The Kendrick Johnson Case: An Unsolved Mystery Wrapped in Tragedy
May 01, 2024
Thomas W
Could the mysterious circumstances surrounding Kendrick Johnson's death point to something more sinister than an accident? As we peel back the layers of this complex case, we confront the heartbreaking reality faced by Kendrick's family—their son's body, discovered in a gym mat, and the many unanswered questions that followed. Our exploration takes you through the initial ruling of accidental death due to positional asphyxia, the subsequent independent autopsies suggesting foul play, and the Johnson family's unwavering determination to challenge the findings. We scrutinize the botched handling of evidence, the enigmatic surveillance footage, and the distressing revelation of Kendrick's missing organs, all while dissecting the family's legal confrontations with the funeral home responsible for his remains.
This episode is a gripping recount of a decade-long pursuit of truth, marred by a reopened and re-closed investigation, a $100 million lawsuit, and a federal probe into potential civil rights violations that culminated without charges. We share the torment and resolve of the Johnson family, who stand firm against what they perceive as a cover-up, bearing the immense financial and emotional costs of their quest. Through a narrative that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about this case, we honor the memory of Kendrick Johnson and the ceaseless struggle for answers in a saga that refuses to fade into silence. Join us for a poignant and compelling journey through the enduring mystery of Kendrick Johnson's death.
Could the mysterious circumstances surrounding Kendrick Johnson's death point to something more sinister than an accident? As we peel back the layers of this complex case, we confront the heartbreaking reality faced by Kendrick's family—their son's body, discovered in a gym mat, and the many unanswered questions that followed. Our exploration takes you through the initial ruling of accidental death due to positional asphyxia, the subsequent independent autopsies suggesting foul play, and the Johnson family's unwavering determination to challenge the findings. We scrutinize the botched handling of evidence, the enigmatic surveillance footage, and the distressing revelation of Kendrick's missing organs, all while dissecting the family's legal confrontations with the funeral home responsible for his remains.
This episode is a gripping recount of a decade-long pursuit of truth, marred by a reopened and re-closed investigation, a $100 million lawsuit, and a federal probe into potential civil rights violations that culminated without charges. We share the torment and resolve of the Johnson family, who stand firm against what they perceive as a cover-up, bearing the immense financial and emotional costs of their quest. Through a narrative that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about this case, we honor the memory of Kendrick Johnson and the ceaseless struggle for answers in a saga that refuses to fade into silence. Join us for a poignant and compelling journey through the enduring mystery of Kendrick Johnson's death.
Hey crime junkies, welcome to Human Wreckage, the show that covers all murder cases solved and unsolved across the US. I'm Madison. In today's episode, we will be discussing the mysterious and, unfortunately, so far unsolved murder of Kendrick Johnson. This case has been left unsolved for about 10 years now soon to be 11. Come January, we will review the evidence collected in this case, as well as discuss the results and rulings given along the years. We will also touch on the devastation this has left on Kendrick's family. Be sure to listen closely for all the details and hear about a sneak peek into my next episode. Starting off this story, we will review the initial investigation of Kendrick's death.
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On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered. His body was found in the gym of Loundess High School, facing headfirst in the center of a vertically rolled up wrestling mat. Kendrick's body was discovered by a fellow student that had climbed up to the top of a cluster of mats. These mats stood six feet tall and three feet wide. The original autopsy report given by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations stated that Kendrick had died from positional asphyxia and the case was ruled an accidental death by the Loundess County investigators. Authorities theorized that Kendrick had fallen into the mat while looking for a shoe and died after being unable to get out Seems like an unlikely cause of death, in my opinion, with how the mat stood and the large possibility that there were witnesses present. Regardless, this was their initial assumption, and three students seemed to sort of back this theory up by telling investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled up mats, and Kendrick just so happened to not be wearing any shoes when he was found Head first and a vertical, six foot tall mat. Remember, that doesn't sound like the same storage place the students described. There was one student at the school that claimed to have shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Kendrick. He claimed that after gym class was over, kendrick would always go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole. This again just proved there had to be witnesses present. This was a common thing that he did.
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The head of the investigation for the Loundez County Sheriff's Office, lieutenant Stride Jones, stated we never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident. However, johnson's family questioned this hypothesis and ruling, unsatisfied with the results of the investigation, and rightfully so in my opinion. They hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R Anderson on June 15, 2013. Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissue and suggested the death was not accidental. This only proves that there was a cover-up somewhere.
