LEWISTON, Maine - Maine state police are looking into a claim that a 15-year-old boy died after a boxing match at the Elan School three decades ago.
The Sun Journal reports that Pam Newell was told that her brother, Phil, died from a brain aneurysm in 1982. But she says she only recently learned that he had been forced into the Maine school's infamous boxing ring before he died.
The forced fighting was among controversial tactics that emerged during Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's murder trial in Connecticut.
The school for troubled teens closed in 2011, and several former school officials said they'd never heard of the incident. The boy's death certificate cites a probable brain aneurysm.
A Maine State Police spokesman says detectives have received the information and have begun looking into the death.