Baby's remains missing from Mississippi graveyard after county workers showed up to dig ditch

TUNICA COUNTY, Mississippi -- The remains of a stillborn baby are missing after officials at a Mississippi graveyard say county workers dug a ditch without permission.

"It feels like a dream. You know how you just wake up to a nightmare, and you never come out of it? That's how I felt when I woke up," Amanda Reed said.

Reed is finding it hard to come to grips with reality.

"That's not fair to me or the child. It's sad," Reed said.

Reed's stillborn baby's remains are missing. Nine years ago, she gave her daughter the name Heaven Sent Reed before she was buried at the Sutton Cove Graveyard.

"We come and put flowers, keep it clean," Reed said.

On Tuesday, May 31st, instead the grave, all that was left was a ditch.

"They violated the cemetery. They're violating me and the loved ones out there. They're violating everyone," Christopher Thompson, owner of the property said.

Neighbors spotted Tunica County workers at the cemetery last week working to address flooding concerns.

"The county came and dug the ditch out so the water wouldn't be in our yards," Dorothy Wilson said.

However, Thompson, who owns the Grant Funeral Home, said the county literally crossed the line.

"I didn't authorize no one to dig up there," Thompson said.

A diagram shows where Heaven Sent Reed was buried, but it was not clear if work crews knew she was there.

"I don't think the county knew that the grave was that close to the ditch," Wilson said.

Deputies are investigating several reports filed with the Tunica County Sheriff -- an investigation Reed hopes will put an end to her nightmare.

"I'm waiting on answers," Reed said.

WREG reached out to county leadership to see what they had to say about the grave mistake, but the television station never heard back.