MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Kendrick Johnson

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now, wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And I wanted to give you all a friendly reminder. Make sure wherever you're listening to us that you hit subscribe or follow to our show. A lot of you just come every Monday for the expected episodes. But if you do that, you could be missing out on important updates. And I have a feeling this is happening to a lot of you because I got a message the other day from someone who was like, oh my gosh, [01:00] that they didn't hear our update episode on it. And when I look, it looks like only half of you heard the update on the Dr. No episode where we talked about his capture. Only half? Oh my gosh. If something really big like that happens, we always record a small episode right away to get it out to our Crime Junkie fam so you guys can stay in the know with all the cases that we cover. So you people are missing out on some good stuff if you're not subscribed.

[01:30] and if you're on Apple, take the extra minute and leave us a five-star review. If you love the show, it would mean so much to us. Okay, now that I've given you your pro podcast tip of the day, let me give you what you came for and today's story makes my head hurt. I did all the research and then my computer ate my research. To be fair, those are usually some of our best episodes though. [02:00] all over again. And this case did not want to be told. We've gotten so many requests for it. And it's a weird one for me because... [02:11] Like I lost the research and it might be a good thing because I swear every time you look at this case, you see something different. It's one where you can go back and forth and back and forth. And really, you can see whatever you want in this case, depending on what lens you're viewing it from, depending on what kind of day you're having, depending on like all of your circumstances. So. [02:33] I do want to tell everyone up top the photos in this case, which we are going to be talking a lot about. And really, this whole thing is based on a lot of photos. They were released by the family. They're very explicit. So you should not go to our website unless you're prepared for that. But again, they're released by the family because they believe a cover up is taking place and they want people to be as outraged as they are. So the family has posted them online. They've given their permission.

[03:03] So we're not like violating their privacy. But I did want to warn you before you guys like get curious and go look. [03:11] With that, let me tell you about the mysterious death [03:16] of Kendrick Johnson. [03:46] you [03:50] On the evening of January 10th, 2013, Kendrick Johnson's mother waited patiently for him to come home. High school had been let out for her youngest son, just 17 years old. It had been some time ago since they get out, but she didn't expect him home right away. She knew that he was going to go to a basketball game after school. But as the night drew on, it got later and later, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and she started to become really worried. [04:19] over and over again but he wasn't picking up she ended up doing drive-bys around the school but it was dark completely closed down and she didn't see anyone without him coming home shortly after midnight his mother filed a missing persons report with police and by morning when her son still wasn't home she didn't know what to do so she headed back to the school if he was just out all night being a dumb teenager like the police thought this is where he would be at school

[04:48] But the first bell had rung and Kendrick wasn't there. His mother learns that he hadn't attended his third or his fourth period classes the day before. [04:58] Mrs. Johnson is in a counselor's office trying to remain calm, [05:02] talking about making flyers when suddenly the mood in the office shifted. [05:07] A phone call had come in that changed everything. What she didn't know, what she wouldn't find out until later that morning, is that they had found Kendrick still on the school's campus. And it looked like he'd been there since the day before. The high school had two gyms, that one they called the old gym and one they called the new gym. In the old gym, some students were hanging out before class when they saw something [05:35] In the corner of the gym were a bunch of rolled up mats like cheerleading or wrestling mats. Now, I should tell you that on this day, it's now the 11th. This was just the third day back after winter break. Before winter break, those mats had been in the same place, but about half of them were rolled up and standing vertically and the other half were rolled up and laying on the ground. [06:05] vertically and they were each about like six feet tall ish in length okay so these kids are looking at the rolled up mats and sticking straight up out of one of the top they see something like white sticking out so they climb the little bleachers to go get a better look and when they glance down into the mat

[06:29] it looks like a sock, like [06:32] maybe even a whole foot. And at first, the thought they had to have had is like, what's this kid doing? Like he's just messing around. He's playing in the mats. They try and talk to whoever's in there. Do you need help getting out? How did you get in there to begin with? But soon it becomes apparent that whoever in that mat isn't moving and they need help. The kids can't pull the mats down themselves. So they run to get a faculty member and the [07:02] down the mat. There is definitely someone in there, somebody who seems to be unconscious. Simultaneously, police are called, and I assume it was the smell of decomposition that told everyone to back away, not to proceed any further with trying to get this person out because nobody unrolled the mat and it was left laying on the ground, still tightly wrapped around an unknown person until police arrived on the scene. When police got there, it didn't take long before they [07:32] identify the person rolled up in the mat as 17 year old Kendrick Johnson. His family was notified only that he was found, but it would take them some time before they would get the whole story. And in fact, they still don't believe they ever got the whole story. They believe that the whole story is something they've had to piece together on their own in the opposition of the school and law enforcement and other County officials. Kendrick's body is,

