On January 11, 2013, Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead rolled up in a wrestling mat at his high school in Lowndes County, a south Georgia community. Authorities said he suffocated in the mat when trying to get his sneaker that had fallen in the center of the mat and ruled it an accident. They didn’t offer any explanation how someone could slither into a rolled mat in this manner. Of course, his family questioned this bizarre account as to how their loved one died so tragically.
His parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, didn’t take this ruling and walk away. They deem it foul play and are demanding officials at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Ga. turn over the surveillance video. His father believed his son was murdered and requested the case is reopened. There are photos and video that provide evidence that there is more that happened on this fateful day than school authorities are willing to admit. Not far from the body, there was a pair of red stained shoes and a sweatshirt, that authorities claim was not blood therefore they weren’t bagged and tagged.
Both the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), which conducted the autopsy and ruled that he died from “positional asphyxia”, stand by their findings that the boy died accidentally.
The Johnson family has gained the support of the National Action Network and The United Justice League.
Photos are graphic, proceed to the gallery with caution.
