Missing headstones. Shattered pictures. Broken promises. Families say a Jacksonville business failed them in grief. They turned to Ask Anthony for answers.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A place meant to bring peace is instead bringing pain. Several grieving families tell the Ask Anthony team they trusted a local headstone business to honor their loved ones gravesites. Instead, they were met with broken promises and months of silence.

“I just wanted to do something to honor my cousin,” Roscheika Mickens said.

In 2017, Mickens’ cousin was murdered just three days before his birthday. Eight years later, there’s still no justice and no headstone.

In January, she walked into Remake Stones, located on Lem Turner Road in Jacksonville. She paid $600 for a custom headstone featuring her cousin’s photo, with a promise it would be in place by his 40th birthday on February 21.

But that tribute never came.

“He just assured me that he would have it done by February 21st,” Mickens added.

Mickens says after the missed deadline, business owner Raynard Rogers offered her a $200 refund in writing once the stone was placed. Still, nothing came.

“I went back in July, and he said he was still waiting on the picture,” she said. “He told me to give him two more weeks. That would have been July 25. I’m still waiting.”

Frustrated, Mickens posted about her experience on social media and quickly realized she wasn’t the only one.

“I paid him in cash for my mom’s headstone,” Francella Melton told Anthony Austin.

Melton paid Rogers in March for a headstone to honor her mother. She says he promised it would be ready by Mother’s Day.

The stone finally arrived months later, but it was not what she expected.

“It’s like he just pushed her stone off the back of a truck,” Melton said. “It’s not centered, it’s not in place, it’s not even put in the dirt right.”

The most painful part? The picture of her mother was shattered into pieces.

“I cried and I cried and I cried. Because this is so disrespectful. Not just to me, but to my mom,” Melton explained.

Both women say they’ve called, texted, and stopped by the business. But they say getting a response is nearly impossible. Anthony Austin called several numbers listed for Remake Stones. He either received automated messages or disconnected lines.

The Ask Anthony team went to the office on Lem Turner Road. The front door had a “closed” sign, and a handwritten note inside read: “We are not out of business.”

On the business’s Facebook page, a recent post from August 19 simply reads: “Good Morning, we are working hard to finish.”

But customers are still waiting.

“You don’t care about somebody’s grave?” Melton asked. “This is sacred to me.”

These families say they trusted Rogers with something priceless, their loved ones’ legacies.

“I really don’t have any other words,” Mickens said. “Just sad. And I hope he doesn’t get to do another family like this.”

Anthony Austin reached out to Raynard Rogers multiple times for comment. Just hours before publishing this story, he discovered a new number for the business. That line led to a voicemail message that said:

“We do apologize for our monument production slowing down. We’ve been changing suppliers so forth and so on. Also, I have been under the weather but being under the weather is no concern as far as the manufacturer of the monument. Give me a few more weeks. Bear patience with us and we are getting monuments manufactured but it’s just being manufactured through another company right now.”

If you’ve had a similar experience with Remake Stones or a problem you can’t solve, you can email AskAnthony@firstcoastnews.com