A private pathologist was hired to carry out a second autopsy. Pollock believed the evidence was so crucial that he flew to Georgia to show Kendricks parents. Local newspaper Valdosta Today reported that those children claimed, when questioned by police, that theynever saw or heard Kendrick in the gym. Harrington Funeral Home in Valdosta, which handled Johnson's body, referred calls to attorney Roy Copeland. Kendricks mother, Jacquelyn Johnson, told filmmakers that she was on campus when her son was found, and police would not let her or Kendricks aunt see his body. But this is one of the most baffling mysteries of this case: the black and white gym shoe that lay on the ground below Kendrick Johnson, the one he was presumed to be reaching for, was lying on top of a pool of blood, but there was no blood on the shoe itself. The first time Jacquelyn Johnson cried next to her son Kendrick's grave, he was being lowered into the ground. Though surveillance cameras were located all over campus, the last footage of Kendrick shows him walking into the gym behind other students before going out of frame. Kendricks body found in a gym mat, alongside a pair of shoes [Image: Millennial PR]Lowndes County police said they believed Kendrick crawled into the mat to retrieve his shoes, became stuck, and continued to burrow into the mat until he became completely trapped and died. Investigators did not take the hoodie and orange and black gym shoes into evidence. "When we got the body for the second autopsy, the organs - the heart, lungs, liver etc. "But I don't think raising all this Cain down here is going to bring closure to them. Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, and suggested the death was not accidental. It's another disappointing answer for parents determined to know what happened to their son before and now after his death. Paulk and his team were able to secure a wealth of evidence from federal authorities, in part thanks to an appeal from Johnsons family in November 2020. Georgia state law dictates that the coroner be contacted immediately on the discovery of a body, but Watson claimed that he was not notified until six hours later. Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead and rolled up inside a high school gym mat back in 2013. "Is newspaper necessarily more indicting that sawdust or cotton?" Johnsons parents finally believed that their sons death was not being taken seriously because of his race. The parents asserted that the sons of the FBI agent killed Johnson and used their connections to cover up the investigation. On top of this, the second autopsy revealed that some of Johnsons organs were missing and in their place, his body had been stuffed with newspaper. He was located in the left corner of the gym, in a rolled-up mat that was lying against a wall. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner concluded that the youth died from positional asphyxia, his body stuck in a position in which he couldn't breathe. [14] On October 31, 2013, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. Some even drew comparisons to the death of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia high school athlete whose suspicious 2013 death was ruled an accident, despite his family's demand for further investigation. Georgia Judge Richard Porter ordered the Johnsons and their attorney to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the defendants, accusing them of fabricating evidence to support their claims. What made me think that everything was a cover-upwas that first meeting with the medical examiner, Mitch Credle said. Watson said he reviewed the second autopsy report on Johnson, but found it vague and lacking the specifics of the GBI's findings. [26] All local Superior Court judges recused themselves from presiding over the case, preventing the lawsuit from being filed and heard in Lowndes County, citing their close proximity to the accused. October 11, 2013 / 11:31 AM The suit also alleged that school officials failed to "properly monitor the activities of students throughout all areas" of the campus and to "maintain a properly functioning video surveillance system. Legal Statement. Kenneth Johnson said. [2][13], After the opinion of the private pathologist was released, Johnson's family stated that they believed Johnson had been murdered. One of Kendricks close friends and classmates, Malik Austin, explained in the documentary that the students did not lean into the mat to retrieve their shoes; they tilted the mat to release the shoes. Wrongful death, Kendrick Johnson's family vs. Lowndes County Board of Education and school officials. However, when Dr. Bill Anderson, the independent pathologist who performed Johnson's second autopsy,. [37] However, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk stated that he would not be claiming there was something wrong with the original investigation or that the original investigation's conclusion of an accidental death was wrong. Emmitt Till alongside his mother, Mamie Till Mobley [Image: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis]An all-white jury acquitted Bryants husband and brother-in-law within an hour. The request, however, was denied, even though the coroner Bill Watson had originally expressed a lack of confidence in the Sheriff Departments handling of the case. Market data provided by Factset. The death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson at the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, in the U.S. on January 11, 2013, was as bizarre as the subsequent findings. Kendrick Johnson lived with his family in Valdosta, Georgia and attended Lowndes High School. While Jacquelyn may have been kept from her son to secure the scene and possible evidence, Pollock told CrimeOnline that Lowndes High School was not placed on lockdown the morning the teens body was found on campus. This time, the autopsy revealed that Kendrick Johnson had suffered hemorrhaging on the right side of his neck, which meant that he likely died from blunt force trauma. Students who did not want to pay for a locker reportedly used the mats to stow their personal items. He was stuck upside down in the middle of a wrestling mat that had been rolled up and propped upright behind bleachers. SAVANNAH, Ga. The parents of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at school said Thursday that they have a new reason to suspect signs of foul play were covered by investigators -- their son was buried without his internal organs. Kendrick Johnsons casket was unearthed for a second time for a third autopsy. