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Who’s buried at the Dozier School for Boys and why did an initial investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement fail to find 19 graves?

These are just a few of the questions state leaders want answered tonight. The panhandle reform school, infamous for alleged abuse, was closed last year. In 2009, after several former students reported their classmates were killed at Dozier in the 1950s and 60s, FDLE investigated. The department found 31 graves, but no evidence of any crimes. A new study by the University of South Florida located an additional 19 graves. Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam wants to know how the researchers found more graves than the FDLE investigators.

“And they both differ in a way that raises questions about why USF found so many more bodies than FDLE,” said Putnam.

FDLE concluded its investigation several years ago. Commissioner Gerald Bailey says he’ll reexamine the department’s report to see why it differs so much from USF’s