What Happened To 14- Year-old George Owen Smith?

When her brother Owen(is what his family called him) was arrested for car theft, Owen's sister never thought that was something he would do. She knew him pretty well. They were quite close since only a couple of years apart. She never believed the car theft story from day one. The most he had done wrong is ran away a few times. His dream was to play at the Grand Ole Opry. That is where he was headed when they claimed he had gotten arrested for car theft.

He was only 14 and shipped off to the Dozier School for boys. In the 1940s it was called the industrial school for boys. The school changed names a few more times before ending with Dozier school for boys in the late 60s. Owen even ran away from the school a couple of times.

The family had received an odd letter from Owen saying "I got what was coming to me." and that was the last they heard from him. She later was told he had run away so she wrote a letter to the school to ask where Owen was.

Remember this was back in the 1940s, letter is what was used back then, not text messaging. She received a letter back saying they could not locate him and will let her know as soon as they can find him. Also asked if they see him let the school know.

4 months go by and his mother started threatening and saying she was making the 5-hour drive to the school and would not leave until she would find out where her son was.

Mysteriously the day she arrived at the school, they claimed to all of a sudden find, Owen. He was hiding under a house and caught pneumonia. A younger sibling said that was nonsense. No 14-year-old would just lay under there and not come out. And most would want to get as far away as possible from the school, Owen was found in the same town from what the school officials had said.

"Was he dead or was he out there wandering around, afraid to come home?" said a family member

Owen was scared of the dark. He would hold his sister's hand while walking home from the movies to feel safer. So the story of him crawling under a dark house was a bunch of lies is what his sister said.

Later a fellow student at the school with Owen had told the family, he had run away with Owen the second time and they both got caught. Owen took off running and three men were shooting at him with rifles as he ran across an open field. There had been many reports of abuse that, at the time the state could find no evidence of.

A lot of former boys from the school most senior citizens came forward and spoke of the abuse they endured at that school. There was even a support group for former students and they called themselves the white house, they claimed they were whipped so bad their underwear was embedded in their buttocks. Some boys were beaten unconscious. Crying and screaming got you extra lashes.

They never received Owens's body, so that showed them even more, that the stories they told about his death did not seem believable. They claimed he was so decomposed and they had burned the body on campus.

Owen's sister was asked by both parents before they passed away for her to never stop looking for him. She made that promise to them.

Now more than 7 decades later, his body had been found on campus. Along with many other bodies. With most of the students already being senior citizens that means most of the staff is no longer alive. So highly unlikely anyone will be charged with any crime. 31 bodies were found buried on the school grounds.