TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Authorities have exhumed 55 bodies near Dozier School for Boys, a now-closed reform school here.
Formerly known as Florida State Reform School and the Florida Industrial School for Boys, Dozier School for Boys was a juvenile detention center that became known for allegations of abuse and brutality against the students who lived there, CBS News reports.
Authorities commissioned researchers at the University of South Florida to look into deaths at the school after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement discovered 31 official grave sites in 2010. USF began the excavations last September and sent bones, teeth and artifacts from the grave sites to the University of North Texas Science Center for DNA testing, Reuters reports.
Researchers will continue to search in areas adjacent to the graveyard, known as “boot hill” by school officials and inmates.
Dozier School for Boys was shut down by the state in 2011.
