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. [31] They were subsequently sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees[32] and $1,000,000 in defamation damages. Just after 1pm, he entered the gym, never to come out alive. The town of Valdosta, Ga., witnessed, on Jan. 10, the kind of militant protest march that characterizes the "Black Lives Matter" movement across the country. A hoodie and a pair of orange and black gym shoes were also found lying on the floor of the gym, as well as traces of blood on the wall nearby. 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. "Those organs were in the body when we sent it back to the funeral home," said Lang, who added that the GBI stands by the conclusions of its autopsy that found no foul play involved. "There may not be any law that prohibits it. Johnson's family asked the Justice Department to get involved, arguing that authorities failed to investigate Johnson's death thoroughly because he's black. His son, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, was dead. State and local officials ruled that Kendrick suffocated after purportedly reaching for a pair of sneakers inside the mat and getting stuck. Credle was called in after several local authorities recused themselves from the case which many believe was due to the primary persons of interest being the sons of an FBI agent. The family was given photos of the scene and Kendricks body. 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. [12][16] Johnson's family filed a complaint with a regulatory body against the funeral home operator. Kendrick reportedly confided in his father about Branden telling classmates that the issue was not over., According to the father, Kendrick said, You know Rick Bell, Brians daddyhe came up to me at school and told me the fight on the bus wasnt a fair fight and I should come to his house and re-fight Brian.. (AP). Furthermore, a whole hour of footage from the gym was missing, right at the time which would have shed light on what happened that day. Indeed, in 2013, racism in Valdosta, Georgia, was still very much alive. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. In the documentary, Kendricks parents claimed Lowndes County police barred them from seeing his body for three days. This 2018 autopsy concludes that the cause of death was "apparent non . Johnson was captured, killed, castrated and his body dragged for miles. 1. The episode, entitled "Dare," sees a young girl tragically dying in a gymnasium. Kendrick missed his fourth-period class and did not come home from school, prompting his family to file a missing persons report that night. [40], "Kendrick Johnson" redirects here. When doctors are not sure how someone died, they tell us, Detective, find me something that can help me lead towards a direction. Watson said he reviewed the second autopsy report on Johnson, but found it vague and lacking the specifics of the GBI's findings. Under normal circumstances, the tongue is a pink, muscular organ located within the oral cavity proper. An inquest would present the evidence in Johnson's death in a public hearing, much like a trial. Every organ from the pelvis to the skull was gone." cnn.com Gym mat death shocker: Body stuffed with newspaper | CNN Kendrick Johnson case: What happened to him and when did he die? After three autopsies and an accidental death ruling, Kendrick Johnson "This can happen to any of our kids," said Kenneth Johnson, the teenager's father. Investigation into Georgia teen found dead in gym mat is closed without The article used as a source an anonymous email to the sheriff's office. Doctor Anderson has pictures of Kendrick's body he'd taken during the second autopsy, which show Black Friday ads and JC Penny circulars. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Asked how he planned to do that, Crump said, "We're going to have to look at getting the courts involved." Kendrick missed his fourth-period class and did not come home from school, prompting his family to file a missing persons report that night. The county medical examiner concluded Johnson died of positional asphyxia and deemed his death accidental. The second time, he was being pulled out of it. The public was horrified by the photo and began to rally around the Johnsons in their quest for the truth. An investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teenager found dead in a rolled-up gym mat eight years ago, has been reopened, according to Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk.. 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. 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. The pathologist concluded his death was not an accident. [1][2][3][4] After a preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that Johnson's death was accidental, his family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy which concluded that he died from blunt force trauma. Despite this, the Department of Justice closed the investigation in June 2016, citing insufficient evidence. Kendrick Johnson 's body was found in a wrestling mat Jan. 11, 2013, in the Lowndes High School gym in Valdosta, Georgia. 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. 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. A private pathologist was hired to carry out a second autopsy. Moore did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. But it's just not something that's within what I would consider acceptable standards.". [14] The governor's office released a statement indicating that they would await the report of the U.S. Gym mat death shocker: Body stuffed with newspaper | CNN Inside Biden's new mortgage fee rules. I don't know. 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. 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. Kendricks arm was nestled over his head, suggesting officials did not bother to lay his arms straight, the father said. Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded that he died in a freak accident, falling headfirst into an upright mat. Sheriff Chris Prine has said he suspected Johnson became trapped while trying to retrieve a shoe that fell into the center of the large rolled mat. Then, in 2014, Kendrick Johnsons parents filed a wrongful death suit against the schools officials, alleging that Johnson had been harassed by a white student which went neglected by the school, perhaps due to his race. He was discovered rolled up in a gym mat on Friday 1/11. [38] The sheriff also stated he does not consider the case to be a homicide. . 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. The fact that a filmmaker, whos basically an artist college dropouthad to do the work that no one did in Georgia for eight years. Credle, a veteran homicide detective from Washington, D.C., is referring to his work investigating the death of Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old boy who was found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat at his Valdosta, Georgia, high school on January 11, 2013. "We have an excellent team of medical examiners, and we stand by them 100 percent," Lang said. CrimeOnlines continuing coverage of the Kendrick Johnson case, blood splatter located 40 feet from Kendricks body, blunt force trauma, right neck, involving right mandible, Kendricks organs were returned to his body following the autopsy, Five decades later, Emmett Till accuser recants claims, Rick Bell, was an FBI special agent who ultimately resigned, subscribe to the Crime Stories with Nancy Grace podcast. N on Twitter: "Along with his organs, Kendrick Johnson's fingernails Kenneth Johnson said. Kendricks father was shocked by his sons disfigured body. Johnsons shoulders measured 19 across and he was five feet, ten inches tall. Body parts are missing, evidence is missing. [28] Shortly after receiving the case, Dettlebach also resigned. The U.S. Attorney said allowing evidence discovery in the civil suit to continue would have a "chilling effect" on the federal investigation, which had expanded into investigating possible obstruction and grand jury witness tampering. Finally, it confirms that Kendrick Johnson's organs were removed and replaced with newspaper for the purpose of concealing time of death and revealing further, fatal injuries. 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. Kendrick reportedly walked away from Rick, who has denied this encounter ever transpired. Georgia funeral home replaced teen's organs with newspaper, and that's Georgia: Nothing illegal in filling dead youth's body with newspaper - CNN In May of 1918, a Black farmworker named Sidney Johnson, tired of mistreatment, killed his white boss. Johnson's family asked the Justice Department to get involved, arguing that authorities failed to investigate Johnson's death thoroughly because he's black. Regardless, the organs were lost and could not be tested during the second autopsy, which further aroused suspicions in Johnsons parents that this was a cover-up. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. 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. lungs of someone who asphyxiates are heavier. I don't know. But when he did return, he and his wife held a press conference begging authorities to not take their sons body out of Lowndes County before they saw it. [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." Now the family has enlisted the help of Tallahassee, Fla.-based attorney Benjamin Crump. 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. But during a second autopsy, a private pathologist discovered Johnson's organs were missing and newspaper was used to replace them. Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded that he died in a freak accident, falling headfirst into an upright mat and becoming trapped. [22], Johnson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lowndes County Board of Education, its superintendent and the principal of Lowndes High School. Despite these resignations, the Department of Justice investigation continued. But Johnsons parents would still not give up. He was a three-sport athlete and dreamed of playing professional football. 'Body Parts Are Missing': Newly-Released Footage of Kendrick Johnson's Kendrick Johnsons shoe laying in the pool of blood. What made me think that everything was a cover-upwas that first meeting with the medical examiner, Mitch Credle said. The mat in which Johnson was found was around six feet tall. [11] Some of the apparent lapses in coverage were found to result from camera systems that were not synchronized with one another. The second shoe was discovered on the floor in front of one of the mats in the gym, according to the local news outlet. 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. Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson sit beside another in Finding Kendrick Johnson [Image: Millennial PR]In March, the Lowndes County Sheriffs Office announced they were reopening Kendricks case to ensure the initial investigation was conducted properly. Finding Kendrick Johnson is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Google Play. While the lawsuit did not name the person or persons allegedly involved in the January 10 event, nor identify the race of alleged perpetrators, it implied a race-based dimension to the hypothetical assault. . The Illegal Harvesting of Black Men's Organs is Going Unnoticed The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) claimed that when the body was sent to the funeral home after the first autopsy, Johnsons organs had been put back inside the body. While the FBI concluded in 2016 that the Bells were in different areas of the school when Kendrick entered the gym, Pollock claimed the agencys own 2014 analysis report cites surveillance stills that show Brian in the hallway with Kendrick before he died. Wrongful death, Kendrick Johnson's family vs. Lowndes County Board of Education and school officials. "[26] After Moore resigned in 2015,[27] the case was transferred to the Northern District of Ohio under U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach. State and local law enforcement officials ruled the death an accidental. They also reported that the blood had likely been there for a long time. (AP) SAVANNAH, Ga. - The parents of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at school . He said Kendrick Johnson's brain, heart and tongue were among the missing organs. 