Researchers identify 2 more sets of remains from former reform school on Florida Panhandle

Published January 08, 2015

Researchers say they have identified two more sets of remains buried on the grounds of a former Florida Panhandle reform school for over a half-century.

The University of South Florida team announced Thursday it has identified the remains of 13-year-old Thomas Varnadoe and 12-year-old Earl Wilson.

Varnadoe died in 1934, reportedly of pneumonia. Wilson was beaten to death in 1944, reportedly by four other boys.

In August, researchers said they had identified George Owen Smith as the first of 55 bodies they exhumed from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

Students from the 1950s and 1960s have for at least a decade accused employees and guards of physical and sexual abuse. But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded after an investigation that it couldn't substantiate or dispute the claims.

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