They were ultimately ordered by a judge to pay close to $300,000 worth of lawyers fees to those they had accused with no evidence. R.I.P Kendrick Johnson FacebookOne of the coroners reports on Kendrick Johnsons autopsy. Respondents include three of Johnson's classmates (two or three respondents are unnamed) and local, state, and federal officials: the school superintendent of Lowndes County, the Valdosta-Lowndes crime lab, the police chief of Valdosta, many sheriff's deputies, the city of Valdosta, the state medical examiner, the GBI and five of its agents, and one FBI agent. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said Thursday that the agency's policy is to return all organs to bodies after autopsies. CNNKendrick Johnsons shoe laying in the pool of blood. After this sad look at the case and death of Kendrick Johnson, read up on another mysterious disappearance, that of Elisa Lam. A Georgia sheriff's office is reopening an investigation into the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson, a Black teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up gym mat in his high school . Who would want Kendrick dead? Kendrick Johnsons parents hoped that with the results of this third autopsy, the surveillance footage which they were convinced had been tampered with, and the mishandling of evidence at the scene, would be enough to reopen their sons case. Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, and suggested the death was not accidental. Im feeling hopeful.. 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. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang told CNN that after the autopsy, "the organs were placed in Johnson's . Moore did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. The only thing that wakes you up in the morning is to just keep pushing," said Jacquelyn Johnson. Family: Ga. teen's organs replaced with newspaper - USA Today ", Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Johnsons parents were suspicious of the investigation from the beginning. 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. Kendrick Johnsons shoe laying in the pool of blood. Kendricks mother, Jacquelyn Johnson, told filmmakers that she was on campus when her son was found, and police would not let her or Kendricks aunt see his body. He was discovered rolled up in a gym mat on Friday 1/11. He was located in the left corner of the gym, in a rolled-up mat that was lying against a wall. [2] That left a void, which the funeral home filled. Meanwhile, Pollock, who called for a federal probe, said he does not believe justice will find Kendricks case in Georgia. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. Justice for Kendrick Johnson! [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. Sometimes cotton is used with powder. [14] On October 31, 2013, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. But the Justice Department found insufficient evidence to support an investigation. Some cases are left undetermined for years.. He also said standard embalming practice is to fill empty space in body cavities with material such as sawdust or cotton. [38] The sheriff also stated he does not consider the case to be a homicide. Harrington Funeral Home in Valdosta, which handled Johnson's body, referred calls to attorney Roy Copeland. Kendrick Johnson In Savannah, Georgia 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson's body was uncovered January 11, 2013, inside of a rolled up wrestling mat . Kendrick Johnson's Body Stuffed With Newspapers, Organs Removed The teen's father, Kenneth Johnson, spoke about the missing organs during the rally. Updated: 12:46 AM EST March 10, 2021 JACKSONVILLE, Fla The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office announced Friday that it has reopened the investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson, whose. Bryants husband and brother-in-law were charged with ripping Till from his home, and fatally beating and shooting him. He was stuck upside down in the middle of a wrestling mat that had been rolled up and propped upright behind bleachers. In place of the organs were crumpled pieces of newspaper. "I'm not sure at this point who did not return the organs to the body, but I know when we got the body, the organs were not there," Anderson said. ", Neither had the founder of a national embalming academy, who said it's "not consistent with the standards of care" in the industry. [33], On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death, stating, "After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime. According to Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk, If theres questions and theyre legitimate I need to know the answers myself. The mysterious death of Kendrick Johnson was initially ruled an accident by law enforcement, but his family was not convinced. As he was upside down, blood would have rushed to Johnsons head and he eventually would have begun to bleed from his facial orifices. Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded that he died in a freak accident, falling headfirst into an upright mat and becoming trapped. READ: CrimeOnlines continuing coverage of the Kendrick Johnson case. 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 Valdosta, which handled the teen's embalming and burial. The body of Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found Jan. 11 in South Georgia. 