Florida governor orders graves probe

MARIANNA, Fla., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist Tuesday ordered an investigation of 32 unmarked graves found at a boys reform school known for its harsh discipline.

Crist asked the state Law Enforcement Department to identify the remains and determine whether any crimes were committed at the Florida School for Boys, now known as the Dozier School, in Marianna, The Miami Herald reported.

The governor said in a letter to Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey the graves' location should be investigated and a determination made who owned the property at the time the bodies were buried. He also requested the Juvenile Justice Department to offer any assistance needed.

''Please review all available resources and make every reasonable effort to determine the identities of these remains,'' Crist wrote. "During the course of the investigation, please determine whether any crimes were committed and, if possible, the perpetrators of these crimes.''

Crist said four former residents approached him about the matter Monday. They claim the facility was a house of horrors where delinquent boys were flogged, sexually abused, and physically and mentally tortured.

African-American residents at the school sometimes disappeared without explanation in the 1950s and 1960s, and the men say they are convinced the youths were buried in the graves, the Herald reported.

"Given the institution's meticulous records … there is no practical reason that the identity of the children buried there was not recorded,'' said Michael O'McCarthy, now 66, who lived at the school in 1958-59.