Grave excavation continues at reform school site

MARIANNA, Fla. — Researchers are working on two graves at a former Florida reform school where students say they were abused.

On Sunday, the University of South Florida researchers continued for a second day attempts to unearth remains and later identify those buried at the now-closed Arthur G. Dozier School in the Florida Panhandle. The digging and work will go on through Tuesday.

Erin Kimmerle is the USF anthropologist leading the excavation. She reported Sunday that researchers have found skeletal remains in one coffin. She says the second coffin will be opened later in the day.

Researchers also hope to learn how the boys died. Former inmates at the reform school have detailed severe beatings by guards during the 1950s and 1960s.

WFTV