[08:00] was barely off school property before the sheriff was making an official announcement about what happened. The official story that comes to the family and to the public is this. The sheriff says that on January 10th, Kendrick had some kind of fitness class for his next period. So he went to the old gym where he had hidden a pair of sneakers. I guess him and another kid shared them for their gym classes. And the school would actually make kids pay for lockers to store their stuff in. [08:30] didn't want to so him and his buddy would hide their shoes in these rolled up mats and they weren't the only ones who did this like apparently this was like a known thing around school well when Kendrick came back from winter break he had a problem the mat that he stored his shoes in was always laying on the ground but now they did that random cleanup over winter break screwed everything up and now the mat that he stored his shoes in were standing straight up somewhere at [09:00] corner of the gym. [09:01] Wouldn't this have been his second day back from break, though? [09:05] I'm confused. Why didn't he realize it changed the day before? Well, from what I can pick up, Kendrick's High School is actually like the high school that I went to. We had what we called golden black days. Those were our high school colors. Oh, so alternating schedules. Yeah. So you would have four classes one day, four classes the other, and you alternate each time. So I have to assume that when he came back to school on the 9th, he didn't have his fitness class, but then he did have it on the 10th. Oh, yeah.

[09:33] That makes a ton of sense. Homeschooled over here. Okay, so the sheriff said that they believed Kendrick climbed the bleachers onto the mats looking for his shoes until he spotted them at the bottom of one of them. Then he proceeded to wiggle his way down through the mat to get them, but got stuck, unable to move, eventually unable to breathe. [10:03] from positional asphyxiation. What's that? So according to everything I've looked up, positional asphyxiation is basically the idea that you're in some kind of position that prevents you from breathing properly and can lead like ultimately to your death. And it's really strange. I'm gonna go into the research of this like later on in the episode, but it's super hard to diagnose. It's almost one of those things that they... [10:31] say happens when they rule everything else out. But they basically said like he was upside down. He constricted his own airways. He blocked the air from coming into the mat and he just suffocated and died. [10:45] might be kind of a catch-all though. Exactly. So they're saying like, yes, this is tragic and it's horrific, but it's just a really unfortunate accident. I still am just like... [10:57] He died from... [10:59] being suspended upside down, essentially. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. This...

[11:03] has to be like in the middle of school day. Did, [11:06] Did anybody hear him call for help or... [11:09] did anybody hear or see this? This, [11:12] just seems like... [11:13] someone had to have seen something, right? So you're getting into all the stuff that I have problems with, or I don't fully understand. The stuff that hurts my brain the most about this case, because the gym he was in, we know they call it the old gym, but it was still used. And at the time that Kendrick went into that mat, there were actually kids playing basketball in that very gym. And this isn't even like a big gym. I remember when I heard about the story for the very first time, [11:43] bleachers and the gym and these mats. I imagined like a story high stack of bleachers, like this huge high school that I went to, maybe like four courts, something really big. It's what I had like in my mind. [11:56] And I was like, OK, it's more of like what you had in middle school, isn't it? Yeah. So like in my mind, if it's this huge gym, I get maybe why nobody like saw or heard anything. But I have a video on our website or a picture that you can go look at of the actual gym. [12:12] Amber, I'm going to send it to you. [12:14] It's astonishing. Like I, again, this is what I can't wrap my brain around. This gym is so small. I don't know how small. [12:23] he wasn't seen or if he called out for help i don't know how he wasn't heard [12:27] Oh. [12:28] You're so right, this is a tiny gym. The bleachers are like... [12:33] What I used to sit on at my...

[12:36] brothers soccer games when he was like 10. They're two rows high. Like, yeah, there's... [12:41] Nothing. Bleachers is a strong word. They're stacked benches, honestly. And like the place. So this if you go on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com, you can see this gym. It's just one court. And in the mainframe is like where kids were playing basketball. And then you can see the mats where he was found in the corner. Yeah. So I can't find anything about his exact time of death. So I can't say with any certainty. But I imagine that if this was an accident, he would have had [13:11] Otherwise, why wouldn't he have called out for help? [13:14] Maybe it was embarrassing that he got stuck. Like in high school, I and you and all of us, I think, were dramatic teens. And I remember being like, oh, my God, I'd rather die than having someone catch me in this stupid position or like getting stuck. Just like mortifying. And maybe that's what he felt, because no one actually thinks they're going to die just by hanging upside down. [13:42] Or maybe he thought he was okay, and by the time he was losing air, he was losing consciousness, and it was too late? [13:50] I mean, yeah, maybe or maybe there's another explanation, one that the family would raise. [13:57] despite the investigators telling them that they were wrong. [14:03] When the family heard that their son died from being upside down in a rolled up gym mat, everything about this felt wrong to them. There's no way. This kind of accident just doesn't happen. They'd never heard of any kind of death like this before. And where the hell was everyone? Why didn't anyone help him if this was an accident? At first, I think the public just thought this was a grieving family who couldn't accept the sad truth.

