
Screenshot from Trollinger's hidden camera. (Image source: WGHP-TV)
Rebecca and Robert Trollinger lost their son, Rylee Mark, in February 2013 when he was only 3 months and 10 days old.
The gravesite of Rylee Mark Trollinger. (Image source: WGHP-TV)
"He was born with a cleft lip and palate," a tearful Rebecca Trollinger told WGHP-TV in High Point, North Carolina. "He went in for surgery on that and didn’t make it out."
As grieving family members often do, Rylee Mark's mom and dad placed decorations at his gravesite — holiday items, pinwheels, flags.
But last September, the couple noticed items were going missing from their son's gravesite. And it kept happening; the Trollingers counted 31 missing decorations.
After sheriff's deputies and staff at Alamance Memorial Park told them there was no evidence that the items had been stolen, the couple took matters into their own hands.
“We had absolutely enough," Robert Trollinger told WGHP. "We decided we had to catch somebody, somehow."
So they installed a hidden camera.
The resulting video showed a woman approaching Rylee’s gravesite over the Fourth of July weekend and taking off with a handful of decorations.
A screen shot from the Trollingers' hidden camera. (Image source: WGHP-TV)
A screen shot from the Trollingers' hidden camera. (Image source: WGHP-TV)
Randy Jones of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect is Clara Long Mann, who is "about 70 years old."
When investigators stopped by Mann's house, they said they found almost all of the items that went missing from Rylee Mark's gravesite.
“Oh, there’s no doubt in our minds that there are some more cases outstanding here," Jones told WGHP. "We just got another report come in this morning, as a matter of fact, from the same cemetery."
Mann was charged with misdemeanor larceny, the station reported. Her first court appearance has been scheduled for August.
Rylee Mark's mom and dad said his decorations are now back where they belong.