Kendrick Johnson was found dead in January 2013 in a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Was it a terrible accident or something more sinister?
On January 11 , 2013 , the eubstance of 17 - yr - old Kendrick Johnson was found in the most strange of circumstances : upside - down and rolled up in a school gym mat . The mysterious decease of Kendrick Johnson was initially ruled an accident by jurisprudence enforcement , but his sept was not convinced .
Wikimedia CommonsSeventeen - year - honest-to-goodness Kendrick Johnson ’s body was inexplicably found upside - down in a rolled - up gym mat in 2013 .
The initial autopsy revealed that Johnson die due to “ positional asphyxia ” or that he suffocated as a resultant of being stuck upside - down in an enclose space for an lengthy point of time . Just after 24 hours of being found , the investigators ruled Johnson ’s death an fortuity .
Wikimedia CommonsSeventeen-year-old Kendrick Johnson’s body was inexplicably found upside-down in a rolled-up gym mat in 2013.
The Sheriff ’s Department asserted that Johnson must have incidentally fallen into the gist of the mat while reach for a sneaker , which he had stash away there so as not to have to give for a locker .
But Johnson ’s parents felt that his end was not being take seriously , in part because of his airstream or because a large cover - up was at drama .
The Mysterious Death Of Kendrick Johnson, The Boy In The Rolled-Up Gym Mat
Kendrick Johnson lived with his family in Valdosta , Georgia and attended Lowndes High School . His family and ally describe him as a sweet and muted boy . He was a three - summercater athlete and dreamed of act professional football game .
But those dreaming were cut short when his physical structure was found by students accede the lyceum rolled up in a standing gym mat . His sneakers were shoved behind his knee . But investigator quickly close their example on the theory that Johnson had simply fall into the mat while pass on for one of his sneakers .
Indeed , when the mat was first unrolled , Johnson did have one arm stretched above his headway and the other down around his waist as though shin for his shoe . He was just in his socks . Students had also told police that it was mutual for them to go forth their belongings in the mats when they did n’t desire to pay for a locker .
FacebookKendrick Johnson with his mother.
The mat in which Johnson was incur was around six foot tall . When rolled up , the mat left a 14 - inch hole in diameter in the center . Johnson ’s shoulders measured 19 across and he was five feet , ten inches tall .
It seemed potential that if Kendrick was trying to squeeze into the center of the mat , he could have squat his articulatio humeri together to make himself narrower . But his parent would later maintain that his size of it versus the size of it of the gym mat alone was enough to debunk the investigators ’ case .
Almost a full day had passed until Johnson had been discovered . As he was upside down , blood would have rushed to Johnson ’s head and he eventually would have begun to bleed from his facial opening .
NY Daily News/Valdosta/Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory via CNNKendrick Johnson’s body rolled up inside the gym mat with his shoes behind his knees.
FacebookKendrick Johnson with his female parent .
But this is one of the most baffling mysteries of this example : the grim and white gym brake shoe that lie on the ground below Kendrick Johnson , the one he was assume to be hand for , was lie on top of a pocket billiards of blood , but there was no rakehell on the shoe itself .
A hoodie and a duo of orange and bootleg gym shoe were also chance lying on the storey of the gymnasium , as well as traces of roue on the wall nearby .
CNNKendrick Johnson’s shoe laying in the pool of blood.
investigator tested the blood which revealed that it did not go to Kendrick Johnson . They also reported that the blood had likely been there for a long meter . police detective did not take the hoodie and orange and black gym shoes into evidence .
Suspicions Arise In The Kendrick Johnson Case
Johnson ’s parents were suspicious of the investigation from the beginning .
They believed that the Sheriff ’s Department was too ready to harness out cheating play as a cause for Johnson ’s death , weigh that within 24 hours of come up Kendrick Johnson ’s body , they concluded that it was an accident .
