A West Virginia gravedigger faces arrest for reportedly violating the sanctity of an infant’s grave, leaving the child’s remains exposed at the cemetery where he was employed. Authorities state that the baby’s clothing and casket were carelessly discarded over a hill after the gravedigger inadvertently disturbed the boy’s final resting place while excavating another plot, as detailed by police and 911 callers.

“We were here decorating graves for Easter,” a female caller can be heard saying in a 911 call obtained by local NBC affiliate WSAZ. “It’s like someone dug a grave up and there’s a baby,” a man says. “The casket’s thrown over a hill.”

Matthew Fortner, 49, found himself in custody on Wednesday, courtesy of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Office. He faces serious allegations, including the displacement of a dead body and the intentional withholding of information regarding the disturbance of human skeletal remains. Court documents reveal a not guilty plea has been entered, with a bond amounting to $5,000 established for the incident that occurred on March 27.

“This is not what I expected to find,” the female caller said that day, per WSAZ. “We found baby clothes,” the woman added.

Cabell County Sheriff Doug Adams expressed that his office was deeply affected by the unsettling discovery at Baylous Cemetery in Salt Rock, emphasizing their relentless efforts to identify those accountable following the initial report of the incident last week.

“It’s bothered them and weighed on everyone’s minds,” Adams said.

Upon receiving the initial call, law enforcement began their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident. At that point, it remained uncertain if the infant boy, only a few days old at the time of his passing, had been taken to the cemetery or exhumed by an individual.

“We scoured that entire cemetery,” Adams said. “Looking to see if there were any graves that had been disturbed and we couldn’t find any. So [we were] wondering if that child was buried in that cemetery or if it was brought from somewhere else.”

WSAZ reports that the infant involved tragically passed away in 1982 and was laid to rest adjacent to a site that Fortner was excavating for a different burial. The allegation reveals that he opted to discard the child over a hillside close to his grave rather than reinterring him. Reports suggest that Fortner may have damaged the boy’s casket.

“It takes a sick individual, in my opinion, to desecrate a grave and mess with a corpse, period,” Adams said.