BOSTON (WHDH) - A woman is facing a vandalism charge after police say she was caught acting suspiciously in a Hyde Park cemetery.
Officers who spotted Deborah Gideon, 53, of Hyde Park tossing what appeared to be red powder into the air in the area of 19 Millstone St. about 4:45 p.m. Thursday followed her to Mount Hope Cemetery, where they saw her approach several headstones and make a tossing motion with her hand, according to Boston police.
When officers stopped her car further in the cemetery, they allegedly found her to be in possession of a spray bottle, a gallon of a reddish liquid, containers of various colored salt, powered-juice mixes, and olive oil.
She was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation following her arraignment Friday in West Roxbury District Court on charges of attempting to commit a crime to wit, vandalism of a gravestone and malicious destruction of property valued above $1,200.
Her arrest comes a little more than a week after police launched an investigation into damaged statues at local cemeteries. One of those incidents occurred in mid-March when five memorials were vandalized at Mount Hope Cemetery, where Gideon was arrested a month later.
Last Wednesday, officers responded to a reported vandalism at St. Gregory’s Parish church on Dorchester Avenue and found that someone had defaced a religious statue by covering it in an unknown red substance.
Gideon is due back in court on May 8.
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