[14:33] As they got access to records and were finally allowed to see Kendrick's body, there was an outpour of support from the communities near and far. [14:43] because they were right. So much didn't make sense. [14:47] And they started this avalanche by posting pictures of Kendrick, [14:52] "After death for the whole world to see." [14:56] and Brit. [14:57] Are you ready? And again, this is warning to our listeners. This is the picture that you can't unsee. Again, it was posted by the family. It's out there with their permission in hopes to gain more support. But be careful before you go to our website. Britt, I'm going to send this to you. [15:14] And if you could give me your thoughts [15:16] if you were to see this picture for the first time, what you might think... [15:20] Is this kid just like rolled up in a gym mat by accident? [15:25] I... [15:26] Ashley, you asked me to describe a lot of things on this podcast. And honestly, this is one that I'm not sure I can. Well, and this is the picture that his family points to, to insist that [15:42] that he had been beaten to death, that something more had happened, because they pointed this as proof. Like, how does someone look like that unless something was done to them? [15:52] Right, so it's a side-by-side of Kendrick alive and then Kendrick... [15:58] post-mortem. And his face is swollen and almost unrecognizable as human, to be honest. His upper lip is

[16:09] really swollen his eyes are swollen nearly shut it's it's a truly graphic graphic image yeah one of the most graphic like post-mortem pictures i've seen posted online and so this picture is what got everyone outraged and got people like even high up people in the government to take a second look at this case but what the family didn't disclose for a long time [16:39] right after Kendrick was found. This picture was him after the autopsy. And like the family had taken this at the funeral home. So there's actually another picture on our website. You can see of him right after the incident. And it is far less gruesome. It is still post-mortem. It's still graphic, but it's nothing to this extent. And part of the reason is in autopsy, what they have to do, and this is graphic, but they have to split open the skull [17:09] kind of peel back the skin to expose the skull and then get the brain. So the fact that his skin had been pulled back makes him look like, [17:19] even... [17:21] More strange than he normally would right after death. Like, that's why all of the skin on his forehead had been scrunched forward. It's not from swelling. It's not from a beating. It's from the fact that in this autopsy, his skin had literally been pulled forward, which makes it look super scary, super strange. So his facial features had actually been manipulated to a certain extent. Exactly. Not maliciously, but just not where they should be. Yeah, and I'm not even saying the family did this maliciously.

[17:51] had access to the pictures of him right after. This was just the first time they were able to go see their son. But I can't imagine going and seeing... [17:59] that as the first time you see your son, I can absolutely imagine why they were outraged and believe there's no way he was just hanging upside down. [18:08] So this picture, like I said, was the picture that got momentum behind the family. And it caused enough of a stir that the family got people to look at the other evidence at the scene. And it's that evidence that's kept people talking and questioning so many years later. [18:28] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [18:47] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [18:54] wherever you get your podcasts. [18:57] The first piece of evidence that they re-looked at is the mat itself. You see, the mat, like I said, had been rolled up and the diameter of the opening was about 14 inches. [19:11] But... [19:12] Kendrick's shoulders were 19 inches wide. Five inches wider than the opening in the mat? Yeah, many people say that he physically wouldn't have been able to crawl into that mat, that it wouldn't have been physically possible. And that means he must have been rolled up inside of it.

[19:31] Okay. [19:32] But if he was rolled up inside of it, you'd think they'd roll around his body, which, again... [19:39] is at least 19 inches wide at some point and not like squeeze him extra tight to this 14 inch diameter, right? Well, I don't know. This is one of those things that [19:49] I think can look whichever way you want it to based on how you look at the case. Like, I, [19:54] His dad, there's pictures of him trying to crawl in, and he says that he was unable to. And I've got a picture of him on the website. He's on all fours. He's about the same size as Kendrick. I mean, yeah, he... [20:07] can't even get his [20:08] shoulders through, he's definitely not going to make it all the way through that rolled up mat. Well, so, okay, I get that. And I get what they're trying to prove with this picture. But the problem to me is, if there's something at the bottom of the mat, you don't go in... [20:23] like with your shoulders at your side, you put one or both of your hands above your head and try to make your shoulders as slim or as small as possible, right? So like a diving position. Right. And when we see photographs from Kendrick, when he was actually pulled out of the mat, which we also have on the website, he had one hand above and one near his waist. So I think by angling your body, you could probably make yourself smaller. And I think that's what he was doing. [20:53] that shoe at the bottom of the mat. Well, and gravity is on his side. In this picture, the mat is horizontal on the ground, just

