Grave Keeper in Yogyakarta Damages Tombstone to Force Heirs to Meet Over Unpaid 'Cleaning Fees'

The headstones on the grave of Bernadetta Petra’s father, located in the Pekuncen public cemetery in Yogyakarta, were vandalised by the grave keeper. The two marker stones were broken off, making the plot difficult for the family to identify. Petra, the wife of the late Yogyakarta artist Djaduk Ferianto, discovered the damage on Tuesday (11/8/2026) while visiting the grave and struggling to find the site. “My father died in 1971, so the grave has been there for a very long time. After so many decades, why is it being damaged now?” she said.

Unable to locate the grave keeper, Petra asked a cleaning worker she often saw during her visits for contact details, but the worker refused to provide them. She subsequently reported the matter to the Wirobrajan Police. Officers managed to find the grave keeper’s address and accompanied Petra to meet him. The dispute was then mediated by the police. Wirobrajan Police Chief Kompol Arif Darmawan stated that the mediation was successful and a peaceful agreement was reached. “The headstones have been returned and reinstalled. Everything has been repaired and restored to its original state. The grave keeper only wanted to meet the heir, and now everything is fine,” he explained.

Petra recounted that the grave keeper, identified by the initial S, admitted he damaged the grave because he was offended at never receiving cleaning money during her visits. Petra explained that she often visited early in the morning when the cemetery was empty and no one was around, but she always left flowers as a sign of her visit. The keeper reportedly told her, “If I hadn’t damaged the grave like this, you wouldn’t have looked for me, would you?” During the mediation, Petra agreed to pay Rp 500,000 to settle the perceived debt for cleaning fees, though she considered the amount excessive. She calculated that even for ten visits where she saw no one, a fair payment would have been around Rp 30,000 per visit for three cleaners. Following the agreement, the grave was fully repaired and now appears normal and clean.