Nearly a decade after its controversial removal from Hillsborough County’s old courthouse, a Confederate war memorial is now the subject of a criminal investigation involving a missing head.
One of the two soldier figures that comprise the 115-year-old marble monument called “Memoria in Aeterna,”which has sat in the private Brandon Family Cemetery since it was relocated from downtown Tampa in 2017, was recently vandalized.
The soldier’s head appears to have been sliced clean off.
“It’s not broken; it was cut off,” said Kelly McLaren, executive director of Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay. “Someone went to some effort to accomplish this.”
A spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it was investigating but had no other information.
The Confederate monument “Memoria in Aeterna,” which was moved in 2017 from the old Hillsborough County courthouse to the Brandon Family Cemetery on East Brandon Boulevard and Pinewood Avenue, is seen in a photo taken Friday.
McLaren said the Brandon family — namesake of the east Hillsborough community — reported the crime, and investigators believe the monument was vandalized between Sept. 5 and 15.
That would put the crime almost exactly nine years after the monument was relocatedto the cemetery at 101 N. Pinewood Ave. The monument now sits just steps away from State Road 60/East Brandon Boulevard, beyond a wrought-iron fence.
The monument consistsof two Confederate soldiers — one facing north, upright and heading to battle, and the other facing south, his clothes tattered as he heads home, humbled by war. Between them is a 32-foot-tall obelisk with the image of a Confederate flag chiseled into it.
The vandalized soldier is the one facing north, away from Brandon Boulevard, McLaren said.
The “Memoria in Aeterna” Confederate monument is seen in Tampa on July 19, 2017. The monument consists of two Confederate soldiers — one facing north, upright and heading to battle, and the other facing south, his clothes tattered as he heads home humbled by war. Between them is a 32-foot-tall obelisk with the image of a Confederate flag chiseled into it.
This photo from 2017, when “Memoria in Aeterna” was still located in front of the old Hillsborough County courthouse in Tampa, shows the soldier whose head was removed earlier this month.
“We don’t have much to go on at this point, so we’re reaching out to the community for any information that can lead us to who’s responsible,” she said. “And we’d like to recover the head that was cut off the statue, as well.”
Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of a suspect or suspects in the case. Tipsters can submit information by calling 800-873-8477, visiting crimestopperstb.com or using the P3 Tips mobile app.
McLaren emphasized that tipsters can remain anonymous.
“I find it hard to believe that someone did this and nobody else knows,” she said.
David McCallister, a spokesperson for Save Southern Heritage, a group that sued to keep the monument in place back in 2017, deferred comment to a member of the Brandon family, Lee Brandon Jr. Brandon did not immediately return text and voicemail messages Friday.
The decapitation is the latest chapter in the monument’s storied —and sometimes contentious —history.
“Memoria in Aeterna” was originally erected on the southwest corner of Franklin and Lafayette streets in 1911 by the Tampa chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1952, it was moved to the old courthouse on Pierce Street in downtown Tampa.
In 2017, the statue became the center of a bitter, monthslong battlethat reflected a national wave of protests against Confederate memorials on public property. Supporters said it represented heritage and history, whilecritics called it a symbol of racism and oppression.
Demonstrators hold protest signs in front of the “Memoria in Aeterna” Confederate monument in downtown Tampa on June 27, 2017. Later that summer, Hillsborough County commissioners voted 4-2 to move the monument to the private Brandon Family Cemetery.
Protesters climb the “Memoria in Aeterna” Confederate monument in downtown Tampa on Aug. 13, 2017. The monument was relocated about a month later.
That July, Hillsborough County commissioners voted 4-2 to relocate the statue to the Brandon family’s cemetery. The commission conditioned its relocation on public contributions of $140,000 to cover half the estimated cost of the project. The money poured in within 24 hours.
Save Southern Heritage and Veterans’ Monuments of America sued to keep the monument in place, and the legal battle continued until the day of the scheduled removal, when a Tampa judge denied a request for an injunction to stop it.
The county hired a general contractor, Tampa-based Energy Services and Products Corp., to oversee the $280,000 project. The company put together a team of experts that included mechanical and structural engineers and a stonemason from New York who had worked on projects from Carnegie Hall to Tampa’s Riverwalk, president and CEO Tony Padilla told the Tampa BayTimes then.
On Sept. 6, 2017, workers showed up with a stone saw and a forklift. They first took down the two soldiers and loaded them onto a flatbed truck. By the following day, the obelisk, separated into two pieces for the journey, was gone, too.
The crews reerected the monument in the cemetery, where generations of Brandon family members have been laid to rest. It’s now surrounded by suburban sprawl, flanked by a pawn and gun shop on one side and an urgent care center on the other.
Ken Brandon Jr. agreed at the county’s request to have the monument put there. Brandon’s great-great-grandfather settled in the area, and his great-grandfather, James Henry Brandon, left east Hillsborough County at age 20 to fight for the Confederate army. Heis buried in the cemetery.
Ken Brandon Jr.’s grandfather and father helped develop the area into a thriving suburb.
“I hope there’s no controversy of any kind. When it’s done it’s done,” Ken Brandon Jr., who died in 2022 at age 85, told the Times after the County Commission’s vote in 2017. “Let it find its final resting place on that one corner until time takes its toll.”