Mother looking for answers after learning spot where her daughter was supposed to be buried is empty

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — A local mother is grieving what she calls the ‘second loss’ of her daughter.

“Losing a child is hard enough, but twice is unthinkable,” said Christine Berezanich, after finding out her daughter, Italia Teresa, is not buried in the spot she’s been visiting for nearly 15 years.

Italia died when she was just two months old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, known as SIDS.

“The only thing I have of my daughter are pictures and memories, and that’s it,” Berezanich said.

The day Italia was buried, Berezanich didn’t have enough money for a headstone.

“I put a wooden cross that was made by a family member there, it was there for about five, six years. Weather got to it, and it was removed,” she told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek.

She said around 2011, she purchased a headstone from a company, who placed it at the cemetery, Holy Name Cemetery in West Mifflin. When she saw it, Berezanich said it was nearly 100 feet away from the spot she was visiting.

She was appalled.

She said she called the company immediately, and said they told her that was the location the cemetery recorded her daughter being buried.

Berezanich didn’t believe it.

“Devastated, disgusted, angry,” she said.

For years, she couldn’t get anyone to help her. Finally, she said the cemetery used a probe in 2021 to check the gravesite. She was told there was no casket there, and there was no sign that the ground had ever been dug into.

Finally, after years of trying other avenues and being told it could cost thousands of dollars, she found a funeral home to help her.

She contacted Finney Funeral Home two weeks ago.

Since Italia is a baby, they agreed to donate their time and resources to do a disinterment.

That happened Wednesday, and Berezanich’s gut feeling was right.

“We were informed by the gentleman at the cemetery that they could not find an indication that something was buried in that grave,” said Angela Dickey, Funeral Director at Finney Funeral Home.

“I was going to a place that had no body,” Berezanich said. “I was talking to the dirt. I wasn’t talking to my daughter. Mother’s instinct told me that’s not where my kid was at.”

Despite Italia dying more than 20 years ago, there would still be signs of a burial if this was the correct spot.

“It’s not easy to miss and it is made to last a very, very long time,” Dickey said. “It would not have disintegrated.”

The cemetery is currently owned by the Catholic Parish Cemeteries Association. They didn’t own it when Italia was buried there, but Berezanich feels they need to make this right.

“I want them to pay for the anguish they put me and my family through,” she said.

Berezanich and Dickey know Italia’s buried in the cemetery. The next steps right now aren’t clear, but Dickey said they are going to be speaking with the cemetery to figure that out.

Berezanich wants the cemetery to pay for the urn and a necklace, so her daughter can always be with her.

“I’ve went through this death for 21 years,” Berezanich said. “I just want to put it to bed because it’s eating me up for 21 years.”

Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek reached out to the Catholic Parish Cemeteries Association for comment, but did not yet heard back.      

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