Marker Being Sent for Gorilla Expert’s Grave

Three years ago, gorilla expert Dian Fossey was murdered at her research station in Africa. Now, a Manhattan Beach couple is sending a bronze marker for her grave in the hope that it will discourage superstitious Africans from disturbing her remains.

“In some way, we want to let them know Americans are watching,” Evelyn Gallardo said. “Our whole idea behind this is to be sure her grave is never disturbed.”

Gallardo and her companion, David Root, travel to remote parts of the world to study and photograph primates. They spent several weeks at the Karisoke Research Center--Fossey’s mountain camp in the tiny country of Rwanda--in August, 1985, just four months before Fossey was murdered under mysterious circumstances.

The couple fear that Fossey’s grave may be dug up because in Central Africa some people believe that her ability to befriend mountain gorillas came from mystical powers, Gallardo said. Some Africans, she said, believe that they can obtain similar powers by carrying the remains of such a person in pouches around their necks.

Previous Case

Legend has it that the remains of Carl Akeley, an explorer who studied African gorillas in the 1920s, were dug up because of such superstitions, Gallardo said.

Some Africans “believed him to be very powerful since he was not afraid of mountain gorillas. So they took bits and pieces (of his body) that they believed to be powerful and put them around their neck,” Gallardo said. Root said gorillas’ graves have also been dug up.

The couple said they hope that once the plaque is placed on the grave, nearby residents will consider the site a sacred place and leave it alone.

Fossey’s body is buried at the Karisoke center in a cemetery next to the cabin where she lived for 18 years. A dozen gorillas are also buried there. Last September, a Times reporter visiting the research center found Fossey’s grave--a clover-covered mound encircled by stones, with a marker that reads simply: “Dian.”

Hacked to Death

It was at the cabin that Fossey, 53, was hacked to death with a machete in December, 1985. The Rwandan government convicted, in absentia, Wayne McGuire, an American who was Fossey’s research assistant.

McGuire denied killing his “friend and mentor” and fled the country--on the advice of U.S. officials--a few days before charges were filed. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda.

Gallardo and Root held a fund-raiser at the Joslyn Community Center in Manhattan Beach in April, 1987, to get money for the plaque and for primate protection groups.

They spent $250 for a 12-by-18-inch bronze marker that they are sending through the State Department to the American vice consul in Rwanda. The vice consul and a friend of Fossey’s there have agreed to have it installed. Root and Gallardo have reserved an additional $250, if needed, for installation fees.

The marker reads: “Nyiramachabelli; Dian Fossey, 1932-1985. No one loved gorillas more. Rest in peace, dear friend, eternally protected in this sacred ground, for you are home where you belong.”

“Nyiramachabelli was her Swahili name. It means ‘the woman who lives in the woods without a man,’ ” Gallardo said.