Bethania Cemetery guest stars in new TV series on Investigation Discovery

Kurtis Productions film a segment for a new Investigation Discovery series at Bethania Cemetery in Justice.

By Bob Bong
Desplaines Valley News

Bethania Cemetery, which was founded in 1894 at 7701 S. Archer Ave. in Justice, will make its television debut next week on Investigation Discovery, a Discovery channel spinoff known as ID that features documentary-style programming mostly dealing with true crime subjects.

The cemetery was standing in for a Florida graveyard in a segment produced by longtime Chicago newsman Bill Kurtis, who has made a second career out of true crime re-enactments for such shows as "Investigative Reports," "American Justice" and "Cold Case Files."

The cemetery is the setting for an episode of a new ID series that debuted Sept. 5 called "Double Crossed."

The segment filmed by Kurtis Productions stems from a Florida case in which police trick a woman into confessing that she murdered her first husband by hiding microphones in flowers that surrounded his grave, said cemetery Supt. Randy Leise.

"They had microphones hidden in the flowers and they got her confessing to the murder when she visited the grave," said Leise. "She something like you got what you deserved and they were able to convict her of the murder."

"(Kurtis) does a lot of filming in the Chicago area and liked the look of Bethania," said Leise. "They had 1980s cars in the scenes and clothes."

He said Kurtis also filmed part of the segment in the interrogation room at the  nearby Summit police station.

A spokeswoman for Kurtis Productions said the cemetery was selected because the company was doing a lot of filming in the area for the segment.

The episode of "Double Crossed" is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Sept. 19 on Investigation Discovery, which is channel 260 on U-Verse, channel 271 on Comcast, channel 285 on DirecTV and 192 on Dish.