After nearly 19 months, a state probe into Green Acres Memorial Park’s finances is drawing to a close with a court-ordered auction of cemetery property and equipment, but without a trace of the missing thousands of dollars paid by a decade’s worth of customers.

Mirroring a process underway for four other troubled cemeteries in Mississippi, the sprawling burial grounds on U.S. 80 were offered for sale by public bid via an agreed order between Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and Green Acres’ former owners. Terms of Chancellor Vicki Roach Barnes’ order allow potential bidders up to 30 days to make offers on the property. Offers will be collected by the office’s Regulation and Enforcement department and vetted for financial solvency. Official public notice is expected next week, Hosemann said.

Hosemann left the courthouse Friday apologetic about the fruitless chase for more than $373,000 gone from the cemetery’s pre-need account that forced those who had paid previously for markers and vaults to pay again, yet hopeful a commercial enterprise can continue a financial recovery under receivership that has, by all accounts, been deemed a success.

“Today’s been a good day,” Hosemann said, adding state-appointed receiver Harry Sharp “did a great job” since being put in charge more than a year ago. “We made every effort possible to find the missing money. (Green Acres’) release into private hands is a big step.”

Only $221.60 was in the pre-need account when Hosemann filed civil suit in January 2009 against Houston-based Mike Graham & Associates, LLC, owner of the cemetery since 2001. No criminal charges were filed against the Grahams, though the Attorney General’s Civil Litigation Division participated in the inquiry.

Graham died in 2007 and apparently left the task of running Green Acres and other cemeteries the firm owned in the Southeast to his daughter, Stephanie Graham, and widow, Linda Graham. Neither appeared in court to answer questions in person — instead answering questions through court briefs filed by attorneys. One of Green Acres’ bank accounts in Mississippi was used as a clearing account to send money to the company’s other holdings, according to testimony given by the state.

Sharp, a bed and breakfast owner tapped by the state to run Green Acres based on his cemetery management experience in Florida, will become co-receiver with Hosemann during the bidding period but will remain in charge of daily operations and can submit a bid to buy the property. Besides 43 acres of property, a litany of equipment will transfer to the successful bidder — two mowers, three hedge trimmers, a backhoe, a power blower, a mesh wire storage unit, a pickup, a chainsaw, a notebook computer, a printer and some software.

The first $17,752.88 offered for the cemetery will pay off eight active state tax liens against the property dating to 2004, then be paid to an account for the perpetual care of graves. Also, Stephanie and Linda Graham agreed to give up rights to three life insurance policies for transfer into the perpetual care fund. If the policies are cashed in, the account will grow by $33,922.90. At maturity, the policies are worth more than $550,000.

Sharp said the cemetery’s perpetual care fund and pre-need fund stand at about $196,000, and $5,500 respectively, with pre-need funds rebuilt only through existing contracts. Adding a crematorium and a mausoleum are still viable to expand services, Sharp said, adding it was still “under consideration” whether or not he’ll bid to purchase the cemetery.

“I’m very pleased to have done what we’ve done,” Sharp said Friday. “The job isn’t done, though. It’ll be a challenge for whomever ends up with it.”

Seven other cemeteries in Mississippi were the subject of separate civil actions filed in 2009 by the Secretary of State’s Office, with Green Acres the most serious in terms of the total of missing money. Four of them — Liberty Memorial Park in Booneville, Pinecrest Memorial Park in Pittsboro, Prentiss Memorial Gardens in Baldwyn and Sunset Gardens Memorial Park in Laurel — were ordered for sale by public bid June 21 by Prentiss County Chancery Judge John Hatcher, who is expected to approve bids in those auctions by month’s end, Hosemann said. The cemeteries’ former owner, Don Middleton, was convicted on two counts of failure to file cemetery records and has been sentenced to a year in jail, plus a $1,800 fine.