LAFAYETTE, Colo. — Lafayette City Council has laid out a plan, giving families who own burial plots at the historic Lafayette Cemetery four options, after the city paused casket burials at the site last year.
City leaders said a routine burial in September 2025 accidentally disturbed what appeared to be small fragments of human remains from an older, unmarked grave, which lead to the casket burial moratorium. City officials said they have found inconsistencies between historic paper records and where caskets are actually buried underground.
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On Tuesday night, after nearly nine months of discussion, Lafayette City Council unanimously passed a resolution that gives plot holders four options moving forward:
- Sell plots back to the city for $3,500 per plot
- Keep plots for burials of cremated remains
- Exchange plots for burial sites at the city-owned Coal Creek Memorial Cemetery
- Apply for a rare exception to allow casket burials if conditions are deemed safe, based on data including ground-penetrating radar findings
The resolution requires families to get in contact with the city about their plot by October 31 and make a decision about which option they would like to choose by January 31. City council members said staff will continue to meet with each plot holder to create a plan for their family.
According to city records, there are approximately 450 plots reserved for use by plot holders at Lafayette Cemetery. Of those, the city said about 100 plots have been or are planned to be discussed during individual family meetings. An additional 200 are assigned to plot holders with no contact information on file, and the remainder have not responded to city communications.
For Stephanie Torrez and Desiri Anderson, the uncertainty of their family's burial plots is reopening old wounds. More than 25 years ago, the sisters buried their brother and his fiancé at Lafayette Cemetery after they were killed in a car crash.
The sisters said their family learned shortly after the burial that the two had been buried in plots belonging to another family. They said their bodies were exhumed and reburied at the cemetery.
"It was a very unfortunate thing that happened to us," Anderson said. "We don't want anyone to have to go through what we went through, to have them exhumed and moved."
They said as part of resolving the mistake, the city provided their family with two additional cemetery plots. Now, like more than 100 other families, they're left with uncertainty over their loved ones' future resting places.
"I don't want to deal with this for the second time. I don't want to deal with this when we're in that state of mourning," Torrez said. "I just feel like the ball has been dropped a lot."
