirez, 30, took his family to Mount Hope Cemetery Saturday afternoon and told them his dead grandmother told him to sacrifice the 8-year-old boy, according to San Diego police.

Officers released a report stating Ramirez had brought candles to the cemetery. When one of the candles broke, he used a piece of the broken glass to slash open his son's forearms.

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Ramirez then slashed his own forearms.

Corey Granberry, a medical assistant, was visiting her godson's grave when she saw a woman, clothes covered in blood, calling for help. Granberry jumped in to help along with her best friend Jaymisha Pires.

"Out of all these people were passing her by, she almost got hit by a car, all these people that were just passing her by," Granberry said.

She said somehow Pires was able to convince Ramirez to let the child go.

Granberry's medical training kicked in.

"I grabbed the little boy sat him down on the curb grabbed a shirt and wrapped it up on his arm," she said.

When officers arrived, they transported Ramirez to a nearby hospital for treatment. Once he's released, officers say Ramirez will be booked into county jail on charges of child abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.

The boy was taken to Rady Children's Hospital for treatment.

Granberry said she was inspired earlier in the week by a group of construction workers who jumped in to help a family injured in a rollover crash.

"I think sometimes people are put in places. And honestly, we were at the right place at the right time," she said.

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Photographs of Charles Powell, right, and Braden Powell are displayed during their funeral services in Tacoma, Wash., on Saturday.

A sheriff and his sergeant in Washington state have bought burial plots next to Josh Powell's boys in order to block family members from burying him next to them, according to a media report Wednesday.

"The bottom line is, Josh Powell will not be near those two boys," Pierce County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Troyer said in an interview with a Seattle-area radio program called the Ron and Don Show.

Josh Powell's surviving relatives wanted him to buried at the same cemetery as the two sons he killed, the city manager in Puyallup said earlier Wednesday.

But that does not look like it is going to happen.

Troyer and Sheriff Paul Pastor used their personal money and funds from Crimestoppers Tacoma-Pierce County to buy plots that are on either side of the boys, according to a report on the radio station's website that was confirmed by Troyer on Twitter:

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Crimestoppers is soliciting money on its website for the purchase of the plots.

"It's disgusting that a murder suspect would be buried next to his victims," Pastor said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Powell's relatives visited the public Woodbine Cemetery and selected a plot about 25 feet from the boys, City Manager Ralph Dannenberg told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday. They haven't paid for it yet, and any sale is being put on hold because the parents of Powell's missing wife have promised legal action.

"We don't have any rules or procedures regarding refusing plots to anyone," Dannenberg said. "We're going to wait to see what the outcome is in court."

Powell was a suspect in Susan Powell's 2009 disappearance from their home in West Valley City, Utah. He later moved with his sons to near Tacoma, Wash., to be close to his parents. On Feb. 5, he attacked his sons with a hatchet and set his rental house on fire, killing himself and his sons, Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5.

Cops: Josh Powell murder-suicide house was sham set up for social worker visits

The boys were laid to rest at Woodbine on Saturday. Attorney Anne Bremner, who represents Susan Powell's parents, Charles and Judy Cox, says she would seek a temporary restraining order to block Josh Powell from being buried there.

"For him to be buried near those kids is just unthinkable," Bremner said. "For God's sake, for them to lose Susan first, and then the boys, and now this? Just give these people a break."

Powell's sister Alina did not return an email from the AP seeking comment.

Meanwhile, Powell's father, Steve Powell, who is awaiting trial in Pierce County, Wash., on voyeurism and child pornography charges, filed a motion with the court saying he does not wish to speak to the FBI or other law enforcement about his son’s case or the disappearance of his daughter-in-law.

Mark T. Quigley, Steve Powell’s attorney, told the Salt Lake City Tribune that the notice, filed Tuesday, was common in criminal trials to protect rights against self-incrimination. It was prompted by a visit last week in which Steve Powell reportedly rebuffed FBI agents.

"It’s simply a statement to law enforcement that says my client doesn’t want to talk," Quigley told the paper. "That’s [Steve Powell’s] right. I don’t think belligerent has anything to do with it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Eric Gay / AP

A flag sticks out of a new gravesite at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Tuesday, Jan. 24, in San Antonio.

The Department of Veterans Affairs found 123 burial problems at military cemeteries across the country, including cases of misplaced headstones and at least eight cases of people buried in the wrong gravesites at several cemeteries, according to a review by the department's National Cemetery Administration. 

The findings come just months after revelations of prevalent burial problems, including misplaced remains, at the Army-run Arlington National Cemetery. 

The Washington Post first revealed the details of the VA audit on Monday.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Gary Tallman said grave markers were removed by contractors who installed fresh turf to repair the damage caused by soil erosion or ground shifting. Headstones were shifted when contractors returned them to the gravesites. As a result of the mismarked graves, family members of veterans were incorrectly placed in the wrong gravesite.

The VA did not release the names of the families affected to protect their privacy. Tallman said the department has contacted or will be contacting them to apologize.

"We shouldn't be making errors," he told msnbc.com. Tallman added that at no point were any of the remains improperly handled. 

To prevent similar problems in the future, contractors will be required by the VA to leave the markers lying horizontally at the gravesite rather than remove them during renovation work. Officials also said gravesites and their surroundings will continue to be regularly inspected.

The VA conducted its audit in 85 of its 131 cemeteries, reviewing 1.3 million headstones and markers. Tallman said the 123 problems represent only a tiny percentage, given the scope of the audit.

"We certainly would desire all the numbers be zero," Tallman said, "but unfortunately that was not the case."

The final report will be released once the Golden Gate and San Francisco National Cemeteries have completed their reviews.

The audit was launched after employees of the National Cemetery Association found in July 2011 that a contractor at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery had shifted 47 headstones one plot away from the correct gravesite. Four family members of veterans were incorrectly placed in the adjacent gravesite as a result.

Cemetery staff notified the families affected and, in October 2011, reset the 47 headstones and relocated the incorrect burials. Similar corrective actions were taken or will be taken at the other cemeteries involved in the audit: Dayton National Cemetery in Ohio, Santa Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico, Beverly National Cemetery in New Jersey, Loudon Park National Cemetery in Baltimore, Philadelphia National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Houston National Cemetery in Texas.

Following the revelations of widespread burial problems at Arlington, some members of Congress had called for the transfer of the cemetery to the VA. 

A recent review of nearly 260,000 grave markers at Arlington revealed no further evidence of misplaced or misidentified gravesites.

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