In The Lovely Bones, one of the critical pieces of evidence left behind after Susie is murdered the keystone state charm. The charm itself is representative of Suzie because it bears her initials. It was a gift from her mother and is unique to her because they do not live in Pennsylvania. The keystone charm was the only charm that Mr. Harvey takes off of the bracelet in chapter 4 because it has Suzie's initials on it, and he keeps it as a souvenir.

The bracelet is distinct and recognizable, and so Mr. Harvey throws the rest of it into the place that will eventually be a lake. He doesn’t remember taking the bracelet and only finds it in his pocket after he dumped Suzie’s body down the sinkhole.

The keystone charm is symbolic of Suzie’s place in the family. The keystone goes in the center of an arch and stabilizes it so that it can stand. Suzie, the middle child, ended up being the keystone of her own family who suffers and eventually falls apart in her absence. The most significant part, her mother abandoning the family to go to California, happens to be most closely related to the charm because she gave it to Suzie. Without her daughter, she has a breakdown that causes her to run from her responsibilities—the rest of the family suffers as a result.

Like the keystone state charm, Susie is the keystone of the family and when she is murdered her family starts falling apart. Jack retreats into his study and obsesses with finding out who killed Susie, Abigail eventually runs away from her family and her grief and Lindsey feels like she has been abandoned.

The charm bracelet represents the charmed life that the Salmon family had led up until this point. They live in a suburb and in a time when murders and rapes did not occur. When Susie, and therefore the charm bracelet, go missing they realise in a violent and sudden manner that this charmed life is a facade. Faced with the tragic death of Susie the family starts to self destruct.