1,000 bodies may have been patients who died at the mississippi state insane asylum almost a century ago .
they are former patients of the state ’s first mental institution , called the insane asylum , built in 1855 , and underground radar shows their coffins stretch across 20 acres of the ummc campus , where officials have wanted to build .
 
paying for reburials elsewhere would cost about $ 3,000 a piece , or $ 3 million total , he said dr. james keeton , dean of the medical school .
they are buried on 20 acres of the university of mississippi medical center campus .
— future progress for the state 's longtime medical school has collided with the ghosts of mississippi 's past — the discovery of a 1,000 bodies buried on its campus and the likelihood of more .
officials of the fast - growing university of mississippi medical center had planned to build a parking garage east of the dental school , where a grove of trees now sits .
now ummc is studying the cheaper alternative of handling those exhumations in - house , at a cost of $ 400,000 a year for at least eight years .
( photo : special to the clarion - ledger ) experts estimate up to 7,000 bodies are buried on the university of mississippi medical center campus .