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. But Johnsons parents felt that his death was not being taken seriously, in part because of his race, or because a larger cover-up was at play. Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who helped focus national attention on the 2012 shooting death of Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, said the discovery raises questions about why Johnson's organs went missing and couldn't be examined in the follow-up autopsy the family requested. "I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. Now the family has enlisted the help of Tallahassee, Fla.-based attorney Benjamin Crump. However, Pollock said Kendricks lungs post mortem were a normal weight for a boy his age and size. [24] The magazine used pseudonyms but was otherwise accurate in descriptions of the boys, including the fact that their father was an FBI agent. Johnson's family asked the Justice Department to get involved, arguing that authorities failed to investigate Johnson's death thoroughly because he's black. I Googled stuff, he said. The body of Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found Jan. 11 in south Georgia. Kendrick Johnsons parents hoped that with the results of this third autopsy, the surveillance footage which they were convinced had been tampered with, and the mishandling of evidence at the scene, would be enough to reopen their sons case. "[34] On August 10, 2017, Georgia Judge Richard Porter ruled that Johnson's family and their attorney had to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the dozens of respondents in their civil suit, writing "testimony shows that they had no evidence to support their claims that the [brothers] killed Johnson or that any of the other defendants engaged in a conspiracy to conceal the cause or manner of Johnson's death. . In addition to revisiting some of the more troubling aspects of the investigation into Kendricks suspicious death including the teens missing organs and unidentified blood splatter found near his body the documentary presents a damning piece of evidence that was never before made public: Surveillance stills showing the primary person of interest standing next to Kendrick before he vanished contradicting claims that he did not see Kendrick the day he vanished on campus. Over the years, the Johnsons have publicly implicated brothers Brian and Branden Bell in Kendricks death. [33], On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death, stating, "After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime. Lowndes County police said they believed Kendrick crawled into the mat to retrieve his shoes, became stuck, and continued to burrow into the mat until he became completely trapped and died. "[11], Lt. Stryde Jones, who headed up the investigation for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, stated: "We never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident. In the documentary, Kendricks parents claimed Lowndes County police barred them from seeing his body for three days. His parents also revealed that when Johnson's body was exhumed over the summer for a second autopsy, the private pathologist discovered his organs were missing and newspaper had been used to fill the body cavity. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner concluded that he died from positional asphyxia, his body stuck in a position in which he couldn't breathe. The fact that a filmmaker, whos basically an artist college dropouthad to do the work that no one did in Georgia for eight years. Despite this, the, Department of Justice closed the investigation. ", Complete coverage of Kendrick Johnson on Crimesider, First published on October 11, 2013 / 11:31 AM. Crump said the Johnson family's legal team plans to focus on getting the official manner of death in the case changed from accidental to homicide. Asked how he planned to do that, Crump said, "We're going to have to look at getting the courts involved." "Stuffing that newspaper in like he was a garbage can inside his body," Kendrick father said. The attorney who helped push for a criminal prosecution in Trayvon Martin's shooting said Thursday that he's joining the fight to reopen an investigation into the death of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at school. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. [17] A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said that the investigation found that the funeral home "didn't violate any rules. Nonetheless, the investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing. [26] Jim Elliott, the Lowndes County Attorney, stated that the allegations were "unfounded" and "baseless" and that any response would be made in court. The county medical examiner concluded Johnson died of positional asphyxia and deemed his death accidental. In 2007, Bryant allegedly revealed to The Blood of Emmett Till author Timothy Tyson that she lied about the sexual harassment that prompted Tills murder. Time stamps between some separate camera systems differed by as much as twenty minutes for the same time period, giving the impression of a gap for portions of the footage where no gap existed. When the pathologist opened the teen's remains, "the brain, heart, lungs, liver and other viscera were missing. An all-white jury acquitted Bryants husband and brother-in-law within an hour. Sheriff Chris Prine has said he suspected Johnson became trapped trying to retrieve a shoe that fell into the center of the large, rolled mat. Johnson's family said Anderson also revealed that most of his internal organs were missing and the body cavity was filled with newspaper. In comparison, the mat he was found in is 6 feet long and the opening was 14 inches. Unsatisfied with the result of the investigation, they hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida, on June 15, 2013. Credle, who was on the case for eight months, alleged that almost every person they interviewed mentioned Rick approaching them at some point about Kendricks case. 