Claire McCaskill, Missouri Senator, said on Thursday that the Arlington National Cemetery could have as many as 6,600 graves mislabeled or unmarked, the Associated Press reports. The error is blamed on managers who did not do their job properly.
The remorseful mix up is distressing to people with family buried at the cemetery.
This estimate is dramatically higher compared to the Army investigators original count of 211 remains that were affected.
Former superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery John Metzler ran the cemetery for 19 years before ousted from his position. He says he takes full responsibility for the problem, and expresses his regrets to the families and disappointment that his team did not do its job.
McCaskill made the announcement at a hearing where Metzler and deputy superintendent Thurman Higginbotham were scheduled to testify.
Higginbotham reserved his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions.
