- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- brainworms@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- brainworms@lemm.ee
“Some relatives of those found buried behind the jail simply thought they were missing. They object to having to pay a fee for the removal of their loved one’s remains that are needed for a proper burial.”
Not to make excuses for this EVER happening …
At one time, this story used to be a fairly common one around the US. Like the one from Florida’s ‘School for Boys’ (a ‘reform’ school founded in 1900). Or the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA (founded 1879). Probably most states have one like it, at least before the 1950s.
In Washington State, a 2023 story developed about an abandoned former State Hospital (asylum), opened in 1909, closed in 1973. It developed after death records, sealed for 60 years, were unsealed. The facts about tens of thousands of inmates had been unknown to relatives.
Furthermore, “Initials and numbers stand in for names on the hospital cemetery headstones, most now sunk beneath the mud. More than 1,600 patients are believed to be buried on the campus or elsewhere in the valley — close to 900 of them cremated and interred in metal food cans.” - https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/lost-patients-two-peoples-consuming-quest-to-unearth-the-truth-about-washingtons-abandoned-psychiatric-hospital/
https://projects.seattletimes.com/2023/local/lost-patients-WA-abandoned-psychiatric-hospital/
Thanks. I was born and raised in Washington and never heard about this. Truly chilling.
I grew up near the Florida school and I remember hearing horror stories about it as a child. And it was always used as a threat by teachers for unruly students.
It was a truly horrible place.
If you don’t still live there, or haven’t heard of it recently, the site’s been partly excavated (authorized by Gov. Rick Scott) starting 10 years ago. Several men sent there as boys and still living testified about it in 2007. The most recent news I heard (in 2019) was that 27 more graves had been found. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article229136219.html
I moved away 20 years ago, and I still hate going back to Florida for any family event, that state was a horrible place to grow up.