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson (October 10, 1995 January 10, 2013) was discovered inside a vertical rolled-up mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, United States, where he was a student. Johnsons father, however, admitted that he had no hard evidence to back up any of these claims and the Johnsons had to drop the suit. The private pathologist presented a four-page report of his findings Aug. 15 saying he detected hemorrhaging on the right side of Johnson's neck. Found in a rolled-up gym mat, officials at Lowndes County High School in south Georgia concluded the athlete had been reaching for his sneaker when he fell headfirst into the mats. UNDATED: Kendrick Johnson,17, was found dead inside his high school's gym. UNDATED: Kendrick Johnson,17, was found dead inside his high school's gym. The photo, in which Kendrick Johnsons face is extremely swollen, almost does not look human. Every organ from the pelvis to the skull was gone." cnn.com Gym mat death shocker: Body stuffed with newspaper | CNN Best known as the lawyer who helped focus national attention on the February 2012 shooting death of Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, Crump has pursued several civil rights cases against law enforcement agencies. Market data provided by Factset. [17], Johnson's family requested that his body be exhumed for a second time and was granted permission by Valdosta city officials. A Georgia sheriff's office is reopening an investigation into the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson, a Black teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up gym mat in his high school . "The brain. The Johnsons hired Doctor Bill Anderson to conduct an independent second autopsy. [7][8][9][10], On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, found headfirst in the center of a vertical rolled-up wrestling mat. The only thing that wakes you up in the morning is to just keep pushing," said Jacquelyn Johnson. [31] They were subsequently sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees[32] and $1,000,000 in defamation damages. According to CNN, funeral director Antonio Harrington claimed the 17-year-olds organs were destroyed through [the] natural process due to the position of his body when he died. In their lawsuit, the parents of the accused boys assert that their sons were not involved in the death, are not considered suspects, and have been harassed as a result of the publication. Ill never let them forget, Jacquelyn told filmmakers. The Johnsons also accused the brothers father, an FBI agent at the time, of covering up the murder by manipulating the school and authorities involved in investigating Johnsons death. "We have an excellent team of medical examiners, and we stand by them 100 percent," Lang said. The Sheriffs Department asserted that Johnson must have accidentally fallen into the center of the mat while reaching for a sneaker, which he had stored there so as not to have to pay for a locker. But it's just not something that's within what I would consider acceptable standards.". UNDATED: Kendrick Johnson,17, was found dead inside his high school's gym. Sometimes cotton is used with powder. In June 2018, Kendrick Johnsons body was exhumed for a second time and a third autopsy was performed. He also said standard embalming practice is to fill empty space in body cavities with material such as sawdust or cotton. Some cases are left undetermined for years.. Both Credle and Pollock said they are not hopeful it will provide any solace to Kendricks family. On June 22, 2018, Johnson's body was exhumed.[19]. As far as the feds were concerned, the case was officially and finally closed. State investigators say it's their normal practice, but what happened after his body arrived at the funeral home was anything but normal. "When you think about it logically, it seems to be some kind of conspiracy to conceal the truth about what happened to Kendrick and who did it to him," Crump said. The second time, he was being pulled out of it. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said Thursday that the agency's policy is to return all organs to bodies after autopsies. In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance tape from 35 cameras that covered the gym area were released to CNN following a court request. CBS affiliate WCTV reports the family's lawyer is also calling on authorities to release surveillance video that they say could have captured what happened in the gym the day Johnson died. Kendricks father was shocked by his sons disfigured body. I don't know. Copyright 2023 WLS-TV. [12], A subsequent investigation by the Georgia Secretary of State's office found that the funeral home did not follow "best practice" and that other material was "more acceptable than newspaper." The fact that Brian didnt see KJ was a huge thing that they used for years against the Johnson family.. Brian had told local media in numerous interviews that he had not seen Kendrick on the day he vanished. [15], Johnson's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. The article used as a source