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Skull found at former gravedigger's home identified

Staff photo by JIM FARQUHAR

Officials believe the skull came from the remains of Ruth Keaton, who was buried at the cemetery in 1948.

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2009

Updated: 10/29/2009 02:09 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - Authorities have confirmed that a skull found in a former gravedigger's home belongs to a woman buried at Royal Palm Cemetery more than 60 years ago.

Pinellas County sheriff's detectives, University of South Florida anthropologists and cemetery workers spent the morning and part of the afternoon exhuming the grave of Ruth Keaton.

The casket had deteriorated and authorities sifted through the dirt excavated from the grave to account for every bone, USF anthropology professor Erin Kimmerle said. Before the diggers reached the bones, they had sifted and collected hinges and other metal hardware from Keaton's casket.

Pinellas deputies found the skull believed to belong to Keaton earlier this month after responding to a disorderly conduct call at the home of Gary S. Thomas. Detectives say the skull was given to Thomas as a gift.

Two cemetery co-workers apparently exposed it while digging next to her burial site about 20 years ago.

Authorities were expected to refer the case for possible criminal charges.

According to Robert Carpenter, a friend of Thomas, this is what happened:

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."

Nephew Mark Keaton said he feels no anger about the situation and does not wish to press charges.

"I have no malice," Keaton said. "I forgive them."

He said he would stay at Royal Palm Cemetery until his aunt's skull is reunited with her remains. Keaton said his aunt died in her 30s during surgery for appendicitis.

"I came here to show respect for her," he said. "She was very much loved and cared for."

Keaton's family brought with them a heart-shaped wreath of roses to put on the grave after the re-interment is completed.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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