{"id":21947,"date":"2025-06-06T20:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T02:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/church-property-destroyed-graves-desecrated\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:10:39","slug":"church-property-destroyed-graves-desecrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/church-property-destroyed-graves-desecrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Church property destroyed; graves desecrated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A screenshot of a woman believed to be Annaleta Bedonie, 18, on the grounds of Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Thursday morning. (Screenshot)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Catholic church, school and three graves were desecrated and damaged by a woman Thursday morning in Farmington.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Tim Farrell, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and principal of Sacred Heart School, said there was more than $1,000 in damage done to the property and items were stolen from the school.<\/p>\n

The incident, which began about 6:15 a.m., was captured on the church\u2019s security system.<\/p>\n

The Farmington Police Department were called to the church, and a community service officer responded after the woman had left the property. The suspect was not identified until the church shared video footage and photographs of the woman.<\/p>\n

Once police saw the woman, they realized it was Annaleta Bedonie, according to police spokeswoman Shanice Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\"Annaleta
Annaleta Bedonie, 18, has been arrested three times since May 24, and is believed to be the suspect in the desecration of graves and destruction of church property at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bedonie, 18, had been arrested three times in less than two weeks. The most recent arrest was at 3:53 p.m. Thursday when she was booked into the San Juan County Detention Center, according to detention center records.<\/p>\n

Bedonie\u2019s first arrest on May 24 was for shoplifting. She was released May 28 and arrested again on May 29, charged with concealing identity.<\/p>\n

Bedonie was sentenced to five days in jail and was released June 2. She was arrested Thursday and charged with idling, loitering or prowling, concealing identity and crossing at other than crosswalks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured out that she is the suspect for Sacred Heart, and there are felony charges pending,\u201d Gonzales said.<\/p>\n

Bedonie reportedly was captured on video walking around the church grounds and using a large rock to shatter the back door of the Sacred Heart Family Center.<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of the broken back door of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Family Center with glass shards inside the building.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt was smashed to smithereens,\u201d Farrell said, adding she gained access to the building and proceeded to the kitchen, where she reportedly turned on all of the burners and started paper towels on fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were high flames,\u201d Farrell said, adding then, Bedonie reportedly ate a sandwich and bit into a frozen cake.<\/p>\n

From there she reportedly went into the columbarium garden, where cremated remains of parishioners are sealed. She allegedly threw multiple rocks at the columbarium niches, then used a large stone to smash in three niches.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe desecrated our graves,\u201d Farrell said, adding \u201cit is a very serious matter. The Farmington Police Department needs to take this very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo showing the three columbarium niches desecrated at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bedonie also reportedly kicked in a window to the elementary school gymnasium, cracking it, before she allegedly gained access to the middle school property, Farrell said.<\/p>\n

There were two teachers working with students. All were evacuated and sent home, Farrell said.<\/p>\n

While in the school for about 45 minutes, it is alleged Bedonie \u201cgot a bag and took several items including two walkie-talkies used for security,\u201d Farrell said, adding she was \u201cvery stealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what her plan was except to do as much destruction as she could,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThis woman was violent, if you can smash out a huge glass door and smash out three niches in our columbarium and then find a way into our family center and steal items.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of one of the smashed niches in the columbarium at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When police arrested Bedonie, she reportedly had the bag of items taken from the school, and Farrell said those items were returned to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever church it is, it could be a hate crime. It\u2019s a sacred place,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cShe desecrated our graves. She broke into our family center and our middle school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bedonie remained in custody, but the felony charges were not filed as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Tri-City Record will update this story when more information becomes available.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suspect arrested three times in less than two weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77519,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947\/revisions\/77519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21947"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}