'I felt like a failure': Father Turns to Ted for help getting son's headstone placed

HITCHCOCK, Texas (KTRK) -- Eugene Murray buried his son, Eugene Del Murray II, in 2015 but needed some time to get his son's headstone.

"It wasn't easy, but I went online and to try to find something that would be appropriate for him 'cause his name, nickname, was Dirty Red. (I) finally found his stone."

After Murray paid for the stone, ordered it and made sure it was delivered to the cemetery in late 2018, he figured it would be placed on his son's grave. Months later, he says he found the red granite stone still in a crate outside the cemetery office in Hitchcock, Texas. That's when Murray Turned to Ted.

"I was getting so frustrated," Murray told Ted Oberg, "Every time I go down there and his stone was still in the dirt. That's my son with my name, my first born."

Murray says his phone calls and in-person visits to the cemetery didn't get any results. He worried he was running out of time.

"Almost a whole year went by and it's still there. I contacted Channel 13, Mr. Ted, to see if he could help me solve this problem," Murray said.

We too had a tough time getting an answer initially. At first, the cemetery manager told ABC13 he was moving the stone as a courtesy and Murray had not paid for the placement. Murray disputed that.

The Turn to Ted team eventually told the cemetery manager we wanted to come down and see what was going on. Days later, the stone was moving.

"That's when he went off and did the right thing and they erected it," Murray said.

Today, the stone is over Eugene Jr.'s grave. As he recounted his most recent visit to the cemetery to see it, Murray called it, "(a) relief. I'm getting up in age and I, you know, it's bad enough my son passed on before me and not to see his headstone in place, you know, made me feel like a failure."

The cemetery owner at Hitchcock's Mainland Memorial Cemetery said he was moving the headstone as a favor so it wasn't top priority. The cemetery did complete the work after we reached out to ask about it.

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