Chicago's Gast Monuments shuts down, after repeated complaints of headstones never received

CHICAGO (CBS) -- For over a year, CBS News Chicago has been reporting on Gast Monuments—an over-century-old company once trusted for producing headstones for grieving families.

Now, CBS News Chicago has learned Gast Monuments has gone out of business.

What is still not clear is what will happen to all the headstones that were already ordered, paid for, and never delivered—some of which as of Monday were still sitting at one of Gast monuments' three former locations in plain sight.

The headstones are behind a fence at the decades-old business, inside some overgrown grass. They represent final markers for loved ones that never made it to their resting places.

"It just reintroduces the loss, over and over and over and over again," said Gast customer Sarah Shirley.

Shirley ordered a marker for each of her parents back in 2022. It still has not been delivered by Gast Monuments.

"I just, you know, the phones don't get answered, and the website is gone—so I started Googling, and then found your reporting," she said.

CBS News Chicago has reported on countless families in the same situation. Some, like Shirley's, have been forced to order a new stone from the company.

She is spending double what she was supposed to.

"I feel like a sucker," Shirley said. "I feel like I did something wrong—even though I didn't do anything wrong."

Then there was a listing that showed the Chicago location of Gast Monuments, at 1900 W. Peterson Ave., up for sale. A photo showed the monuments sitting inside the building.

Until just Monday, Gast Monuments had been saying they were still open and operating.

In an email sent to customers, owner Katie Gast wrote: "Gast Monuments, Inc. has made the difficult decision to retire from the memorial industry. While this transition is bittersweet, we are confident that you will continue to receive excellent care from our trusted partners in the field…. By the end of the month, you will receive an email detailing the transfer of your order to a new company."

CBS News Chicago also reached out to the Archdiocese of Chicago, which had previously said Gast was not paying them the required fees necessary for installing monuments. The question was what would happen to memorials destined for their cemeteries.

The Archdiocese said in part: "Catholic Cemeteries continues to accept orders that have followed the proper application and approval process…. (They're) allowing families to pay the old setting fee if originally contracted with Gast which is lower than the current setting fee."

CBS News Chicago also reached out to Katie Gast and her attorney. Neither of them answered.