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**WARNNG** Graphic images contained in this blog. Viewer discretion is highly advised.
On January 10, 2013, 17-year old high school student Kendrick Johnson didn’t return home from school. He was supposed to come home after attending a basketball game at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Around midnight, his mom, Jackie Johnson filed a missing person’s report.
The following morning, Jackie Johnson went to the high school to look for him. She learned that her son missed a few classes the day before.
Later that afternoon, on January 11, students found Kendrick Johnson’s lifeless body rolled up inside a gym mat in the school’s gymnasium. The gym mats measured around 6 feet tall, and 3 feet across. The Lowndes County Sherriff’s Department ruled his death an accident and the cause of death was positional asphyxiation.
The preliminary investigation concluded that Kendrick got stuck in the vertical mat after trying to reach his gym shoes at the bottom of the mat. Many students, including Kendrick, didn’t want to pay for lockers at school. Instead, they stored their gym shoes inside the gym’s rolled up mats.
Blood was discovered inside the rolled-up mat and pooled around the gym shoes Kendrick was reaching from. After Kendrick died, blood pooled to his head causing the blood to bleed out from his facial orifices. There was no blood found on top of the gym shoes, leading many to question the sheriff’s departments conclusions about his death.
The Johnson family received court approval to exhume Kendrick’s body was a second, private autopsy to be performed. The private pathologist concluded that Kendrick died from blunt force trauma, specifically to his neck.
After this finding, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia agreed to reopen Kendrick’s case. A few months later the office announced that they would not be pursing any criminal charges against anyone in Kendrick’s death.
In 2015, the Johnson family filed a $100 million lawsuit against 38 people including several law enforcement agents, the high school, and the crime lab who processed the evidence. The case was later dismissed and the Johnson family was ordered to pay over $300,000 in attorney fees to the defendants named in the civil lawsuit.
Kendrick’s body was exhumed for the second time for a third, independent autopsy to be performed. This came after the family believed that the high school’s surveillance cameras had been altered in an attempt to cover-up the real cause of Kendrick’s death. The results of the third autopsy concluded that he died from blunt force trauma.
The Johnson’s believe that two brothers are responsible for their son’s murder. They also believe that the investigation was a cover-up because the father of the brother’s is a FBI agent.
The Johnson family continues to fight for justice to uncover the real cause of Kenrick Johnson’s death.
What do you think happened to Kendrick Johnson?
Episode Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHI4Zaudbv4
https://www.vibe.com/2018/11/third-autopsy-shows-kendrick-johnson-suffered-blunt-force-trauma
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-wrongdoing-detected-in-kendrick-johnson-funeral-home-probe/
https://us.cnn.com/2014/12/26/justice/georgia-kendrick-johnson-teen-gym-mat-death/index.html
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