Teenager charged over tomb raiding

A 17-year-old has been charged with raiding a tomb and stealing the head from a corpse in a cemetery in the United States.

Nickolas Buckalew is being held on a $100,000 (€77,370) bail after pleading not guilty to disturbing the remains of a person.

Police chief Richard Keith said an investigation was launched when someone complained about information they had heard on the street.

He said at first police did not believe it but when officers got to the cemetery, in Morrisville, Vermont, they found someone had broken into a tomb, broken open the casket and removed a man’s head.

Police said they found remains and the tools used to break into the tomb in a bag near Buckalew’s home not far from the cemetery.

Mr Keith said the victim’s widow was in shock. “She did not want any information. She did not want to know any details,” he said.

Court documents said the suspect allegedly talked of using the man’s head as a “bong”, a pipe to smoke marijuana.