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. Kendrick Johnson's organs missing - YouTube In June, Kendrick's body was sent to Florida. 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. Wikimedia CommonsSeventeen-year-old Kendrick Johnsons body was inexplicably found upside-down in a rolled-up gym mat in 2013. 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 Amazon Prime Video and Google Play. But his parents would later maintain that his size versus the size of the mat alone was enough to debunk the investigators case. Similar to Kendricks mother, Tills mother, Mamie Till Mobley, wanted to call attention to what happened to her son, so she held an open-casket funeral and allowed Jet magazine to publish photographs of her childs disfigured and bloated corpse. Johnson's family said Anderson also revealed that most of his internal organs were missing and the body cavity was filled with newspaper. He said it was too soon to be more specific. That's what happened in Johnson's case, she said. On May 8, 2013, a judge granted Kendrick Johnsons body be exhumed. 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. "This can happen to any of our kids," said Kenneth Johnson, the teenager's father. He writes, in part: "his internal organs were destroyed through natural process and henceforth were discarded before the body was sent back to Valdosta.". Lowndes County reopens Kendrick Johnson case | firstcoastnews.com - WTLV Students who did not want to pay for a locker reportedly used the mats to stow their personal items. All Rights Reserved. Over the years, the Johnsons have publicly implicated brothers Brian and Branden Bell in Kendricks death. "Stuffing that newspaper in like he was a garbage can inside his body," Kendrick father said. "The question is, why didn't he tell us?" The swift determination drew skepticism from many, including Johnsons family, Credle, and Pollock. [15], Johnson's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. "[23], In August 2014, a $5 million lawsuit against Ebony magazine was filed, after the magazine published a series of articles naming two students as possible suspects in 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. 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. Russ Bynum/AP. An all-white jury acquitted Bryants husband and brother-in-law within an hour. Who would want Kendrick dead? "They brought me in to make sure this is not able to be swept under the rug in small-town Georgia and they never get justice for their child.". Despite this, the, Department of Justice closed the investigation. [12] The family retained the services of attorney Benjamin Crump. 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. 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. The clothing he was wearing when he was found also was missing. organ, in music, a keyboard instrument, operated by the player's hands and feet, in which pressurized air produces notes through a series of pipes organized in scalelike rows. 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. Kendrick was found dead in the gymnasium at 10:30 a.m. on January 11, roughly 10 hours after his family reported him missing. [12], The independent autopsy found that some time after Johnson's body was recovered from the mat and had passed through a funeral home, it had been stuffed with newspapers. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Copeland said. His sneakers were shoved behind his knees. I dont think theyre going to do anything. Moore did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. CrimeOnline has chosen not to publish the most graphic of those images. 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. 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. Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead and rolled up inside a high school gym mat back in 2013. Kendricks father, Kenneth Johnson, worked as a truck driver and was on the road when the teen vanished and was found dead. Who killed Kendrick Johnson? - Workers World Austin said Kendrick got the best of Brian. in June 2016, citing insufficient evidence. 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. It's another disappointing answer for parents determined to know what happened to their son before and now after his death. Police said the latest probe would include reinterviews of witnesses and consultations with other law enforcement agencies to ensure nothing was missed or incorrectly reported during the initial probe. UNDATED: Kendrick Johnson,17, was found dead inside his high school's gym. Investigators did not take the hoodie and orange and black gym shoes into evidence. Two entities had custody of Kendrick Johnson's body after his death - the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the first autopsy in January; and the Harrington Funeral Home in. They said they later tested the blood and it was not a match for Kendrick, but it remains unclear who it belongs to. Local newspaper Valdosta Today reported that those children claimed, when questioned by police, that they. After autopsies, those organs are typically sealed in a plastic bag and placed back in the body, said Vernie Fountain, who runs an embalming school in Springfield, Mo. The lawsuit further alleged that another student, Brian Bell, "had a history of provoking and attacking" Johnson at school, stating that the provocations took place "in the presence of the coaching staff and employees" after his mother complained about previous attacks. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit told a story about a tragic death and unapproved organ harvesting on Wednesday night, and we think we found the real life story that inspired the case. 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. Ill never let them forget, Jacquelyn told filmmakers. 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. 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. School officials found Johnson's body in the gym after his parents reported him missing the night before.