Kobe Bryant funeral: Fans flock wrong gravesite to mourn him and Gianna despite cemetery trying to stop them
Hundreds of mourners flocked to a cemetery to pay respects to Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, only to leave their flowers and tributes at the wrong gravesite.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that the father and daughter have been laid to rest at the Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, California, in a private funeral two weeks ago following their deaths in a helicopter crash last month.
Fans, understandably, have made their way to the cemetery in hundreds, but are going to the wrong gravesite, according to the owners. A representative of the owners told USA Today that the flowers left for the pair are being cleared out every day because the plot belongs to another family.
"We can confirm that is not Kobe and Gianna’s resting place," said Ashley Bunton of Service Corporation International, which owns the cemetery. "We cannot divulge any additional details as to where they are. But we can tell you that is not the correct location."
The root of this confusion is said to be a Daily Mail piece that claimed they had zeroed in on the plot where Kobe and Gianna had been laid to rest side-by-side at the cemetery, which is just 10 minutes from the family's Newport Coast home.
The outlet reported the newly-planted purple and yellow flowers at the site, as well as the balloons and flower pinwheels and heart rosaries placed on either side all but confirmed the basketball star and his daughter were buried there.
Bunton said it was a coincidence that some of the planted flowers in the said plot matched the Lakers' colors and that they had to increase the security in the cemetery because of these constant infractions.
"Just a lot of people coming wandering the cemetery and looking to see if they can locate the burial site," she said.
However, many still believe that the plot does belong to Kobe and Gianna and claim the Christmas ornaments outside were a ploy to fool people into thinking the burial had taken place months ago.
A security guard who did not want to be identified said around 400 people had visited the gravesite last weekend alone, but similarly insisted that the plot they were visiting belonged to someone who had been buried there in November.
"Others have actually run into the family members who’ve kind of shooed people away from that spot just because it’s disturbing the peace to the person interred there," the guard revealed.