SPRINGVILLE TOWNSHIP -- For about two years, a bench painted like an American flag sat next to the grave of Staff Sergeant Andrew Stevens at Lynn Cemetery just outside Springville.
The marine was killed in a crash on Route 29 in Springville Township back in 2015 when his pickup truck was hit by a water truck.
Since then, you can see plenty of mementos including flags, flowers, and figurines surrounding his grave.
What's not there anymore is that American flag bench. Some family wondered where it went, whether it was stolen or just missing.
Newswatch 16 got in touch with the president of the Lynn Cemetery Association; he said new rules and new signs had been in place for months, telling people about what was allowed next to graves and what wasn't. At this cemetery, the signs say anything more than a foot and a half away from the stone will be removed. Cemetery officials say they notified one member of Stevens' family about the violation, but the bench stayed there.
So after several months, when it was time to do a cleanup at the cemetery before Memorial Day, cemetery officials removed the American flag bench. And just like an American flag, it was ceremoniously burned.
"It was removed and nobody had any knowledge of where it was," said Amanda Novitch, Stevens' sister. "If it needed to be removed by the family, we would have been more than happy to do that, but we just wanted to know where it was."
Novitch, along with cemetery officials, hopes others can learn from this situation about what can and cannot be put next to gravestones.