{"id":134218,"date":"2026-01-28T00:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134218\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:10:07","slug":"remains-found-at-tom-brown-park-spark-push-for-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134218\/","title":{"rendered":"Remains found at Tom Brown Park spark push for preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Last week, remnants of a casket and bone fragments <\/a>were found near a trail in Tom Brown Park, according to the City of Tallahassee\u2019s Parks and Rec Department.<\/p>\n

Officials couldn\u2019t immediately determine the age of the recently discovered remains. The city says there is a small cemetery nearby with headstones dating back to the early 1900s. <\/p>\n

Lena Kilpatrick Harris, prior to the news of remains found at the park, did not know where her great-grandfather Reverend J.W. Kilpatrick was buried.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a family cemetery and he\u2019s not, he wasn\u2019t there. So we were always wondering where he was buried at,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI also understand that Mariah, his wife, tombstone is there and his son, Walter, and Walter is my grandfather.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s still being investigated as to whose remains were found, but with Kilpatrick\u2019s tombstone in the same area, Harris would like to see the site maintained. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like for them to reserve this area and if it can be made like a historical area, fenced in, where people cannot go in and destroy whatever is there. That\u2019s the main thing is making sure that their resting place remains diligent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Local historian Delaitre Hollinger is working to preserve abandoned cemeteries throughout the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Reverend J.W. Kilpatrick was certainly a historic figure in Leon County\u2019s history – a pastor of several churches in the area. Founder of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Simply by virtue of the fact that his burial is here makes it a very historic site,\u201d Hollinger said.<\/p>\n

Currently, caution tape now re-routes bikers or hikers away from the gravesites and where the remains were found. <\/p>\n

But Hollinger would like to see more done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I feel is if that\u2019s been there all this time, why haven\u2019t we done more to investigate and cordon this off,\u201d Hollinger said. \u201cWhy haven\u2019t we done more to kind of incorporate this as a part of Tom Brown Park and as part of a site that the public can come and visit and have access to, as opposed to just having them sitting back there beyond the trees.\u201d <\/p>\n

After this discovery at Tom Brown, Hollinger said that compelled him to create the Florida Cemetery Preservation Network to help more families in the state who have loved ones buried in abandoned cemeteries.<\/p>\n

Florida Department of State Archeologists are investigating the remains along with the state\u2019s medical examiner. WCTV has reached out to the state to learn more about that investigation. <\/p>\n

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