Kendrick Johnson was a 17-year-old who attended Lowndes County High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Kendrick was a former American professional basketball player who played college basketball for Point Loma. Although Kendrick sadly passed away on January 11, 2013, due to the discovery of his body inside a vertically rolled up gym mat located in the gymnasium of his school. His body was found headfirst in the center of the vertical roll-up mat. The body was found by fellow students who climbed onto the mat and discovered his body, which stood about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide. An autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed that Kendrick had died from positional asphyxia, and it was confirmed that his death was accidental by the Lowndes County investigators.
The authorities claimed that Kendrick fell into the mat while looking for a shoe and died after not being able to get out. Three students who attended Lowndes High School told the investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled-up mats, although Kendrick wasn’t wearing any shoes when his body was found. Another student who attended the high school with Kendrick said that he would share a pair of Adidas shoes with Kendrick and that every day after gym, Kendrick would always go to the mats, jump up, and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole. Lieutenant Stryde Jones, who was the leader of the investigation for the Lowndes County sheriff’s office, stated that there wasn’t any credible evidence that this was an attempted murder, but an accident. The family of Kendrick was not satisfied with the lieutenant’s answer, so they hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R. Anderson, who worked as a Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida. After William gathered evidence, he claimed to have found findings that indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, and that his death was not accidental. After the opinion of the private pathologist was released, Kendrick’s family stated that they believed that Kendrick was murdered.
On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore announced that his office would open a formal review into Kendrick’s death. Kendrick’s family filed a legal action to open a coroner’s inquest into his death. In Kendrick’s case, the judge delayed the decision, pending the outcome of the U.S. Attorney’s review, which the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorize the inquiry instead. The independent autopsy found that some time after Kendrick’s body was recovered from the mat and had passed through a funeral home, it had been stuffed with newspaper. The funeral home that processed Kendrick’s body following the FBI’s autopsy claimed that they never received Kendrick’s internal organs from the coroner, which stated that they had been destroyed in the natural process and discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent back to Valdosta, the owner of the funeral home stated. The funeral home left a void, which they filled. The funeral home owner claimed that it was standard practice to fill a void in this fashion, and that cotton or sawdust may also be employed for this purpose. Kendrick’s family filed a complaint against the regulatory body against the funeral home operator. Later on, Kendrick’s Family requested that his body be exhumed for a second time and was granted permission by Valdosta city officials. More than a decade has passed since Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a high school gym, but the questions surrounding his death have not faded. While official investigations have concluded no harm was done, the Johnson family continues to seek answers and believes their son was the victim of a cover-up.
