Posted on: Friday, July 28, 2017

MELROSE (AP) — Police said they have leads they are looking into as they search for three people suspected of knocking over six headstones in one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts.

As of 11 a.m., no one was yet in custody.

Officers responded to the Netherlands Cemetery Association Burial Ground on Linwood Avenue before dawn on Thursday for reports of what appeared to be three teenage boys vandalizing tombstones.

The suspects were gone before police arrived.

A witness described the suspects as a slender white male, a slender black male, and a white male with a heavy build wearing eyeglasses.

No anti-Semitic graffiti or materials were found.

Mayor Robert Dolan said in a statement he was “saddened and outraged” by the vandalism.

The site is the third-oldest Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts and contains about 475 graves. It was established in 1859 by Dutch Jews living in the Boston area.