Quitman woman sentenced to probation, restitution for digging up skeletons, artifacts in national forest

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Quitman woman was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution for digging up human skeleton remains and archaeological resources in a national forest.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas said 43-year-old Kristy Lee Gordon pleaded guilty on March 13 to one count of excavating, removing, damaging, and otherwise altering and defacing an archaeological resource located on public lands. She was assigned four years’ probation in a plea agreement.

A grand jury had indicted Gordon in June 2023, officials said.

Officials said the investigation began in November 2020 when the Stone County Sheriff’s Office received a report of skeletal remains found by hikers in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest. When deputies and a U.S. Forest Service officer arrived, they were met by Gordon, who said she and another hiker were digging wet soil with a stick when they found the remains.

Officials said Gordon told investigators she covered up what she had found before calling the sheriff.

Investigators said they searched and found extensive excavation in the area, with lots of holes. A U.S. Forest Service archeologist told investigators the area was a known Native American archeological site.

Officials said Gordon admitted to investigators a few days later that she had not been honest and admitted she had been digging in the area to find Native American artifacts. When she saw some bones, she brought them home, she told investigators, and while cleaning them, she realized she had a human skull.

She brought the bones back to the area where she had been digging and “threw dirt over them and prayed over them,” investigators said they were told. Gordon then told them she did not feel right about it, and later called the sheriff’s office.

Officials said investigators searched Gordon’s home and found an extensive collection of Native American artifacts, including an archaic funeral knife, believed to have been placed with the deceased as part of a ceremony during burial.

Gordon admitted she found the knife with human skeletal remains and it was taken as evidence, along with many other objects, investigators said.

A search warrant of Gordon’s Facebook page revealed pictures of human skeletal remains, including part of a skull, officials said.

Officials with the U.S. attorney said Native American remains and funerary objects are protected by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Gordon agreed to pay restitution totaling $16,135.32 for the cost of restoration and repair to the area where she had been digging.