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It wasn't until after the opinion of the private pathologist was released that Johnson's family then stated they believed he had been murdered. At this time, the family retained the services of attorney Benjamin Crump. On October 31, 2013, us Attorney Michael J Moore announced that his office would opena formal review into Kendrick's death. Unfortunately, the family's attorney Crump application to practice law in Georgia representing Johnson's family was not ruled on and he withdrew from representing the family as well as participating in the case. Johnson's family not ruled on and he withdrew from representing the family as well as participating in the case. Johnson's family, still not satisfied, filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. When the judge in the case delayed a decision pending the outcome of the review from the US attorney, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorize the inquiry. Instead, the family held a rally, together with the NAACP and other civil rights activists, as the Georgia state capital in Atlanta. The governor's office then released a statement clarifying that they would be waiting on the report of the US attorney Discussing and reviewing the body of Kendrick Johnson. Us Attorney Discussing and reviewing the body of Kendrick Johnson.
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The independent autopsy found that sometime after Johnson's body was recovered from the mat and had passed through a funeral home, it had been stuffed with newspapers. The funeral home that processed Kendrick's body following the FBI's autopsy stated that they never received Kendrick's internal organs from the coroner. In fact, the coroner said that the organs had been destroyed through natural process and discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent back to Valdosta, according to the funeral home owner. Now something seems really suspicious here, since when is that legal to steal a victim's organs against the family's request or knowledge? Of course, this left a void which the funeral home was happy to fill. The funeral home owner stated that this is a standard practice they have to fill a void in this fashion and that the cotton or sawdust may also be used. Unsatisfied, again, johnson's family filed a complaint with a regulatory body against the funeral home operator. An investigation was held by the Georgia Secretary of State's office and found the funeral home did not follow best practice and that other material was more acceptable than newspaper, like his organs that suddenly went missing for no apparent reason, or maybe the traditional wood shavings commonly mistaken as sawdust. Regardless, I don't think any person receiving a loved one stuffed with newspaper would be overly satisfied with their services and care of the body of someone they loved. Nonetheless, this investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing, stating that the investigation found that the funeral home didn't violate any rules. That didn't stop the Johnson family from filing a civil lawsuit against the funeral home seeking monetary damages. Johnson's family has requested that his body be exhumed for a second time and was granted permission by Valdosta City officials On June 22, 2018, kendrick's body was exhumed. This whole time, this investigation has been open and taking place.
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There's been surveillance tapes of the school, the gym and the surrounding areas. These tapes even capture Kendrick shortly before he entered the gym and died. Yet it wasn't until November of 2013 that this footage was released. In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance tape footage from 35 cameras that covered the gym area were released to CNN following a court request. A forensic analyst enlisted by CNN found that tape footage from two cameras are missing an hour and five minutes of footage while another set of cameras was missing two hours and ten minutes of footage. The analyst discovered that some of the apparent lapses in coverage were found to be from camera systems that were not synchronized with one another. According to reports, some timestamps between separate camera systems differed as much as 20 minutes from the same time period, giving the impression of a gap for portions of the footage where no gap existed. Other missing footage from the result of the camera's motion-activated functions was not triggered. Unfortunately, the area where Kendrick's body was discovered, where the gym mats were stored, was not covered by surveillance cameras.
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I find it very strange that they have cameras covering the entire gym but not all of the gym, especially an area where equipment would be stored. Attorneys for the johnson family became suspicious and expressed fears that the camera footage was edited as part of a cover-up. These suspicions seem to be reasonable to me. Finding his autopsy is ruled accidental death, then discovered bodily harm and most likely murdered. To be dismissed by judges and attorneys, to have their son's internal organs go missing during autopsy and funeral preparations and then to have footage released that doesn't completely add up, I would be suspicious of a cover-up too. That's what it smells like to me, although Johnson's family's attorneys expressed their concerns, they were quickly attempted to be diffused. Analysis of the camera system by the Valdosta Daily Times attempted to explain the anomalies, casting doubt on the theory of a cover-up, leading the president of the Valdosta-London County Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the former lead investigator for the chapter to state that they believe attorneys for the Johnsons have not been entirely truthful in their statements and that there was no cover-up in this case, again leaving a lot of suspicion in the air, considering no questions have really been answered and all statements seem to be, I believe, statements rather than facts. With all this said, we are jumping into the legal action present in this case.
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Johnson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Loundess County Board of Education, including its superintendent and the principal of Loundess High School. The lawsuit alleged that Johnson was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life on January 11, 2013. Although the lawsuit did not name the person or persons allegedly involved in the incident that occurred January 11, nor did it identify the race of the alleged perpetrators, it implied a race-based dimension to the theorized assault that took place. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were negligent and violated Johnson's constitutional right to equal protection based on race. It alleged that the defendants ignored reports that previously Johnson had been repeatedly attacked and harassed by a white student. It alleged that Johnson was attacked on a bus trip 14 months prior to his death. In my opinion that seems like a bit of a far-fetched, but kids will be kids and sometimes bullies can be relentless, especially when race is involved. The lawsuit further alleged that another student, brian Bell, had a history of provoking and attacking Johnson at school, stating that this took place in the presence of the coaching all areas of the campus and to maintain a properly functioning video surveillance system, johnson's family hired some thoughtful attorneys.