[21:02] with the opening so he can be on all fours. But Kendrick's going... [21:06] head first. [21:08] down, right? Yes. So I can kind of see how he would angle his way in, how he would get gravity to like help push him down. But just when I and probably you are thinking, oh, [21:22] Okay, it seems like an accident. [21:25] there's more. The second piece of evidence that got brought up were the shoes, all of the shoes in this case. And let's talk about the shoes found at the top of the mat near Kendrick's feet first. But again, [21:38] not on his feet. [21:40] The shoes that he was wearing that day were kind of [21:44] rolled up in the mat with him. Brett, I'm going to send you this picture for you to take a look at and kind of describe to people. [21:52] Okay, so we are looking down into the mat. [21:56] You can see Kendrick's feet. [21:59] and part of his legs maybe almost up to his knee. [22:02] and right behind his knee. [22:07] are a pair of sneakers. And they aren't [22:11] on his feet, obviously, and they kind of look like they've been tucked behind his legs. [22:17] to... [22:18] keep them safe or hide them? I'm not even sure, but they... it seems hard to believe that they would have just fallen in after him. Yeah, it's a weird place for them to be, and... [22:31] People who believe Kendrick was murdered say that whoever killed him put those shoes in there with the body to hide them. I mean, how else would they have gotten there? Well, the only thing I can think of, and these aren't perfect excuses, is maybe he had them off before going into the mat. Like, maybe he set them on top of the mat. And then as he dove in, they fell down.

[22:55] And then as he moved and like wiggled his way through, maybe [23:00] they fell down with him and kind of got stuck there. But again, they're like very tucked behind his knees. Yeah, they kind of look stacked in there. Like I stack shoes when I'm trying to pack. The second thing that I can think of is maybe that he had them on as he went in. And then he started to realize that he was getting stuck and maybe started to panic. And he's like kicking off his shoes, kicking off anything that would make him wider or bulkier or like anything that was inhibiting him from getting free. [23:30] him trying to literally backpedal backwards, using his feet to leverage back. They could have slipped off his heel and kind of flung around a little bit, especially if he was, you know, wiggling a ton. Yeah. And that makes probably the most sense to me. I mean, nothing quite explains it 100% away. But I [23:48] to me, so these are questionable shoes, but not the most perplexing shoes in this case. So the other shoe that we have to look at as evidence is the shoe underneath where Kendrick's body was found, the one that he was reaching for. So underneath his body, [24:04] there is a pool of blood at the bottom of the mat. And... [24:10] You have to understand, so all of Kendrick's blood was draining to his face. He's hung upside down. And so now it's coming out of the orifices in his face, which would be expected either way, whether he was murdered, whether this is an accident. So blood is pooling. We talked about this in the.

[24:27] odd non episode exactly so that's expected what is totally unexpected is this the shoe that he is seemingly reaching for is on top of the pool of blood i'm sorry what yeah but take a look at this and see if you can explain the picture and if you can find any reason that this shoe would be on top [24:57] strangest thing in the case. [25:00] Okay, so there's a... [25:02] decently from what I can tell from this picture sized pool of blood [25:07] In this picture, there's a lot of blood towards the bottom of the picture, and it kind of [25:12] or spills out towards the middle of the page. And then right in the middle of the page is a black sneaker. And... [25:22] It [25:23] It's in the blood. It's on the blood. [25:27] But there is no blood on top of it at all. [25:32] None. Right. And even though it's a black sneaker, like it has white piping or lining. So it's not like it's black and we can't see the blood. There is no blood on this. None at all. So I don't know what can explain this. Like in my mind. [25:44] Okay, maybe he was like, he actually got it and he was holding it and like dropped it when he became unconscious. But you would think that blood would maybe still be flowing. [25:54] when that happened? Or you think maybe he would have dropped it sooner? [25:57] Right.

