The three-day search for human remains in Okeechobee ended Thursday after no remains were located on the grounds of an old reform school.

"We are officially concluding our search of the Okeechobee School for Boys," Okeechobee County Undersheriff Noel Stephen said.

The reform school in Okeechobee County served as the overflow site for students from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, located in the Florida Panhandle.

More than 50 bodies were found buried in the city of Marianna following federal probe.

"I'm sad for the ones we all lost," said Harley DeNyke, a former student at the Dozier School for Boys.

DeNyke said he was abused as a boy at the Dozier School for Boys in the 1960s — the time when Dozier officials sent boys and staff to the overflow school in Okeechobee.

"The abuse that was obtained here was the same abuse that we got in Marianna," DeNyke said.

Former students claim they were brutally beaten and sexually abused.

"We have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve you — none," Okeechobee Sheriff Paul May said. "But, we just can't prove the accusations. We tried."

For three days, investigators deployed cadaver dogs to search 25 acres of the campus farmland for possible human remains.

Nothing was found.

Former students were skeptical the dogs could find remains buried more 50 years ago. Instead, former students wanted ground-penetrating radar devices, like the ones used at the Dozier School, to be part of the investigation.

"We got too much debris," Capt. John Rhoden said. "And two, you don't have a location to where anybody said there is a body."

Officials said there were eight known deaths at the school, and they were all ruled accidental.

The investigation revealed many records were destroyed or missing, but all but one of the school ledgers have since been found.

"Based on some of the names of the accused battered or killed boys, (Rhoden) went out and found them or their family members," Stephen said.

The search is now over. The case may soon be closed, too.

"It's not over yet," DeNyke said.

As for the claims of brutal beatings and sexual abuse, those are all outside the statute of limitations.

Investigators were only at the old reform school to search for bodies and prove if the school covered up murder.

The reform school continues to operate under new ownership.