BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 I\u2019m Madi Vollmer, and I\u2019m following up on a story I first covered earlier this year. A young woman and child were buried here in 1923 \u2014 a Bakersfield cold case that remains unsolved more than 100 years later. Now, a local resident caring for the grave is pushing for DNA testing to finally uncover their identities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest satisfaction to me \u2014 being able to rejuvenate something that is so old and make it look nice and shiny for many years to come.\u201d Greg Zuniga said. <\/p>\n
At Union Cemetery, one grave continues to stand out \u2014 not because of what\u2019s written on the headstone, but because someone is finally taking care of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I was just like, I\u2019m going to go ahead and restore that one for my community. And so that\u2019s exactly what I did \u2014 that one and a few others around here.\u201d Greg said. <\/p>\n
Greg Zuniga is one of the owners and founders of Granite Guardians, a local headstone cleaning business here in Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
He says giving back to the community is part of his mission. \u201cPretty much my slogan is: I do what I love, and I love what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is why he regularly cleans old and neglected headstones \u2014 including those in Potter\u2019s Field. Potter\u2019s Field is where many of Kern County\u2019s unclaimed and indigent are laid to rest. But to Greg, they\u2019re more than just markers. \u201cEvery life has a story \u2014 that\u2019s what I\u2019m learning. I\u2019ll even Google random headstones, like what was this person known for, and you do find information out there.\u201d Greg said.<\/p>\n
Together, Greg and his fianc\u00e9e, Aly, work to clean and care for these graves \u2014 hoping to preserve stories time almost erased.<\/p>\n
Alyssha Geraldl is the Co-owner and Founder of Granite Guardians, and she says, \u201cAny cold case like that, especially involving children, I just think they need some form of justice. So if we could get the GoFundMe going and figure out who they were, that\u2019d be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg and Aly are now launching a GoFundMe to help identify the mother and child. They also hope to use the funds to clean other old graves throughout Kern County.<\/p>\n
Tighten this to a specific runtimeWrite a stand-upOr punch up the emotional beats for sweeps<\/p>\n
Just say the word.<\/p>\n
MAKE TV HEADLINE<\/p>\n
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 I\u2019m Madi Vollmer, and I\u2019m following up on a story I first covered earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[18550,151,155,153,152,1436,67173,22368,3409,20475,76594,23588],"class_list":["post-156518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-18550","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-case","tag-cemetery","tag-century","tag-child","tag-clean","tag-cleaning","tag-cold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}