The photographs his mother placed in heart-shaped frames showed Malachi Darcey holding his two daughters. Babette Darcey put those photos on her son's West Point grave so he could always be near his girls.

Then, one day, the pictures were gone.

Gone, too, were a half-dozen other sentimental items, including wreaths and crosses, the mother had dutifully placed on her son's grave.

"We were just crushed," Babette Darcey said Friday. "What kind of person would take stuff like that?"

Police say that person is June C. Clark, a 38-year-old Clinton woman who is accused of stealing more than 80 items from graves at several Davis County cemeteries.

This week, after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor count of theft for taking items from West Point Memorial Cemetery, Clark was sentenced to 18 months probation, and ordered to pay a $623 fine and undergo mental evaluation.

Clark's sentencing came as prosecutors filed even more theft charges against her. She now stands accused of stealing from cemeteries in Clinton and Syracuse.

"I think she just had an infatuation with angels and figurines and stuff," said Clinton police Sgt. Todd Kelly, who helped arrest Clark in March. "She decorated her house with them and gave them as gifts."

After receiving a number of complaints about items missing from gravesites, Clinton police placed an ornament with a tracking device in the cemetery. The ornament led them eight miles away to Clark.

Police recovered roughly 80 items from Clark's home believed to have been stolen from cemeteries. Darcey and 10 other families have claimed about 65 of them so far.

They are small items, Babette Darcey said, but they mean a great deal.

Darcey has been a regular visitor to the West Point cemetery since August, when her 30-year-old son was beaten to death outside a West Haven bar.

In December, as Darcey planned to remember her son's Christmas morning birth by placing a "Happy Birthday" sign at his grave, prosecutors announced no charges would be filed in his death because they could not make a strong enough case against any of the man's attackers.

The thefts at her son's gravesite only added to the pain of a family in mourning, Babette Darcey said.

"We haven't gotten over Malachi's death," she said. "Then to have somebody do that ... it was really tough."

Clark's father, Frank Rees, said he understands Darcey's grief.

"A person's loved ones are special," Rees said. "I understand that and so does my daughter. She didn't mean to upset anything. She thought it was no big deal and it turns out it was."

Rees, however, disputed the allegations against his daughter.

"What they said happened wasn't the way it was," the man said. "They were laying by a Dumpster. My daughter knows it was wrong to bring it home, but she didn't think there was any harm in it because it was going to be thrown away."

Rees said Clark has often visited cemeteries since her mother's death, following a stroke in 2008.

"She likes to go to the cemeteries and just kind of reflect, thinking about her mom," Rees said. "We all make mistakes. She didn't mean to offend anybody. I know people won't believe that."

Babette Darcey recovered most of her missing items, including a Celtic cross with Malachi's name written on the back.

"She had scribbled it out," Darcey said. "But those pictures — that was the hardest thing and we didn't get them back."

Malachi Darcey's grave has been bare since May, when his family removed the remaining ornaments as part of scheduled cleaning of the cemetery. Darcey said her granddaughters have worried about putting new items out, fearing they might be taken.

This weekend, for Memorial Day, Babette Darcey said she will again adorn her son's grave.

As part of her probation, June Clark has been ordered to stay away from the West Point cemetery.

afalk@sltrib.com