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The dirt has re-filled the holes where two bodies were removed from unmarked graves at the former-Dozier School for Boys in Jackson County.

Decades since leaving the Dozier School for Boys, families still re-live the horror they say took place daily at the reform school.

“It don’t make sense that you go there and can’t come back as a child,” said Regimond Bouie, who attended Dozier.

Bouie says he was beaten multiple times in the ‘White House’ in the late 1950’s. His brother Sam Palmer says their cousin is one of the bodies buried in an unmarked grave, leaving the family with unanswered questions for decades.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories, saying children ran away,” said Palmer. “I don’t believe it at all.”

Bouie and Palmer both agree they hope the exhuming of bodies will allow families to provide proper funerals for the love ones who never got to say goodbye.

“If you can bring closure to any family, you know I think that’s what it is. You can’t change what happened,” said Bouie.

The two bodies removed have been sent to the University of South Florida where DNA testing will begin. “If we can identify those individuals, its an absolute success,” said USF Researcher Erin Kimmerle.

Even though there is no clear sign these bodies are Palmer’s cousin, researchers expect to find up to 50 skeletal remains in unmarked graves; leaving surviving family members optimistic answers will be found.

Researchers are planning on returning to exhume more bodies by October or November depending on how much it rains this fall.

University of South Florida Researches searching for skeletal remains in the Florida Panhandle have wrapped up the first phase of their search. As Matt Horn reports, there is still a long way to go before nagging questions of abuse are answered.

Just feet away from their gravesites at the former-Dozier School for Boys, skeletal remains exhumed Monday afternoon are ready to be examined.

“Preliminary analysis of dental remains show, suggest they are 10 to 13 years old,” said Researcher Erin Kimmerle.

A team of 25 researchers will now take evidence back to the University of South Florida to figure out just who was found in the graves and collect more evidence on the remains.

“More information we can write up a little narrative about that individual and send samples off for DNA testing,” she said.

Horror stories from inmates beaten at the ‘White House’ at the school sparked an investigation in 2008.

Researchers started looking at dozens of marked and unmarked graves last year after a law enforcement report was inconclusive. After a political tug of war with local officials, they began exhuming bodies this weekend. At least 50 bodies are expected to be found in the unmarked graves. Plans are in the works to prepare for a longer dig this fall.

“We’ve got to have power and water and sewer and lights. We’ve got to have everything you would need to operate for over a month,” said volunteer Larry Bedore.

Researchers will be back at the campus over the next year to search for other forgotten former-students who are believed to be buried in unmarked graves. The goal is to return any remains to loved ones.

Researchers say further DNA testing will be sent to the University of North Texas – which will help the group identify the remains found over the weekend.

Marianna,  and Jackson County Florida, population 50 thousand, are about to become the center of attention. Reports of beatings and boys being sent  to the Dozier School for Boys, never to return, have fueled speculation about brutality at the facility.

 Over Labor Day weekend the University of South Florida began exhuming bodies from unmarked graves. The majority of local residents are unhappy. They say the past is the past and should stay that way. 

“I believe it’s going to be a hornets nest” said John Cooper, a motorcyclist. Glenda Retherford works at Walmart. She believes whatever happened, couldn’t happen today.“Times are different. Things are different, People were different. It wouldn’t happen today, I don’t think.”

Insurance agent John Perkins says the money could be better spent taking care of kids today. “I mean, its something that happened fifty-sixty years ago. You know, let bye gones be bye gones” says Perkins.

 In allowing researchers to begin exhuming bodies, Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged local concerns. “Marianna, Florida currently is a beautiful place to live” says Bondi. The community is not universally opposed. Charlie Robert owns rental property.

“I think they need to do it” he told us. But a local judge and county commissioners…all of whom must face voters…took a stand against allowing the search for bodies. County Commissioner Jeremy Branch worries about the negative light being cast on the community. “What we are acting on are allegations made by criminals and juvenile deliquents” says Branch

The look for bodies could go on for as long as a year. But finding out what really happened over the one hundred year plus history of the school  is likely to remain buried forever.

 

 

The search for bodies at the former Dozier School for boys in the Panhandle entered into its third day. The search for answers is moving one inch at a time.

Inch-by-inch the antagonizing nightmare of the Dozier’s past is creeping closer to the surface…a bittersweet reminder of Florida’s troubled history.

“It’s really amazing to be able to put sort of a face to this list of individuals, these children we’ve been researching about, thinking about, meeting their family,” said USF Anthropologist Erin Kimmerle.

A team of researchers have been digging since Saturday. Sunday evening teeth and skull fragments were discovered in a grave being unearthed.
Monday the careful dig for answers continues.

“As the exhuming of bodies continue — family members are providing DNA to the researchers in an attempt to figure out who is buried at the closed school,” Matt Horn reported.

31 crosses dot the gravesites where the excavating is taking place. The chilling part – around 100 students are thought to be buried on the school
grounds. A lack of state records make it difficult for researchers to locate all of the bodies.

“When we initially came out here and started that is an area that would have been under thick brush,” said Kimmerle.

Questions started to surface in 2008 as abuse allegations made it to then-Governor Charlie Crist. An investigation he requested showed there were at least 31 bodies unaccounted for in the cemetery. Researchers are now working to put together additional missing links.

”It’s very meticulous work, I don’t think the public knows exactly the hard work it is. But, I have the blisters to show you its very hard work,” said research volunteer Brett Harding.

As the process continues, the shell of Dozier is all that remains intact outside of Marianna. As the chilling history is starting to rear it’s ugly head one inch at a time.

Governor Rick Scott and the Cabinet voted to allow USF researchers to exhume the bodies earlier this summer.