This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The parents of a Lehi boy who died last year after a tombstone fell on him is suing the cemetery association.
Carson Dean Cheney, 4, was posing for photos with family and friends at Glenwood Cemetery, a historic graveyard in Park City, on July 5. Carson was hiding behind the 4-foot-tall tombstone and popping up suddenly to make people smile when suddenly the stone fell on him after he applied only a "light touch" to it, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit Carson's parents filed against the cemetery on Tuesday in 3rd District Court.
The child suffered injuries to his head, chest and abdomen and was taken to Park City Medical Center, where he died.
His parents claim the Glenwood Cemetery Association had negligently tried to fix that headstone several years before. The cemetery replaced rusted-out steel dowels in the 200-pound headstone with a bead of Liquid Nails-type construction adhesive instead of new dowels, according to the lawsuit.
The parents are seeking more than $300,000, though the exact amount is to be determined at trial.
The coarse gravestone, which was about 4 inches thick, marked the grave of Michael Horan, who died in 1889.
"I don't know where the family is, or if they even exist anymore," Bruce Erickson, president of the Glenwood Cemetery Association, said shortly after Carson's death. "We normally do not do anything with the headstones because they are property of the family."
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