[25:58] I mean, a little bit of devil's advocate, unless he had maybe tucked the shoe up into himself more. If you're already feeling stuck, why would you like tuck another shoe? Like, why would you even make your space smaller? Like, that doesn't make sense to me. A lot doesn't make sense, but that makes no sense to me. [26:19] I mean, but if he's trying to get back out using, like, his elbows to edge himself back out. Maybe. I mean, and then realizing he gets stuck and that's kind of what happens. And as... [26:30] He loses consciousness, he loses control of his muscles, and then the shoe drops into blood. But it's still a lot of blood for him to be completely conscious through, in my opinion. So the only other scenarios to me are... [26:43] Maybe this was moved by, like, sloppy crime scene technicians before they took the picture. Wouldn't be the first time. Right. Or... [26:51] Maybe this was all staged by somebody, which again is what the family is alleging over and over. The third piece of evidence that is controversial is the blood found in the gym. There was a streak on the wall and there were some in the girls' bathroom on some paper towels. And now both of these samples didn't match Kendrick when they did testing, but... [27:13] The weird part is that they didn't do any further testing to see maybe who it would match to. They basically were like, oh, it's not Kendrick's. They're really old samples. It's totally harmless. The end. Which is fine if this truly is an accident and, again, what the sheriff's office is alleging.

[27:32] The problem is... [27:34] Now that Kendrick's family is asking questions, we have trouble answering those questions now because almost none of the evidence at the scene was collected and stored for future testing. And really no testing was done other than eliminating it from the victim. So there was even a sweatshirt found on the opposite side of the gym that was never collected. The shoes were not kept for evidence. And it just felt like to the family and to the public and really even to me that it's [28:03] the police and the sheriff's office or whoever had really decided what had happened and they didn't give any thought to preserving anything in case this needed to be retested or reinvestigated. Now, the final piece of evidence that I think is probably most talked about online is the video footage of Kendrick going to the gym. [28:25] The school had a lot of cameras, but somehow there was no footage of the events that unfolded that day. The camera trained on the mats was out of focus and didn't really pick up anything at all. I know. Because, I mean, if they would, we wouldn't be talking about it years later. Like, this would be done. [28:44] The other cameras in the area were motion detected. So depending on how close or far away the subject in the frame was, it would or would not trigger the camera to come on. And so this gives some of the footage an appearance of kids like appearing and then disappearing, which for a long time made people think that the footage was altered. And it didn't help that all of the timestamps seem to be a little bit different, making people think that spots of the video were edited out. So...

[29:13] On top of all of this, the family didn't get the footage right away. Now, it's been reported all over the Internet that the family had to sue to get the footage released, and that's partially true. Like, the true part is they didn't get it right away. [29:27] School footage can't just be released due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which is FERPA. And FERPA requires that there has to be a court order to release the video. So it's not like the school or the sheriff's office was being cagey. They just had to go through the right legal steps to release it. So, right, because this has footage of. [29:46] minors without any release. I totally get it. A boatload of minors, right. So they had to get that court order to get this released, but it actually wasn't even the family who obtained the court order. It ended up being somebody else. And apparently the family was given multiple opportunities to view the footage with the police or the school, and they actually declined those altogether. [30:09] OK, but that doesn't really change the idea that it might be edited, right? Well, right. When CNN got the tape after this legal battle, they concluded that the timestamps were off because all of the cameras were going to different servers. There was like six cameras, six servers. They weren't synced. [30:27] But... [30:28] there was still like an hour plus worth of footage missing as well. [30:34] I... [30:34] I don't really get how that's possible. I feel like police are usually pretty thorough, especially with a court order, in collecting evidence like that.

[30:44] So here's the problem again. They didn't collect it themselves. They just asked IT at the school to hand it over. They didn't have one of their techs try and retrieve it. So this wasn't like law and order. Yeah, weird, right? So maybe it was cut. Maybe it was corrupted or lost unintentionally. But they allowed the school to have time with it and then turn over whatever they thought was pertinent, which seems like a really bad move to me. [31:14] general fishiness. The family gets enough backing from the community that the attorney general of Georgia at the time, a man named Michael Moore, decided to reopen the case and reinvestigate. Now, this was huge for the family. As a part of the reinvestigation, they were going to get approval to have Kendrick's body exhumed and get a second autopsy. And what they find in this second [31:44] case. [31:46] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. Thank you. [32:05] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [32:12] wherever you get your podcasts.

[32:15] When Kendrick's body is exhumed, a second autopsy is performed and the medical examiner is shocked. Kendrick's organs are all dead. [32:26] - Wait. [32:28] What? Yeah, where his vital organs should have been, including his brain. The medical examiner only found newspaper. Now, during a normal autopsy, organs are all removed and tested. And sometimes they're replaced, especially in controversial cases so that they're available for future testing. Right, they're preserved somewhere else or something. Right, so if they aren't back in the body, they're usually stored somewhere else for testing. Right. [32:57] But is it normal to restuff those places with newspaper? That seems... [33:02] really... [33:03] bleak and gruesome. So this was actually a practice that was done like 10 plus years ago. It's more common now that if organs aren't replaced, the body cavities would be filled with a cotton. But [33:15] The most common theory around why newspaper over cotton was used in this specific case isn't like anything to do with some kind of controversy. Like the funeral home was cleared of any like legal wrongdoing. They basically found. So it's like a common practice at this point. Well, yeah. I mean, it wasn't again, it was kind of outdated. But basically what they found was that the funeral home had offered to do all of the preparations for free for the family. [33:45] case was going to blow up later.

