A group of UM anthropology students has made some important discoveries
at a graveyard in Costa Rica
Digging for the truth

t was Costa Rica’s version of Devil’s Island.

Isla San Lucas, a penal colony off the coast of Costa Rica that closed in 1991, housed some of the country’s most violent criminals, and many of the convicts who were sent there knew they would never make it out alive. The ones who died were buried in a nearby cemetery.

Today trees, tall grass, and shrubs cover the graveyard, which had never been marked by headstones.

Now, historians at Costa Rica’s national museum want to uncover the story of what actually happened at Isla San Lucas, and to get at the truth, they have enlisted the help of a group of University of Miami anthropology students who are excavating the cemetery, where bones and other remains lie in wait, ready to reveal a wealth of dark secrets and untold tales.

“The truth doesn’t stay buried forever,” says Monica Faraldo, the UM anthropology instructor who led a group of students on an archaeological excavation of the site last January as part of the UM Ibis Archaeological Field School for Isla San Lucas.

“We’re doing historical archaeology, assisting the museum in Costa Rica to help them re-create certain events and fill in some of the holes in the information they don’t have. And a cemetery is one of the best places to start,” she says.

Among the questions that need to be answered: How did the inmates die? How many are buried there? What are their approximate ages?

By doing visual examinations and taking anthropometric measurements of the skeletal remains, they can answer many of those questions.

“It’s not an exact science,” says Faraldo, “but based on analysis, we can come within a fair estimation of age, race, stature, and ancestry.”

The penal colony dates back to the 19th century, and the cemetery is more than 100 years old. During their excavation of the site in January, Faraldo and her students expected to unearth the remains of prisoners only, but what they found in one grave surprised them.

Along with the skeletal remains of a 25- to 30-year-old male, they found brass buttons of the kind that typically adorned the uniforms of prison guards who worked at the penal colony between 1873 and 1920.

And the skeletal remains told an even darker story: The guard had been shot four times in the skull with a small caliber weapon, probably a .22.

Could he have been overpowered and killed by inmates? Or perhaps he was murdered by fellow prison guards.

Two single-line accounts from Costa Rican archival records—one alluding to a “homicide between guards” and another to a chief of six prisoners being “shackled for penalty for shooting a guard”—could shed some light on the truth. But without accurate records, it will be difficult to determine who the guard was.

A family in Costa Rica, however, could hold the key to his identity.

The family, who learned about the discovery on a television news program, believes the skeletal remains are those of a grandfather who worked at the penal colony long ago and was rumored to have been murdered at the prison. The family members want to have their DNA tested to see if it matches that of the guard.

“One of the last things that we may be able to do is help families achieve closure,” Faraldo says. “There is some talk of possibly doing DNA testing on whatever skeletal remains we find, and if we can provide families with a positive match, they might want to claim those remains and have their own family burial. But that’s still way in the future.”

So for now, the excavation continues. The skeletal remains of the prison guard they discovered are still at the site, only half uncovered. The students will return to the site and complete their excavation in the summer of 2009, this time camping on the island for up to four weeks.

It is real CSI- and Bones-type work, providing students with experience in the discovery and analysis of human skeletal and material remains.

“It’s like solving a mystery,” says 24-year-old April Cohen, a student in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program who excavated at the site in January and plans to return in 2009. “We can answer all of these questions just by looking at and analyzing the skeletal material. It’s really cool.”