Despite the fact they've been dead for 193 years, legal wrangling over the headstone for their joint grave continues for two boys killed in rural Illinois.

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The grave is located in Wood River, Ill., but their 20-square inch sandstone grave marker is in the nearby Alton (Ill.) Museum of History and Art, and the most recent attempt to get it back in place was thrown of court, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The boys are buried along with four other children and a woman. The inscription on the headstone tells a simple story of they day they all died: "William & Joel Moore were killed by the Indians July 10, 1814."

No one is certain how the marker ended up in the backyard of a Wood River woman 27 years ago, but she loaned the stone to the Alton museum. When the museum refused to allow her further access to it, she gave ownership to the Wood River Heritage Council, which restored and preserves the cemetery, the newspaper said.

Vickie Wyman, a member of the heritage council, said other legal avenues will be explored to have the stone returned to the grave.