Woman continues fight with cemetery over land
She's fighting for her life and fighting for her land, but her plea for compassion has met legal complications.
WISN 12 News reporter Colleen Henry has an update on an investigation that pits an ailing homeowner against a cemetery.
VIDEO: Follow-up on Gazebo built on cemetery land
In May, Susan July showed WISN 12 News the gazebo she built as a sanctuary for her dying mother. Now her mom's gone, and July's battling her own life-threatening illness.
"I really don't want to fall down the steps and break my neck," July said.
After 23 years there, her failing health means she can't stay, but her beautiful gazebo may mean she can't sell.
July found a buyer for her home within a week. That's when the title company told her the garden gazebo was built on her neighbor's land. The neighbor is Pinelawn Cemetery.
July asked Pinelawn to grant her title to the land, saying she met the legal requirements for squatter's rights because she had fenced and used the land for more than 20 years.
The cemetery's lawyer asked for proof and suggested a formula to estimate the cemetery's loss of revenue: "...a cemetery plot is approximately 40-square-feet in size and sells for approximately $1,900.00." That rate calculates to more than $2 million an acre.
"When someone asks for your help and to give them a hand up, why do you want to shove them down?" July said.
Since May, she's collected sworn statements from friends and family, pictures of the fence -- aerial photos from the 1990s. July even sent the owner a heartfelt plea.
"Nobody wants to beg," July said.
But she's yet to get an answer.
"I don't understand why she can't find it in her heart to do this because it's not only me that she's depriving the opportunity to move on with my life, but it's the family that wanted to buy the property," July said.
WISN 12 News contacted the cemetery's owner. She declined to talk, saying her attorney would meet with July's lawyer later this week. In May, owner Christine Toson Hentges told WISN 12 News the cemetery never demanded $2 million.
"We were just showing her that cemetery property is appraised differently than other real estate," Toson Hentges said in May. "I know there's a situation here where we can be easily set up to be looking like a bad person, but this is business and this is a real estate transaction that we want to make sure it's fair and done legally."
"Now they're all packed away," July said.
For now, July lives in limbo. Her personal items are all packed and ready to move from her beloved home, where she now feels trapped.