Call Kurtis Investigates: My War Hero Dad's Grave Is Sinking

VALLEJO (CBS13) - It's a place to grieve, a place to remember, and a place to honor our loved ones after they die.

But in this place, the pain runs deep for Raymond Wenger and his family every time they show up to visit his father's grave.

"To me it really hurts to see it," said Wenger.

They have to clear the weeds and wipe-clean the headstone of the World War II Veteran.

"I don't believe he'd be too happy with it," he said.

Driving through Sunrise Memorial Cemetery you'll find toppled over tombstones, overgrown weeds, and graves sinking. One headstone stone has even been propped up with wood.

"In the last five years, it's really deteriorated," said Wenger.

The cemetery admits on a posted sign that its endowment care is severely underfunded.

So how did this happen?

Families pay into the endowment when they buy burial plots, we've learned it has about 800-grand in it.

State law says cemeteries can only spend the interest, that fund generates.

We've learned since 2005, Sunrise has been fined six times for not filing its required annual endowment reports to the state on time.

"We're always concerned if things aren't managed property," said Joyia Emard with the Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.

RELATED FILES: Accusation | Deed Transfer to Church

The bureau is now going after its license for failing to maintain the cemetery property, having no maintenance standards, and causing offensive deterioration.

The state didn't want to specifically talk about this case while it's going through the process other than to say, "Well, there is an accusation filed against them, and it documents all the things our inspectors found there," said Emard

Cemetery Treasurer Buck Kamphausen wouldn't talk with us on camera at a court hearing on the case but said the invested endowment money stopped generating enough interest to take care of the cemetery and he can't legally touch the $800,000 in principal sitting there.

Now a creative fix; in February Pastor Chris Cowan of Hillcrest Baptist Church of Vallejo's became the new owner of Sunrise Memorial.

"Buck had no access to that money. As a church, I do," said Cowan.

And because it's a church, the state no longer can stop them from tapping into that endowment fund.

Cowan says he plans to use $200,000 to $300,000 from the fund to repair the cemetery.

"We can legally, without any pressure from the state, fix the cemetery for the community," said Cowan.

But he admits when that endowment money is gone, it's gone.

Raymond and his wife don't want to wait and see what happens then, so they had his dad's grave of 46-years dug up, and transferred August Wenger's remains to the Sacramento Valley Veteran's Cemetery, which opened decades after his death.

Now in a place where his family knows he'll forever be honored.

"His eternal life will be taken care of," said Wenger.

The church said it didn't pay anything for the cemetery. They hope to hold onto it for no more than ten years and turn it into a district cemetery, which means taxpayers would fund the upkeep.

In the meantime, Cowan says they're mowing the lawns but are waiting on the outcome of the state's case before making any major repairs.

We're still waiting for the judge's ruling.