South Dakota Police Return Tennessee Tombstone

SPEARFISH, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota authorities have returned a stolen Tennessee tombstone discovered in Spearfish and inscribed with the epitaph, "We shall meet again."

The Black Hills Pioneer reports the words on S.J. Elliot's 1888 tombstone match those on his wife's tombstone near Manchester, Tennessee. Elliot's tombstone had been reported missing a month earlier to the Coffee County Sheriff's Office, more than 1,300 miles from Spearfish.

Spearfish Police Officer Kale Nelson says a resident found it in an alley during a motorcycle rally. The city's cemetery sexton determined that it came from Tennessee by using Google.

Nelson says it will probably remain a mystery how the tombstone traveled to Spearfish. Police shipped the 60-pound stone back to Coffee County, where it arrived in two pieces. Authorities plan to have it restored and returned to its cemetery.

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