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CITRUS HEIGHTS –

The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office released 20 infants to be buried Saturday at the East Lawn Memorial Park in Citrus Heights.

A memorial ceremony was held at the cemetery’s new Garden of Innocence, the fifth of its kind built in California.

“These children were otherwise abandoned. They would be buried in a mass grave if it weren’t for all of these people coming together to give them a proper burial,” said Lisa West with East Lawn Memorial Park.

Together, community members, chaplains and various volunteer organizations placed caskets in the ground as they said goodbye to infants, who may have never even had the chance to speak their first word.

The Garden of Innocence is funded entirely on donations. To donate, go to http://www.gardenofinnocence.org/