Kendrick Johnson autopsy report determined that he died from positional asphyxia, meaning that he was stuck in the gym mat and was unable to breathe.
According to a report published by Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk, a second local investigation into the 2013 murder of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teenager discovered dead under a rolled-up gym mat, has ended with no charges filed.
Johnson’s corpse was discovered upside down on a mat at Lowndes County High School in January 2013. The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office investigators concluded that his death was an accident and closed the case months later. Lowndes County is located in the state of Georgia.
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Kendrick Johnson Autopsy: Is The Suspect Arrested?
In 2013, a Georgia kid, Kendrick Johnson, was discovered dead on a rolled-up gym mat. Several inquiries have been into his death since then, and his family has continued seeking justice.
No suspects have been apprehended in the case as of March 2023, and the most current inquiry has been closed with no charges filed.
A second municipal inquiry into Johnson’s death was concluded in January 2022, with no charges brought. Johnson’s family remained devoted to establishing his murder and promised to continue battling for the truth.
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As of January 2023, the 10th anniversary of Johnson’s death, his family still believed he was murdered, and the case remained unresolved.
The original autopsy report on Kendrick Johnson found that he died from positional asphyxia, which means he was caught in the gym mat and was unable to breathe.
However, Johnson’s family and allies have questioned the conclusions, and a second autopsy ordered by the family determined that Johnson died due to blunt force trauma to the neck.
Lawyers representing the Johnsons voiced concern that the camera footage had been manipulated as part of a cover-up.
Nevertheless, the Valdosta Daily Times’ investigation of the camera systems promised to explain the abnormalities, throwing doubt on the cover-up hypothesis.
The president and former lead investigator for the Valdosta-Lowndes County branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have claimed that they feel the Johnsons’ attorneys have “not been accurate in their remarks” and that there was no cover-up in this case.
Kendrick Johnson Murder Case Surveillance Tape Explored
After a court order, 290 hours of surveillance film from 35 cameras covering the gym area were disclosed to CNN in November 2013.
A CNN-hired forensic expert discovered that tapes from two cameras were missing an hour and five minutes of the film, while another set was missing two hours and ten minutes.
Some of the apparent coverage gaps resulted from camera systems that were not in sync.
Time stamps between various distinct camera systems changed by up to twenty minutes for the same period, creating the illusion of a break in the film where none occurred.
The other film was lost because the camera’s motion-activated feature was disengaged. Motion-activated camera systems change light pixels to turn recordings on and off.
The location of Johnson’s corpse, where the gym mats were stored, was out of sight of all surveillance cameras.
Johnson’s family requested that his remains be excavated again, and Valdosta city authorities granted their request. Johnson’s body was unearthed on June 22, 2018.
Kendrick Johnson Family Mourns His Loss
Johnson’s family sued the Lowndes County Board of Education, its superintendent, and the principal of Lowndes High School for wrongful death.
Johnson was “violently attacked, seriously wounded, endured considerable bodily pain and mental agony, and subjected to insult and loss of life” on January 10, 2013, according to the lawsuit.
While the complaint did not name the person or people allegedly involved in the January 10 incident, nor did it specify the color of the accused offenders, it did imply a racial dimension to the hypothetical assault.
According to the case, the defendants were irresponsible and violated Johnson’s constitutional right to equal protection based on race. It claimed that the defendants ignored complaints that Johnson had previously been assaulted and harassed by a white student.
It was said that Johnson was attacked on a bus 14 months before his death. According to the complaint, another student, Brian Bell, “had a history of instigating and attacking” Johnson at school, with the provocations “in the presence of the coaching staff and personnel” after his mother protested about prior attacks.
In addition, the complaint claimed that school authorities failed to “fully monitor the actions of pupils throughout all locations” of campus and to “keep a properly operating video surveillance system.”