{"id":405407,"date":"2026-09-20T14:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405407\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T14:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:12:11","slug":"florida-men-and-women-accused-of-stealing-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405407\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Men and Women Accused of Stealing From the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook<\/a> account on August 13, 2026, the Florida law enforcement agency called a trio of traveling criminals who stole from the dead “tomb raiders.”\u00a0As\u00a0their\u00a0modus operandi, the three would visit cemeteries along the East Coast of the United States with\u00a0transparent niches containing cremated remains (cremains).\u00a0<\/p>\n

They weren’t after the urns of ashes, though. They wanted the jewelry and other valuable items in the niche placed beside the urn, items that typically had a deep meaning for the deceased.<\/p>\n

Three suspects (Drake Lee Milam, his girlfriend, Porsche Bancroft, and Bancroft’s mother, Angela Garrett) allegedly participated. Law enforcement believes the trio to originally be from Indianapolis,<\/p>\n

They traveled to at least nine states to break into cemetery niches. At least twenty cases have occurred in Florida alone.<\/p>\n

Now What?<\/p>\n

Florida’s Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution took on the case to catch the suspects. Meanwhile, the Central Florida Crimeline offered $5,000 for information that led to an arrest.<\/p>\n

While the hunt for suspects was on, officials recommended that people visit the gravesites of family members. If noting no signs of disturbance, they asked that people contact law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Progress<\/p>\n

On August 18, the mother was arrested, per the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook<\/a> account. Charges filed included injuring or removing a tomb or monument; disturbing the contents of a grave or tomb; and grand theft over $20,000, among other potential charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following day, on X<\/a>, the sheriff’s office reported the arrest of the other two suspects. Numerous people commented on these arrests on social media, including this comment: “Get in, mom, we’re going grave robbing.”<\/p>\n

Case Over?<\/p>\n

Stolen items have included watches, rings, necklaces, and more. Law enforcement officials believe more victims exist and encourage continued reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cherlette McCullough, a licensed mental health counselor, told Fox 35 Orlando<\/a> that these thefts may be traumatic for already grieving families. “They get to this place of safety,” she said, “and this type of crime can make them feel like their safety is no longer there.”<\/p>\n

Want more articles like this one? Give us a follow on Yahoo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook account on August 13, 2026, the Florida law enforcement agency called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[161127,161128,1292,28,30,29,1598,33237,149820],"class_list":["post-405407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-drake-lee-milam","tag-east-coast-of-the-united-states","tag-facebook","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-law-enforcement","tag-orange-county-sheriff","tag-porsche-bancroft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}