Mourners in California hoping to pay their respects to legendary basketball star Kobe Bryant are doing so at the wrong grave, according to a cemetery owner.
Pacific View Memorial Park has been inundated with Mr Bryant’s fans leaving flowers on the private plot of another family.
Ashley Bunton, speaking for Service Corporation International, owner of the cemetery, confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that people were gathering at the wrong site.
“We can confirm that is not Kobe and Gianna’s resting place,” she said. “We cannot divulge any additional details as to where they are. But we can tell you that is not the correct location.”
The increase in traffic has prompted an increase in security at the cemetery.
“Just a lot of people coming wandering the cemetery and looking to see if they can locate the burial site,” she said. “[Security is] just having to monitor things that are going on there.”
Ms Bunton said a report published in the Daily Mail on Friday showed photos of Mr Bryant’s supposed resting place; an inscription-less gravesite with purple and gold flowers, matching the LA Lakers’ colors. It apparently kicked off the rush of Kobe fans to the site. She dismissed the photos and the site as a coincidence.
According to an unnamed security guard who spoke with USA Today, family members of the individual buried at the plot have actually encountered fans of Mr Bryant and shooed them away from their loved one’s resting place.
The plot mistakenly believed to be Mr Bryant’s was apparently dug in November.
A memorial service for Mr Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, who were killed on 26 January, will be held on Monday at the Staples Center.