The Johnsons were also certain that their son ’s body had been moved , which was corroborated by Lowndes County Coroner , Bill Watson .
R.I.P Kendrick Johnson FacebookOne of the coroner’s reports on Kendrick Johnson’s autopsy.
Georgia province law dictates that the medical examiner be contacted immediately on the find of a trunk , but Watson claim that he was not notified until six hours later .
Furthermore , Johnson ’s parent argued , if this was an chance event , how could no one have heard Kendrick call for help in a high schooling of over 3,000 scholar ?
Johnson ’s parents finally believe that their son ’s death was not being taken severely because of his race .
R.I.P Kendrick Johnson Facebook PageKendrick Johnson’s casket was unearthed for a second time for a third autopsy. His mother posted on her Facebook: “No mother or father should ever have to bury their child under these circumstances. We have buried kj 3 times and it felt like 3 funerals and i lost him 3 times.”
Kendrick Johnson was disastrous and the Lowndes County Sheriff , Chris Prines , and his investigators were all ashen . Indeed , in 2013 , racialism in Valdosta , Georgia , was still very much alive . The family ’s attorney , Chevene King , expressed that if Kendrick had been white-hot , the cause would have been handled differently .
His Family Searches For The Truth
NY Daily News / Valdosta / Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory via CNNKendrick Johnson ’s torso rolled up inside the gym matt with his brake shoe behind his knees .
Kendrick Johnson ’s parents released a photo to the medium of their son ’s grimace as he lay in the funeral home .
The picture , in which Kendrick Johnson ’s face is passing swollen , almost does not look human . The public was horrified by the photo and start to rally around the Johnsons in their pursuit for the trueness .
On May 8 , 2013 , a evaluator granted Kendrick Johnson ’s trunk be exhumed .
A private diagnostician was hired to bear out a 2nd autopsy . This time , the autopsyrevealedthat Kendrick Johnson had suffered hemorrhaging on the correct side of his neck , which imply that he in all likelihood died from plainspoken effect trauma . The diagnostician conclude his death was not an accident .
On top of this , the second autopsy revealed that some of Johnson ’s pipe organ were missing and in their place , his torso had been stuffed with newsprint .
CNNKendrick Johnson ’s shoe laying in the kitty of blood .
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations ( GBI ) arrogate that when the body was transport to the funeral home after the first PM , Johnson ’s organs had been put back inside the body .
However , the medical examiner articulate these organs were not sent to the funeral home because they were too decomposed and were instead put away of beforehand .
The funeral family say that it welcome the body without organs which it replaced with newspaper or sawdust as is common practice while embalming .
The Johnson ’s did attempt to litigate the funeral home for mishandling their son ’s body , and perhaps having done so in order of magnitude to cover up his true drive of end , but this case was pretermit .
Regardless , the organs were lost and could not be test during the second autopsy , which further aroused suspicions in Johnson ’s parent that this was a cover - up .
As a result of this unexampled evidence , Matthew Moore , the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia , harbinger a courtly review of the case .
The Johnsons hoped for a coroner ’s inquest , which would set about the cognitive process of reclassify the cause of Kendrick Johnson ’s expiry as non - inadvertent and reopen the investigation . The request , however , was denied , even though the coroner Bill Watson had primitively express a deficiency of confidence in the Sheriff Department ’s handling of the case .
Surveillance Footage And Suspects Finally Emerge
R.I.P Kendrick Johnson FacebookOne of the medical examiner ’s report card on Kendrick Johnson ’s autopsy .
CNNgained approach to the school ’s security footage on the Clarence Day that Kendrick Johnson was kill , but upon viewing it , realized that it offered little brainwave into what happened that twenty-four hours .
The cameras which faced the mat were unfocused and skipped around . All that could be seen from the cameras was Kendrick Johnson walk towards the gymnasium , and then several seconds of footage of him jogging within the gymnasium . He was never render within or leaving the gymnasium and indeed , he never did show up for his conform to classes .