[33:48] that [33:48] excuses that sort of oddity, but... [33:52] Are the organs just missing altogether? Are they... [33:57] Just gone? Yeah. So the GBI who did the original autopsy shows written proof that the funeral home had, like, signed a document saying that they received everything. So either the funeral home lost it. [34:11] they destroyed it or which I think could be the most likely is they probably just signed it without really taking inventory. Like you get a piece of paper. Yes, I have everything. Sign, sign, sign, date here. And the funeral home also signed a document that they had possession of his clothes. [34:28] that he was wearing that day. But mysteriously, all of that's missing too. Like nothing can be retested, not his organs, not the clothes he was wearing. All of it was said to have made its way to the funeral home. But after that, like no one can account for it. So not having the organs or the clothes was a big setback for the family, but they still moved forward with the autopsy. And the medical examiner didn't need the organs to see something he thought was pretty strange. [34:58] his neck that the medical examiner said was indicative of blunt force trauma. [35:04] After examining the whole body, he kept coming back to this bruise. This bruise was the answer. So this medical examiner released a new official report, and this is what it reads under cause of death. Blunt force trauma, right neck involving right mandible and soft tissue, including the area of the carotid body, consistent with inflicted injury. Note.

[35:29] unexplained, apparent, non-accidental blunt force trauma, further investigation is indicated to determine the etiology of the injuries. [35:39] So that whole autopsy report is available in this blog post for the episode on our website. But this ruling was massive. They had a reputable professional telling them your son's death was not an accident. And this fueled their fire and made them even more determined to get justice for their son. [35:59] Did Kendrick's family have a general theory of what they think happened, or were they just fueled by the idea that... [36:06] This wasn't an accident [36:08] We don't know what happened, but we're going to get to the bottom of it. Oh, they had a theory. According to the family, some 14 months before Kendrick's death, he'd gotten to a fight with another football player on a bus, like to an away game or on the way home, something like that. And people say that these two kids, Kendrick and this other kid, were friends. The Johnson family insists they were never friends. But the family points to this fight and says over months and months, tensions just grew. [36:38] Kendrick in the gym that day. And at first they were vague about the names of these high school boys, but after months and then years go by with really nothing happening, the family started posting these kids' names on Facebook and they were tired of waiting for justice. And they were furious because they were sure that the connections these boys had to law enforcement is what was keeping them from getting arrested. What kind of connections do these kids have? So the two

[37:08] were sons of an FBI agent and it was the family's theory that the agent was like orchestrating this entire cover up from the top controlling the school controlling the parents of the school the students the sheriff's office the GBI the medical examiner now online you'll see a lot about these brothers and where they might have been that day and the family's [37:33] What we learn is like the, you know, the Johnson family. [37:37] naturally like they're very hurt and they feel that this is right and they're saying that everything's a cover-up but what we learn is that one of the brothers was seen on surveillance video in another wing of the school at the time that all this is happening and the other one had an alibi for being at a wrestling tournament and that wrestling tournament holy crap like lit up the internet because at first this kid who was at this tournament tweeted to someone that like basically [38:07] from the 9th 10th and 11th okay well then it's found out that the bus for this tournament or this match or whatever didn't leave until the 10th so everyone is like oh my god he's covering his trail this is a big cover-up and then everyone tries to clear it up and it's like no no no like that was a mistake it was just like you know he was mistaken but the bus still left at 12:30 this is an hour before Kendrick went into the gym we know he was alive and well but then I [38:35] Someone finds a travel log that says...

[38:39] or what they say online that it says that the bus didn't leave till four. And then some people are, you know, go into a rage again, saying this is all a cover up. The parents are covering up. The students are covering up. But what I think it comes down to, it's actually a pretty logical explanation for all of this, like, quote, lie. It wasn't actually a travel log that they were looking at. It was a trip request that the teacher had made the months before, weeks before, showing the time of the event. [39:09] o'clock, not what time they would have left to get there. [39:13] Although there was a ton of smoke around this, it seemed at the end of the day, no one could find a fire. No one could place either one of these boys anywhere near the gym at the time of Kendrick's death. And years of back and forth went on between these families. The Johnsons even tried to take the other family to civil court, but eventually they had to drop the lawsuit. And then they were slapped with like an order from the families asking for $200,000 in legal fees and damages. [39:43] they were never named officially as suspects or person of interest, one of the brothers actually lost his full rights scholarship to college because of all the controversy around his name and this case. [39:56] It seemed that there were all these rumors swirling, all this suspicion building, but nothing solid was coming from it. And this case drug on and lawyer after lawyer ended up dropping the Johnson family. Even Michael Moore in 2016 closed the case and a federal review of the case ruled that the teen's death was accidental. And the Department of Justice said they didn't find any sufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges. And a quote from their ruling actually says, no.

