The unforgiving, oftentimes cruel nature of the world we live in results in any number of tragedies that unfold each day.
Some live longer in the memory than others, if not for the heavy emotional toll they exact on all who come to know of them, then for the unusual or mysterious manner in which they came to pass.
Over a decade has gone by since the death of teenager Kendrick Johnson, but the details of the case remain every bit as shocking as they did when they first came to light. A promising student athlete, the 17-year-old was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, in January 2013.
According to harrowing reports, his body was discovered by fellow students who had climbed to the top of a cluster of gym mats standing nearly six feet tall. The teenager was found headfirst, with his shoes wedged behind his knees, in the center of one of the mats which was vertically positioned.
Authorities ruled the death an accidental suffocation. Kendrick’s family, however, refused to accept that as the truth.
Investigators at the time developed the theory that Kendrick had fallen into the mat while trying to retrieve a shoe. Three fellow students at the school had revealed that it was common practice for students to stash their footwear behind or under the mats so as to avoid paying for lockers.
As per the Huffington Post, Lieutenant Stryde Jones, heading the investigation for the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, stated: “We never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident.”
The case was officially closed within four months of Kendrick’s death.
During the course of the intervening years there have been multiple subsequent investigations and legal battles over what really transpired. To this day, Kendrick’s family insist he didn’t die the way that’s listed on his official state death certificate.
They first hired an independent pathologist, William R. Anderson, to conduct a second autopsy in June 2013. The resulting examination produced a markedly different conclusion, finding evidence of blunt force trauma to Kendrick’s neck which suggested his death may not have been accidental.
Not only that, but at the time of the second autopsy Kendrick’s internal organs were missing. His body had instead been stuffed with newspaper.
The funeral home charged with the care of the 17-year-old’s body claimed they never received the organs from the coroner. The coroner in turn stated that Kendrick’s organs had been ‘destroyed through natural process’ and discarded, as per CNN.
In October of 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced a formal review of the case. That investigation drew on for almost three years, with investigators interviewing close to 100 people.
Then, on June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice declared that no criminal charges would be filed, due to “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that anyone violated Johnson’s civil rights.
Fast forward to March 2021 and Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk reopened the investigation into Kendrick’s death, going so far as to offer $500,000 of his own money as a reward for information.
The case was closed in January 2022, with Pauk stating: “There was no homicide, no coverup, no conspiracy in the January 2013 death of the teen. It was simply a tragic and bizarre accident.”
Arguably the most questionable aspect of the case – and a detail that served as the grounding for a lot of speculation – surrounding the surveilance footage from the gym where Kendrick’s body was found.
290 hours of tape from 35 different cameras was released back in November 2013, with a forensic analyst finding that footage from multiple cameras was missing significant time periods. This included one hour and five minutes from two cameras and two hours and ten minutes from another. The area where Kendrick’s body was found in the mat, however, was not covered by any camera.
Twelve years on from the death of their beloved son, Kendrick’s family are still challenging what they perceive to be a miscarriage of justice.
In August 2025, the teenager’s parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, filed an amended $12 million lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Public Health, demanding the cause of death on their son’s official death certificate be changed from “accidental positional asphyxia” to “non-accidental blunt force trauma.”
“We have filed the right paperwork,” Johnson said, as per 41NBC. “We have filed several different times to get his death certificate corrected.”
The lawsuit in question also cites the findings of the second autopsy that claimed to show trauma to the teen’s internal organs. Accompanying the lawsuit is a photo of Kendrick’s organs stored inside a biohazard bag. That bag, it’s reported, is missing.
“They want to just dismiss evidence of what happened to Kendrick, and we will not allow them to do that,” Kendrick’s father Kenneth said.
“If Kendrick was white, his family wouldn’t be going through this right now,” Kenneth added. “But since it’s a Black child, these people don’t care. But we care. And we will push for the truth. And we will push for everything to be right.”
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