True Crime Collection

Kendrick Johnson

Kendrick Johnson was born 10th October, 1995.

Kendrick was found headfirst in the centre of a vertical rolled up wrestling mat, in his high school gym, on 11th January, 2013. His body was discovered by students who had climbed up to the top of a cluster of mats, each of which stood nearly six feet tall and three feet wide. An autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stated that Kendrick had died from positional asphyxia, and the case was ruled an accidental death by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office. 

They hypothesised that Kendrick had fallen into the mat while looking for a shoe and died after being unable to get out. Three students told investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled up mats. Kendrick was not wearing shoes when he was found. A student at the school said that he shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Kendrick, and that after gym class Kendrick would always "go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole." 

Lt. Stryde Jones, who headed up the investigation for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office stated: "We never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident." Kendrick's family questioned this hypothesis. Unsatisfied with the result of the investigation, Kendrick's family hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida on 15th June. William claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right next and soft tissues, and suggested the death was not accidental.

After the opinion of the private pathologist was released, Kendrick's family stated that they believed Kendrick had been murdered. The family retained the services of attorney Benjamin Crump. On 31st October, 2013, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that the office would open a formal review into the death of Kendrick. Benjamin Crump's application to the Georgia court to practice in Georgia representing Kendrick's parents was not ruled on, and he withdrew from representing the Kendrick family and is no longer participating in the case. 

Kendrick's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquiry into his death. When the judge in that case delayed a decision, pending the outcome of the U.S. District Attorney review, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorise the inquiry instead. The Johnson family, together with the NAACP and other civil rights activists, then held a rally at the state capitol in Atlanta. The governor's office released a statement indicating that they would await the report of the U.S. Attorney. 

The independent autopsy found that some time after Kendrick's body was recovered from the mat, and had passed through a funeral home, it had been stuffed with newspapers. The funeral home that processed the body following the GBI's autopsy stated that they never received Kendrick's organs from the coroner. Kendrick's internal organs were said to have been "destroyed through natural process" and "discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent back to Valdosta," according to the funeral home owner. That left a void, which the funeral home filled. The funeral home owner stated that it is standard practice to fill a void in this fashion, and that cotton or sawdust may also be employed for this purpose. Kendrick's family filed a complaint with a regulatory body against the funeral home operator.

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." Nonetheless, the investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said that the investigation found that the funeral home "didn't violate any rules." The Johnson family subsequently filed a civil suit against the funeral home, seeking monetary damages.

Kendrick's family requested that his body be exhumed for a second time and was granted permission by Valdosta city officials. On 22nd June, 2018, Kendrick's body was exhumed.