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The (Real) Case of the Missing Skull

Staff photo by JIM FARQUHAR

Officials are considering whether charges will be filed against the gravediggers at Royal Palm Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

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By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - When he saw the gravedigger pull the skull out of the dirt hole, he knew it could only bring bad luck.

"I never touched it," Robert Carpenter said. "I never wanted anything to do with it."

Carpenter knew it would be a memory that would weigh on his conscience – until nearly 30 years later when Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies found the woman's skull at the home of his old friend, Gary Thomas.

Now, authorities are investigating whether any laws were broken and a long-dead body will be exhumed this morning and, maybe, reunited with its missing skull.

The Case of the Missing Skull began with a call of disorderly conduct earlier this month at Thomas' home in St. Petersburg.

Thomas was gone when deputies arrived on Oct. 3, but they couldn't help but notice the skull on a bedroom table.

More investigators came to the scene and took the skull to the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office, where it was identified as a real human skull.

"I knew where it came from," said Carpenter, 48, who now lives in Gulfport. "I felt bad that the lady was lying in the grave without her head."

This is what happened, he said:

In the early 1980s, two gravediggers at the Royal Palm Cemetery in St. Petersburg were digging a new grave next to an old grave that had no concrete liner, Carpenter said.

Carpenter and another man were watching. Carpenter said he had quit his job as a gravedigger two weeks before and happened to be there to pick up items he had left behind.

As the men dug, the body of Ruth Keaton, who was buried in 1948 at the age of 34, caved into the hole they were digging, Carpenter said.

The casket was deteriorated and Keaton's remains spilled into the adjoining grave.

"It was in the hole they were digging," Carpenter said. "The guy pulled the skull out of the hole."

He never forgot the moment because the skull had a pronounced root sticking out of it, he said.

Carpenter looked at the grave stone on the ground and read the name Ruth Keaton.

"This is one of the reasons I left because they were so blasé about it," Carpenter said. "I never talked to them about it because it was so wrong."

He said the men threatened him not to say anything.

But a week or two later, Carpenter went to Thomas's house.

Thomas was also a grave digger at the Royal Palm, a man with a Type-A, charismatic personality. He was nicknamed Grave Digger and had a reputation as a popular party host, Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he immediately knew where it came from, although he wasn't there the night it was given to Thomas as a present. He said he never told Thomas anything about the skull.

But the sheriff's office says Royal Palm grave digger Bobby Anderson, whom the sheriff's office says collected the skull, took it to Thomas as a gift. Anderson's whereabouts today are not known and the sheriff's investigators weren't able to contact him.

They brought the skull to Thomas to gain respect from him, Carpenter said.

"They figured it would give them brownie points in his eyes," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he dropped hints to Thomas to anonymously return the skull to Royal Palm but never pressed him. He said the dead needed to be respected, and feared what could happen.

He said Thomas's life unraveled after he received the skull.

Thomas moved to Daytona Beach for 20 years and returned to St. Petersburg about two years ago, Carpenter said. Thomas couldn't be reached for comment.

Homicide Det. John Spoor was led to the burial site from the description that Carpenter gave him. Spoor reviewed old articles, vital statistics and wedding announcements of the 1940s to locate Ruth's nephew, Mark Keaton of St. Petersburg.

Keaton said he wants his aunt's skull returned to the burial site.

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the University of South Florida's Department of Anthropology will assist the sheriff's office in exhuming Ruth Keaton's body. If the skull is a match, it will be reunited with the remains and re-interred, the sheriff's office said.

Mark Keaton said he is happy to return his aunt to her proper resting place. But he isn't interested in prosecuting the men.

"I have no malice towards these guys,'' Keaton said. "I forgive them. I'm a Christian. If they did something wrong then they'll have to live with it themselves and deal with it themselves.''

Nonetheless, the sheriff's office said it is discussing with the state attorney's office whether charges should be filed.

Reporter Peter Bernard contributed to this report. Reporter José Patiño Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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