an anonymous email to the sheriff's office. Justice for Kendrick Johnson! "It would've been during or immediately after the autopsy," he said. That's what happened in Johnson's case, she said. [23] It alleged that Johnson was attacked on a bus trip 14 months prior to his death. On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson (October 10, 1995 - January 10, 2013) was discovered inside a vertical rolled-up mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, United States, where he was a student. The brothers father, Rick Bell, was an FBI special agent who ultimately resigned after his home was raided and searched for evidence, according to NBC. For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the Crime Stories with Nancy Grace podcast. But the Justice Department found insufficient evidence to support an investigation. The body of Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found Jan. 11 in south Georgia. [20] A forensic analyst enlisted by CNN found that tapes from two cameras are missing an hour and five minutes of footage, while another set was missing two hours and ten minutes of footage. But it's just not something that's within what I would consider acceptable standards.". Now, the sheriffs have enough evidence in hand to perhaps allow them to solve this mystery once and for all. As Pollock explained to CrimeOnline, the bombshell evidence did not come from an anonymous source or undercover sleuthing it was plainly stated in the FBIs 2014 analysis report. "[11] Johnson's family questioned this hypothesis. lungs of someone who asphyxiates are heavier. The description of these brothers closely resembled that of Brian and Brandon Bell, who the magazine claimed had killed Kendrick because of a fight they had had over a year earlier which had escalated. Police said a bloody tissue was found in the girls bathroom near the gym was also tested and did not match the blood discovered near Kendricks body, according to Valdosta Today. Kendrick Johnson, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound multi-talented athlete, attended classes on the morning of January 10, 2012. Johnson's family discovered him to be missing his organs although the South Georgia Lowndes County Sheriff's investigation ruled Johnson's death a freak accident. More from CNN at http://www.cnn.comTo lice. [Featured image: Nikkolas Smith/Millennial PR], North Carolina Cop, Wife Found Shot Dead in Fayetteville Home, We Have Zero Leads: $80,000 Reward Offered for Information Leading to Man Who Gunned Down Texas Family, Missing: 18-Year-Old Mom Takes Toddler Son From Dads During Supervised Visit. The pathologist concluded the teenager had died from blunt force trauma near his carotid artery and that the fatal blow appeared to be "non-accidental.". [26], Shortly before the lawsuit was filed, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore said in a statement that a federal investigation was still open and that "the investigation has proven more complicated and taken longer than originally anticipated. [5], Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against 38 individuals, stating that his death was a murder and that the respondents were participants in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide, which they claimed involved two sons of an FBI agent. He was never shown within or leaving the gym and indeed, he never did show up for his following classes. Although it is one of the most complex of all musical instruments, the organ . Body parts are missing, evidence is missing. One of the coroners reports on Kendrick Johnsons autopsy. They were sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and more than one million in defamation charges. But his parents would later maintain that his size versus the size of the mat alone was enough to debunk the investigators case. The three teens were classmates. Notably, the shoe located on top of the blood is spotless suggesting, in the view of the family and film producers, that the item was planted. On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. The episode, entitled "Dare," sees a young girl tragically dying in a gymnasium. [2] That left a void, which the funeral home filled. While presenting the case to the public in October 2014, Lieutenant Stride Jones explained why they could not test every student. But those dreams were cut short when his body was found by students entering the gymnasium rolled up in a standing gym mat. Investigators tested the blood which revealed that it did not belong to Kendrick Johnson. The body of Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found Jan. 11 in south Georgia, and Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded that he died in a freak accident - falling headfirst into an upright mat and becoming trapped. This 2018 autopsy concludes that the cause of death was "apparent non . His mother posted on her Facebook: No mother or father should ever have to bury their child under these circumstances. because the lungs fill with fluid, causing death. CNN gained access to the schools security footage on the day that Kendrick Johnson was killed, but upon viewing it, realized that it offered little insight into what happened that day. "I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. Moore did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. Local newspaper Valdosta Today reported that those children claimed, when questioned by police, that they. His son, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, was dead. READ: CrimeOnlines continuing coverage of the Kendrick Johnson case. It does appear, however, that their quest for answers has only led to more questions. Credle along with Kendricks parents, relatives, and friends recounted their experiences for Finding Kendrick Johnson, a new documentary that is available on various streaming platforms, including.
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