After 20 years, skull at rest

Authorities have finally laid to rest a case of skullduggery that started more than 20 years ago.

University of South Florida anthropologists confirmed Thursday afternoon that a skull found in a former gravedigger's home belongs to a woman buried at Royal Palm Cemetery in 1948.

The anthropologists, along with Pinellas County sheriff's detectives and cemetery workers, spent Thursday morning exhuming the grave of Ruth Keaton to determine whether the skull found in the bedroom of a St. Petersburg man was hers.

When the match was made, Keaton's relatives felt closure.

"I'm relieved it's over," nephew Mark Keaton said. "It's a load off my shoulders. She's back where she belongs."

Keaton said anthropologists showed him that characteristics of the skull matched perfectly with the bones in the grave.

"It's a very odd case," Keaton said. "This isn't something that happens every day."

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 Ruth Keaton's casket.

Pinellas deputies found the skull this month after responding to a disorderly conduct call at the home of Gary S. Thomas. As deputies questioned Thomas, they saw a skull on a table in one of the bedrooms.

Detectives say the skull was given to Thomas as a gift by two cemetery co-workers who apparently exposed it while digging next to Keaton's burial site in the 1980s.

Authorities have referred the case to prosecutors for possible criminal charges.

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."

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

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

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

The casket had 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 gravestone on the ground and read the name Ruth Keaton.

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

Mark Keaton said he did not know his aunt and was not aware that her skull was missing for more than two decades. Ruth Keaton died during surgery for appendicitis.

Mark Keaton stayed at the cemetery until his aunt's remains were re-interred. Keaton said he remembers his family speaking highly of his aunt and he knows how much they cared about her.

He brought with him a heart-shaped wreath of roses that was placed on her grave.

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