George Owen Smith
George Owen Smith, known to his family as Owen, was 14 when he was sent to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, in 1940. He ran away in December 1940 and was never seen alive again. School officials wrote his family that he had died after crawling under a house, and his mother kept writing to the school asking about him. His remains were identified in 2014 through DNA matching with his sister, Ovell Krell, after decades of her searching; the school's account says he died of exposure or pneumonia, while the family, and a former student who said he saw staff carry him motionless into the White House building, believe he was beaten or shot. The cause of his death has not been established.
Cause of death, as reported: Cause not yet determined (disputed). School officials said he died of pneumonia or exposure to the cold after hiding under a house, but his family believes guards shot at him, and a former ward said guards beat him before his death.
Reported by: school officials at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys (the agency that held him); his family; a former ward.
Sources (13)
- The Search for the Dead: Families of boys who died at shuttered Dozier juvenile detention facility seek answers
- Florida school exhumations revive ghosts of a grisly past
- 55 Bodies Exhumed At Reform School Site In Florida
- Dozier School deaths: Boy's remains identified from shuttered Florida reform school
- Identification of Florida boy's remains marks end of 'long journey' for family
- The body of a boy who tried to escape Florida's most notorious reform school has been identified
- More children’s bodies identified at Florida reform school
- Dozier School deaths: Empty coffin of escaped boy adds to mysteries
- Researchers find more graves at Dozier than state said existed
- Ground Truth: In Dozier's neglected cemetery, a search for lost boys and the reasons why they died
- Documentary on University of South Florida's investigation of the former Dozier School for Boys to air
- 'A type of justice': Florida reform school yields evidence of more graves
- ‘History was attempted to be buried’: the true story behind Oscar-nominated Nickel Boys