Furthermore , a whole hour of footage from the gymnasium was missing , correctly at the prison term which would have shed light on what find that day . This finding further increase the self-assurance of doubters that this death was an fortuity .
Then , in 2014 , Kendrick Johnson ’s parents filed a unlawful death suit against the school ’s officials , say that Johnson had been chevvy by a white bookman which went neglect by the school , perhaps due to his wash .
Ebony.comdescribed the murderof Johnson to have been at the hands of two white buddy , though they did not include epithet . The description of these comrade nearly resembled that of Brian and Brandon Bell , who the magazine claimed had killed Kendrick because of a fighting they had had over a year in the beginning which had escalated .
The Johnsons also accused the brother ’ father , an FBI agent at the time , of covering up the murder by manipulate the school and authorities involved in investigating Johnson ’s dying .
In 2015 , the Johnsonsfiled a $ 100 million civil lawsuitagainst 38 people , include three of their Word ’s classmates , the school , the local offense research laboratory , state and federal official , five agent of the GBI , an FBI agentive role , and more . The parents asserted that the Logos of the FBI factor killed Johnson and used their connections to overcompensate up the investigation .
Johnson ’s sire , however , admit that he had no operose evidence to back up any of these claim and the Johnsons had to drop the case . They were sued for more than $ 850,000 in attorney fees and more than one million in defamation charge . They were at long last ordain by a judge to pay close to $ 300,000 Charles Frederick Worth of attorney ’ fee to those they had accuse with no evidence .
A Widely Unsatisfying Conclusion In The Case Of Kendrick Johnson
In June 2016 , the Department of Justice announce no cathexis would be filed against anyone in coitus to Kendrick Johnson ’s decease , considering there was “ insufficient evidence to back up federal criminal charge . ”
As far as the feds were concerned , the case was officially — and at long last — closed .
But Johnson ’s parents would still not give up .
R.I.P Kendrick Johnson Facebook PageKendrick Johnson ’s coffin was unearth for a 2nd time for a third autopsy . His female parent posted on her Facebook : “ No mother or don should ever have to bury their small fry under these circumstances . We have bury kj 3 clip and it felt like 3 funerals and i lost him 3 times . ”
In June 2018 , Kendrick Johnson ’s body was exhume for a second time and a third autopsy was performed . The finding of the second autopsy , that Johnson ’s death was not accidental and do by forthright strength trauma likely due to being “ struck in the neck with a 45 lb dumbbell , ” were confirmed .
Kendrick Johnson ’s parent skip that with the results of this third autopsy , the surveillance footage which they were convert had been tampered with , and the mishandling of grounds at the fit , would be enough to reopen their Logos ’s case .
It does appear , however , that their quest for reply has only lead to more questions .
Reopening The Kendrick Johnson Investigation After Eight Years
eventually , in March 2021 , authorities reopen their probe into Kendrick Johnson ’s end .
According to Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk , “ If there ’s questions — and they ’re legitimate — I need to know the answers myself . The only way I ’m going to live is to count at the grounds myself . ”
Paulk and his team were able to secure a wealth of evidence from Union authorities , in part thanks to an entreaty from Johnson ’s home in November 2020 . At the prison term , the sheriff believed they had enough grounds in mitt to perhaps allow them to solve this enigma once and for all .
“ It ’s been eight long years , ” said Kendrick Johnson ’s mother , Jacquelyn . “ I ’m feel bright . ”
However , after nothing do of the investigation , the Johnson phratry filed suit against Lowndes County in September 2023 , only to have the judge rule against them the stick to calendar month .
Though the phratry of Kendrick Johnson is still fighting , the case stay on undecided more than a decade after his bizarre , tragical death .
After this distressing look at the case and death of Kendrick Johnson , read up on another mysterious disappearance , that ofElisa Lam . Then , read about the horrifying murder ofEmmett Till .