[40:26] Quote, after an extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or a group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime. End quote. [40:47] So that was in 2016, and they were feeling pretty defeated. But in that same year, 2016, just when you might have thought everyone was giving up, an unexpected group... [40:59] entered the picture. [41:01] you [41:02] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [41:22] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [41:29] wherever you get your podcasts. [41:32] Brit, have you ever heard of the group Anonymous before? Uh, yeah. So do you want to give the listeners kind of a scoop on who they are, if anyone's like in the dark? Anonymous is sort of a... [41:45] They are the group that kind of made the media coin the term hacktivist. They are a group of anonymous people who hack into all sorts of things and create all sorts of havoc around.

[42:00] seemingly for the good of the public, [42:02] Um... [42:03] usually against huge organizations or controversial businesses. Um, [42:09] Have you seen V for Vendetta? Yeah, right. The other people with the masks, like they... [42:15] They've been called kind of like the original domestic [42:19] online terrorists. Right. So something about this case, and I don't know quite what it was, caught their attention. And I mean, I say I don't know what it was. It's the fact that they really believed in it. They thought there is this idea of a cover up. They thought it was rooted in systemic racism. They thought it was worth looking into. Yeah. And they ended up making a 10 minute video that kind of lays out all of the really shady stuff. And they posted it online for the [42:49] to see and here's a clip of that chilling video that was released [42:55] *music* [43:14] Greetings world, we are anonymous. On the evening of January 10, 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a sophomore at Lowndes High School in Valdasta, Georgia, was reported missing by his mother Jackie, a bus driver for Lowndes County Schools. He had went to school that morning, but did not return home so his mother called 911.

[43:44] two daughters were the first to discover KJ's body by seeing a pair of feet with white socks sticking out of the vertical rolled gym mat. These students notified teachers and they moved the gym mat to the floor exposing KJ's body still in the gym mat. Local authorities were called, as well as the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Both law enforcement agencies were on the scene for hours before the coroner was called, which is a violation of Georgia law. [44:11] Paramedics that arrived on scene said the scene should be considered a crime scene. They were aware that the scene they were at was that of a homicide. The paramedics noticed bruising on KJ's body, including bruises to his neck and face. The law enforcement agencies did not secure the area with crime scene tape as they already had a theory in place as to what happened. [44:41] 14 inches wide to obtain a shoe. [44:44] The gym mat shoe theory doesn't work. There is no way a teenager would dive head first into a mat propped up in the corner of the gym to get a shoe, while holding his headphones in his hand. If alone, it is impossible that his sneakers would end up on top of him. KJ's shoes were most likely taken off of him so his killers could more easily fit his body into the mat while rolling it up, from the very start. [45:07] KJ's family never believed the story of the Met. [45:10] It was only the second day back after Christmas break that KJ was killed,

[45:15] Lowndes High School was supposed to hand over all surveillance video the morning KJ's body was discovered. [45:21] The IT tech said there was a problem and supposedly handed over video days later. KJ's family had to sue the school in court to get access to it. [45:30] CNN also gained access to it and called experts in to evaluate. These experts said there was hours missing from the cameras right outside the gym, [45:39] With all the discrepancies of evidence, testimonies, and witnesses, we call bullshit on the official story, so has the federal prosecutor who opened an investigation in October 2013. [46:09] The time has come for those people to join the fight for justice. Expose the corrupt for who they are. Expose the racism that is alive and well in Valdestra. The time has come to stand against the oppressors and fight for the truth. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Lowndes County, Georgia. You should have expected us. [46:32] So did that video change anything? I think it made a stir in the community again and got people on each side riled up. [46:42] We didn't touch on it a ton, but when I say each side, for a long time, the aspect of race played greatly into this case, with the African-American community believing that it was murder and the white community saying that it was an accident. And even in 2013, racism in Valdosta, Georgia, where this took place, was still very much alive and real.

