Researchers will survey entire grounds of shuttered Dozier School for Boys

Subcontractor using radar found 27 anomalies that could be graves

FILE PHOTO: In this July 13, 2011 photo, the buildings that housed the Dozier School for Boys is locked after if closed and about 200 employees were laid-off. The reform school was a steady employer for 111 years in Jackson County. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida officials have agreed to survey the grounds of a shuttered reform school campus where dozens of boys are believed to have died.

State officials said Thursday they will survey the entire 1,200-acre campus of the Dozier School For Boys in Marianna, Florida for the first time.

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The Tampa Bay Times reports the survey will use radar-like laser mapping data to detect abnormalities that warrant more on-the-ground probes.

In April, a subcontractor using ground-penetrating radar on the campus found 27 so-called anomalies that could be unmarked graves.

University of South Florida researchers have previously documented 55 graves near the school, though they estimate nearly 100 boys died there between 1900 and 1973.

The school closed in 2011.


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