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It doesn't take much for any of us crime junkies following this story to also believe foul play involved and a cover-up. Now there's reports and proof of previous attacks on Kendrick, previous ongoing bullying that was not monitored by the school and a very rushed as well as dismissed case of his body being found and autopsied. I'm not sure about any of you listening in, but it sounds like a real rotten cover-up to me, either by the school, the police or both. I feel awful for the hell that Kendrick's family is going through just to receive justice for his name. In August 2014, a $5 million lawsuit against Ebony Magazine was filed after the magazine had this ingenious idea to publish a series of articles naming two students as possible suspects in Johnson's death, a case that's still open, although it was discovered that they used pseudonyms for the names. The descriptions they gave of the boys were very accurate, including the fact that their father was an FBI agent. Now, that's some suspicious information to hold on to. A possible suspect in the case has a relative in the FBI who would aid in investigation or cover-up. The article used as a source as an anonymous email to the sheriff's office. In their lawsuit, the parents of the accused boys assert that their sons had no involvement in the death of Kendrick and are not considered suspects. They also state that they have been harassed as a result of the publication.
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In January 2015, johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of DeKalb County against 38 individuals. Respondents include three of Johnson's classmates, most unnamed and local, state and federal officials, the school superintendents of Laundes County, the Valdosta-Laundes Crime Lab, the police chief of Valdosta, many sheriff's deputies, the city of Valdosta, the state medical examiner, the GBI and five of its agents and one FBI agent. The lawsuit alleged that the FBI agent ordered his two sons and a classmate to attack Johnson, that his death was a murder and that the respondents engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide. The Loundez County attorney, jim Elliott, stated that the allegations were unfounded and baseless and that any response would be made in court. All local Superior Court judges recused themselves from presiding over the case, preventing the lawsuit from being filed and heard in Loundos County, citing their close proximity to the accused, smelling more and more like a cover-up to me. This poor family may never get a straight answer about what happened to their son while at school that fateful day in January 2013.
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Shortly before this lawsuit was filed, us Attorney Moore said in a statement that a federal investigation was still open and that the investigation has proven more complicated and taken longer than the original anticipated. Moore resigned in 2015, transferring the case to the Northern District of Ohio under US Attorney Stephen Dettelbeck. Shortly after Stephen received the case, he also resigned. This is becoming more suspicious as time goes on, but despite these resignations, the Department of Justice investigation continued. In November 2015, the Department of Justice filed a motion in the civil case to intervene and stay the case. The US attorney said allowing evidence discovery in the civil suit to continue would have a chilling effect on the federal investigation, which expanded into investigating possible obstruction and grand jury witness tampering.
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After the Justice Department's motion was denied, johnson's parents dismissed their own wrongful death lawsuit, saying that they hoped to refile it after the conclusion of the federal investigation. They were sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and a million in defamation damages. On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to the Johnsons' 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 of some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime. 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.
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On March 10, 2021, the case was officially reopened, although Loundess County Sheriff Ashley Polk was sure to state that he would not be claiming there was something wrong with the original investigation or that the original investigator's conclusion of an accidental death was wrong. The sheriff also stated that he does not consider the case to be a homicide. The sheriff also stated that he does not consider the case to be a homicide. He further stated that the two brothers named in the previous legal actions by the Johnsons are not suspects. In January 2022, the second investigation into the case was closed with no charges being filed, leaving the case still unsolved as of December 2023.
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Now to recap this shorter story. Kendrick Johnson was just 18 years old when he was found dead in a rolled up gym mat in the gym of his high school. This gym mat was six feet tall, standing vertical, and his body was found in the mat facing head first. The school and investigators are claiming there was no foul play involved. No horrific incident occurred. They claim that Kendrick was not murdered, but rather died from natural causes and being struck head first, facing vertically toward the floor. The original autopsy found no evidence of bodily harm, but upon further investigation by his family, it was proven that Kendrick's body in fact did have bodily harm, but upon further investigation by his family, it was proven that Kendrick's body in fact did have bodily harm and damage inconclusive to their theory and conclusion.
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As of December 2023, the case is still unsolved and seems to be running cold at a chance of being solved. After 10 years, there has been no new evidence brought to light. No witnesses have stepped forward. No one has claimed fault to the claims being made. This case has been opened and closed several times. It is apparent that Johnson's family is restless to find an answer to this mysterious case. I hope that someday soon they find answers they are looking for and this case becomes officially closed. They deserve peace of mind and definite, factual answers. It truly seems to me like there is a cover-up going on here and, unfortunately for the Johnson family, they may never find the answers they seek in regards to Kendrick's death. Thanks for joining me on this episode. I hope you enjoyed listening in on my stories and I hope you'll return for my next episode, where we will dive into more solved and unsolved murders across the US, like Lacey Peters.