Infamous Florida reform school sent family a coffin full of wood instead of son
(CNN Oct. 9, 2014) For almost 90 years, the casket lay beneath the earth, Thomas Curry family believing the teen who died too young rested in peace there, in an unmarked plot with his great grandparents.
Curry was a charge of Marianna, Florida Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a now infamous juvenile detention facility that closed in 2011 for budgetary reasons, capping a chilling, 111 year legacy of brutality.
From 1900 to 1952, according to a court document, 100 boys died there, but only about half were buried on the patagonia backcountry guide pants sale3reform institution grounds. Others were shipped home to their families.
Curry, 17, became part of that tally in 1925 when he died suspicious circumstances while escaping Dozier twenty nine days after arriving, says the copatagonia vest reviewurt order permitting his exhumation this week.
The coroner at the time ruled Curry manner of death was unknown. The ledger entry at the Dozier school said he was on RR Bridge Chattahoochee, Fla. Another document at Old Cathedral Cemetery in Philadelphia says he was by train. No one from Dozier ever reported his death to the state.
He was returned in a casket to his family, who, in turn, buried him in Philadelphia. Or so the family thought.
It wasn until a state investigation beginning in 2008 that Curry death certificate was found at Dozier. It said he died of a crushed skull from an cause.
Layers of pieces of wood, said anthropologist Erin Kimmerle, explaining what she and her team found in the casket. was completely filled with wooden planks. first, the team thought they had the wrong grave, but then they found Curry great grandparents beneath the wood filled casket.
of efforts to deceive was still incredulous Wednesday, as was Cpl. Tom McAndrew of the Pennsylvania State Police, who along with Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Brendpatagonia guide pants sizingan O was instrumental in clearing thepatagonia backcountry guide pants sale path for Kimmerle team to exhume Curry remains, she said,
was a little bit of a shock. It was certainly anticlimactic, McAndrpatagonia hats for saleew said. was shipped up from Florida, and it was buried, and someone believed it was Thomas Curry. he think, as a law enforcement officer, that the finding is indicative of school officials intent to deceive Curry family nine decades ago?
he said, but it not surprising when you consider that the investigation into the Dozier school has uncovered and decades of efforts to deceive, coverups, and not just by one but by many people. has been in contact with two of Curry distapatagonia backcountry guide pants sale0nt cousins, and while they weren familiar with Curry or his death before Kimmerle team began investigating, they done what they could to advpatagonia kids& retro-x vest - specialance the investigation, the police corporal said.
They provided names from their family tree and handwritten notes from their mother. One of the cousins, Eileen Witmier, who is 61 and is the granddaughter of Curry mom sister, provided DNA to identify Curry had he been found.
interest lies in justice being served, McAndrew said of the cousins.
Asked where his own interest lies, McAndrew gave a similar answer, but also noted that Kimmerle has been an invaluable ally to law enforcement. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Kimmerle has conducted testing in her lab to help McAndrew with homicide cases in Pennsylvania.
For one particularly high profile case a pregnant teen foupatagonia backcountry guide pants sale2nd dismembered in suitcases in 1976 Kimmerle team analyzed the woman hair and teeth. Via isotope testing, Kimmerle was able to determine where the woman lived based on the water she consumed while alive.
Though police have yet to solve the case, they now know she was born in Europe and immigrated to the Southeastern United States at age 12, McAndrew said.
she turned to me for assistance, obviously I would done anything for her, McAndrew said of Kimmerle.
Kimmerle had hoped, of course, that Curry remains would unravel some of the mystery surrounding his death.
went into it trying to answer questions, she said. we have is more questions than answers. the investigation continues. Now armed with Witmier DNA, Kimmerle team can return to Marianna, about 65 miles west of Tallahassee, and attempt to match the sample to one of the dozens of bodies that have already been dug up patagonia employment opportunities new orleanson the 1,400 acre former campus.
Though many of the boys died so long ago, it important to find their family members, Kimmerle believes, if only because of the uncertainties surrounding their deaths and the controversy enveloping the supposed school where they died.
That bodpatagonia everlong review lifestyleies lay there was never a secret 31 rusty, white crosses marked the resting places of victims wpatagonia everlong review restaurantho died from a dormitory fire, influenza, pneumonia and other causes but Kimmerle team has found a total of 55 bodies there so far.
Her team also has found records indicating that 22 boys who died at the school are unaccounted for. Already, Kimmerle and her colleagues have identified three sets of remains. One of those bodies was George Owen Smith, patagonia backcountry guide pants sale1whose sister Ovell Krell, 85, told CNN in August she was elated that the seven decade mystery surrounding her brother death was finally solved.
Though ex students provided detailed accounts of vicious beatings, sexpatagonia guide jacket invitationsual abuse and disappearances, guards and administrators who are still alive have denied the beatings occurred.
The state investigation in 2008 and 2009 said there was insufficient evidence of abuse at Dozier, but dozens of men, many of them now senior citizens, have come forward with stories. A support group for ex students, dubbed The White House Boys, takes its moniker from the structure where boys say they were beaten with a leather strap attached to a wooden handle.
They were whipped until their underwear was embedded in their buttockspatagonia guide pants patches, The White House Boys say. Some were beaten unconscious. Crying or screaming out would earn you extra lashes, they say.
So while this week exhumation didn answer any of the myriad questions surrounding Dozier and its missing and dead boys, it was still an important part of the ongoing investigation, researchers and police said.
definitely had to be done, McAndrew said. had to at least open the grave if this investigation down in Florida is going to be resolved.
