Broken headstones and human bones litter a parcel of land behind Wesleyan Memorial Cemetery where a local businessman wants to erect an office building for his construction company.

        Local residents, some of whom have family members buried in the Northside cemetery, say the debris proves there are still graves on the site and, therefore, any commercial development should be prohibited by the city of Cincinnati.

        But city officials say their hands are tied unless they can prove that people are still buried on the parcel.

        That's not an easy task, since most of the Civil War-era cemetery's original burial records have been lost or destroyed. Furthermore, people have been finding bones scattered throughout the Colerain Avenue cemetery for years, the result of new grave sites being dug over old ones.

        “Even if there are (people still buried on the site), we don't know what, if anything, the city can or can't do about it,” said Assistant City Prosecutor Charlie Rubenstein, who is looking into the case.

        Mr. Rubenstein, who said he will use old property maps to try to determine where people have been buried, got involved in the case because his office is prosecuting cemetery President Robert Merkle.

        Mr. Merkle was charged with three counts of theft and one count of failure to maintain an endowment care fund for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from an endowment for the cemetery's upkeep.

        Mr. Merkle also secured a mortgage from Cheviot Building & Loan Co. on two parcels of cemetery land, which he claimed were unused.

        When he failed to pay back the loan, Cheviot foreclosed on the properties and sold them at auction.

        Ruben Peppers, a Cincinnati-area businessman, bought one of the parcels for $6,000, and now wants to build an office on the site.

        Mr. Peppers said a Cheviot loan officer assured him the property was virgin land. Officials at Cheviot could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

        “I bought the property under the assumption that it was free of graves,” Mr. Peppers said at the site Monday. “We own the property now, and we're planning to build an office building here.”

        Before he begins construction, Mr. Peppers must first obtain the appropriate building permits from the city.

        If local community members have their way, that won't happen.

        “My mother's family is buried here,” said Albert Toepfert, who has helped raise money to pay for grounds upkeep and cutting the grass. “We're just trying to do something decent here by preventing these graves from being desecrated.”

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