Florida Buried Nearly 100 Boys at Dozier — Only 55 Were Ever Found

For over a century, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida operated as a state-run reform school. Boys as young as 5 were committed there for offenses ranging from murder to truancy to simply being labeled incorrigible. From the earliest years, investigators found evidence of abuse. Boys were beaten in a small white building on campus. Some disappeared. Official records listed 31 graves on the property. When forensic anthropologist Dr. Erin Kimmerle of the University of South Florida used ground-penetrating radar to survey the site in 2012, she found 55. Most were outside the boundaries of the known cemetery. Some were under roads. Some showed signs of gunshot wounds. In two thousand and fourteen, the first DNA identification was confirmed: fourteen-year-old George Owen Smith, who entered Dozier in nineteen forty and was never seen by his family again. His eighty-five-year-old sister Ovell Krell had spent seventy-three years searching for him. This is the full story of what happened at Dozier, what forensic science uncovered, and why so many families are still waiting for answers. The Dozier School for Boys closed in two 2011. #DozierSchool #FuneralReport #TrueStory #FloridaHistory #WhiteHouseBoys #ReformSchool #ForensicAnthropology #NickelBoys #UnmarkedGraves #ConsumerForensics #ColdCase #HiddenHistory