Panama City, Bay County, Florida
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
By: Kevin Earl Wood, allunited@bellsouth.net
After following a long and arduous legal path of court hearings and administrative permit hurdles it appears now that the families of children buried in unmarked graves at the Dozier School for Boys will soon find the answers they seek and also final closure to a sordid and violent history in Florida.
On Tuesday, August 6th, 2013 the Florida Cabinet will consider an application from University of South Florida (USF) forensic researchers to exhume the scores of bodies of children buried unceremoniously in unmarked graves at the Dozier School for Boys, now closed, that is located in Marianna, Jackson County, Florida.
There are four members of the Florida Cabinet – Governor Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.
Pam Bondi has, along with U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, led the lead in advocating for the research, investigation, and exhumation of approximately fifty (50) children’s bodies buried in unmarked graves at the Dozier School. Adam Putnam, likewise, has been supportive of the USF efforts.
Governor Scott and Jeff Atwater to date have remained unusually silent on the Dozier matter, either pro or con.
However, today Atwater released a supportive statement saying, “CFO Atwater wants the relatives of those buried at the Dozier School for Boys to have the answers and closure they deserve, and he believes USF can help ensure that happens in a way that is responsible and respectful to all of the families involved.”
Putnam added today, “I am disappointed that this process continues to be delayed and stonewalled. The state should be facilitating the search for the truth, not serve as the biggest impediment to that truth. These families deserve better than how they’ve been treated.”
The USF application being considered by the full Cabinet requires three votes to pass. With Bondi, Putnam, and Atwater all on board now it appears that approval to begin exhumations at Dozier is a done deal.
In Cabinet voting the governor only votes if there is a tie. A tie is unlikely unless one of the three above members abstain and the vote becomes 1-1. An abstention appears unlikely.
According to plans submitted by USF to the Cabinet the remains of children, and possibly two or more adults believed to be buried at Dozier, exhumed will be taken into custody by the Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) and then transferred to USF for anthropological autopsy and identification. DNA samples will be retained by the medical examiner.
Dr. Michael Hunter is the MEO for Jackson County and the 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida. His office is located in Panama City.
DNA samples obtained from the remains held by Dr. Hunter will be submitted either to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification or to Bode Technology Laboratories.
Both institutions receive funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) missing persons grant program. NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. As such, DNA testing for unidentified missing persons, as those buried at Dozier, will be cost free to USF and Dr. Hunter.
This month Bode received its most recent grant approval from NIJ.
Bay Community News has in several stories predicted that USF and the medical examiner, Dr. Hunter, would eventually form a team to bring answers and closure to the families of the Dozier missing. The final prediction is that on Tuesday, July 6, that team will begin work at Dozier.
USF and law enforcement will continue to take DNA samples from family members to match with the remains exhumed at Dozier. Criminal investigation and the involvement of the office of State Attorney Glenn Hess appears unlikely unless remains and evidence found at Dozier turn up a prosecutable case.
