GREENSBURG, Ind. — Authorities are trying to find out who toppled dozens of tombstones, some estimated to have weighed two tons, in a rural Decatur County cemetery.

Some 30 to 40 gravestones were destroyed at the Shiloh Cemetery, said Decatur County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Henderson. Some dated from as early as the 1850s.

Henderson said he suspects a group of people entered the cemetery one night last week and vandalized the markers. Cemetery officials estimated it would take three or four people to topple some of the stones.

“I don’t understand it,” Henderson told the Greensburg Daily News. “I don’t know what joy somebody could get out of defacing somebody’s grave.”

Caretakers and trustees discovered the damage, estimated at $30,000 to $40,000, Sunday.

Bill Fenley, one of the cemetery trustees, said it would be difficult to place the stones and pieces of markers back in their proper locations in the old cemetery.

“Somebody’s 20 minutes of fun is going to lead to months of work. Some may never get put back together,” Henderson said. “It’s like a giant jigsaw.”