[47:12] same treatment by law enforcement or at the very least why the family would be justified in believing that he didn't, especially with all the sloppiness, the losing his organs, the lack of collecting evidence. Like we saw a ton of stuff that should have been done that wasn't. Was that done because the police officer or the sheriff's office wasn't capable or was it done because racism is still very much alive and well there in 2013 and they didn't take this case as seriously [47:42] So even though Anonymous called them out, [47:47] It really didn't do anything different. [47:50] The family requested a third autopsy in 2018. And in November, that two came back as not accidental. It was kind of an addendum to the second, and it actually narrowed down the point of attack even further, saying that his death was due to, quote, blunt force trauma to his right neck and right thorax, which is the body cavity between the neck and the abdomen, end quote. [48:20] family also provided authorities with an affidavit from a witness who says that an acquaintance confessed to them that they had killed Kendrick by striking him in the neck with a 45 pound weight or dumbbell. [48:34] Kendrick's mom says that all of this information, the affidavit, the third autopsy was all passed on to the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office. And they're trying still actively to get the case reopened. Now, this was November of 2018. As of the time of this recording in April 2019, there's been no news as to whether or not anyone is going to be taking a new look at the case. Oh, my gosh, you are so right. This is making my brain hurt now.

[49:04] because it was an accident. There was no blood found on the stuff he was carrying or like I think about his lower extremities. You'd think that if he got hit with a weight or something like there would be some kind of blood fall on him. Like that's gravity. You'd think we'd see some blood on his lower half before he was rolled up. But this also just seems like such a freak accident. And I keep saying to myself, like, what are the odds? So this is what I was saying earlier. I kind [49:34] information on this positional asphyxia [49:37] And I found this scientific paper that was done based on cases in Lithuania. And basically on all of the autopsies done from 2010 to 2016, positional asphyxia only accounted. Do you want to guess how many, like what percentage of how many of the autopsies? [49:55] Um... [49:57] 1 maybe? 0.03. Whoa. Yeah, it's a weird cause of death. Like when someone's strangled, you look for that broken hyoid bone. When someone drowns, you look for water in their lungs. With this one, like we said earlier in the episode, there's like nothing that you're looking for. You're basically it's like I ruled out everything else. They were in a weird position. This is the only thing that's left. So it's [50:21] From the same study, which was done in 2018, it said that positional asphyxia wasn't even a thing until 1992. And since then, there's only been 37 known cases. And I read a couple of them. And they all, I mean, almost like Kendrick's case, they seem crazy. Like one guy was on his tractor. He wasn't following safety protocol. He got stuck upside down and then died from being upside down.

[50:51] and her wall upside down somehow. And she ended up dying that way. So it does happen. But it seems to happen so rarely. And there is even still a debate about whether it's a thing. And some research says, you know, we can't like conclusively replicate this in a laboratory. So we shouldn't be using it as a cause of death. Like it's still, I guess, in some researchers' mind, like not even... [51:17] it's kind of experimental. Like maybe we haven't found the real cause and we're just giving it this blanket name. Like back in the day when they used to say someone just like died of natural causes. Like, no, there's no cause to everything. Consumption, whatever. Yeah. So I know that it's a little more science and not so much true crime, but I think it's important to understand because it's what this whole thing revolves around. Like, [51:37] Could he really have died by getting stuck in a mat that is six feet tall, [51:44] And like a hundred feet away from somebody else. Like, look at those mats again, Britt. Like, they look so unassuming. I would have jumped in one to get my shoe. And I would have never, ever, ever, ever, ever thought that I was jumping into something dangerous or like into a dangerous situation. No, I completely agree. Yeah. Like I said, there's a lot about this case that says accident to me. But what I can't get over is... [52:08] and we'll bring it back to the very beginning of the episode, is why didn't he cry out for help? And if he did, how did no one hear him? And it's that, not the photos of the blood evidence. It's this idea of him crying out for help that keeps me thinking about this case. Did he die so fast that he didn't know what was happening? Did he call out but no one heard him? Or was he

[52:38] answer. But what I will say is that if Kendrick's parents believe there is more to this story, they should keep going. [52:46] fighting. We did an episode just a couple of weeks ago on Jerry Michael Williams. Everyone in that story believed that his death was an accident except for his mother. And for almost 20 years, she fought with police and the public. They called her crazy. They told her to give up. But in the end, [53:04] She was right. And maybe we'll find out in the end that Kendrick's parents were right all along, too. [53:24] There were a lot of photos and videos that were referenced today. This is probably the craziest, like beefiest blog post we've ever done. [53:34] Make sure to check it out on our website so you can make an informed opinion on this case. Just go to CrimeJunkiePodcast.com and click on the episodes link. But again, be warned, a lot of the images are very graphic. Yeah, we probably will not be posting them on social media, but you can still follow us. We're on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. And on Twitter at Crime Junkie Pod. And we will be back next week with a brand new episode. [54:04] *music*

[54:11] you [54:13] Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? [54:22] Okay, Crime Junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that? [54:40] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now, and I've been listening for years. [54:44] I think you'll love it too. [54:45] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.