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. [2][13], After the opinion of the private pathologist was released, Johnson's family stated that they believed Johnson had been murdered. Georgia funeral home replaced teen's organs with newspaper, and that's Its up to us to move the needle for KJ, because they are never going to do it down there.. lungs of someone who asphyxiates are heavier. The crowd of city residents and out-of-town supporters, including several youth activists from #ItsBiggerThanYou, came to demand justice for Kendrick Johnson. 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. When the judge in that case delayed a decision, pending the outcome of the U.S. Attorney's review, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorize the inquiry instead. As Kendrick lay dead in the gym, the basketball and color guard teams held their night practices. In an autopsy, organs are removed and examined before being returned to the body for burial. [Featured image: Nikkolas Smith/Millennial PR], North Carolina Cop, Wife Found Shot Dead in Fayetteville Home, We Have Zero Leads: $80,000 Reward Offered for Information Leading to Man Who Gunned Down Texas Family, Missing: 18-Year-Old Mom Takes Toddler Son From Dads During Supervised Visit. In June, Kendrick's body was sent to Florida. School officials found Johnson's body in the gym after his parents reported him missing the night before. On May 8, 2013, a judge granted Kendrick Johnson's body be exhumed. The body was discovered by fellow students who had climbed up to the top of a cluster of mats, each of which stood nearly 6 feet (1.8m) tall and 3 feet (0.91m) wide. An inquest would present the evidence in Johnson's death in a public hearing, much like a trial. Its not Kendricks blood, now we do not know whose blood it is. Anatomy. On top of this, the second autopsy revealed that some of Johnsons organs were missing and in their place, his body had been stuffed with newspaper. The second shoe was discovered on the floor in front of one of the mats in the gym, according to the local news outlet. He writes, in part: "his internal organs were destroyed through natural process and henceforth were discarded before the body was sent back to Valdosta.". 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. Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead and rolled up inside a high school gym mat back in 2013. Market data provided by Factset. The suit alleged that Johnson "was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life" on January 10, 2013. While Brian told the media that he considered Kendrick a friend, Austin, another one of Johnsons friends, alleged that a year before his death, Brian and Kendrick had an altercation on the bus as they headed to a football game that was being played out of town. Gym mat death shocker: Body stuffed with newspaper | CNN Despite this, the, Department of Justice closed the investigation. The attorney who helped push for a criminal prosecution in Trayvon Martin's shooting said Thursday that he's joining the fight to reopen an investigation into the death of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at school. The public was horrified by the photo and began to rally around the Johnsons in their quest for the truth. 9 Mysterious Details About Kendrick Johnson's Death I Googled stuff, he said. In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance tape from 35 cameras that covered the gym area were released to CNN following a court request. 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. 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. Then, read about the horrifying murder of Emmett Till. Finding Kendrick Johnson makes the claim that the 17-year-olds killer has been in plain sight all these years with an alibi that had already been refuted by federal investigators. Kendrick Johnson missing organs, newspaper found instead on 2nd autopsy The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were negligent and violated Johnson's constitutional right to equal protection based on race. Johnsons father, however, admitted that he had no hard evidence to back up any of these claims and the Johnsons had to drop the suit. Kendrick Johnson was black and the Lowndes County Sheriff, Chris Prines, and his investigators were all white. The findings of the second autopsy, that Johnsons death was not accidental and caused by blunt force trauma likely due to being struck in the neck with a 45lb dumbbell, were confirmed. 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. Kendrick Johnson, was a 17-year-old high school sophomore, found dead, inside of a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School gymnasium on January 11, 2013. The brothers father, 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. Kendrick Johnson | Say Their Names - Spotlight at Stanford N on Twitter: "It states that Rick Bell, former FBI special agent Under normal circumstances, the tongue is a pink, muscular organ located within the oral cavity proper. because the lungs fill with fluid, causing death. 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. 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. On May 8, 2013, a judge granted Kendrick Johnsons body be exhumed. However, Pollock said Kendricks lungs post mortem were a normal weight for a boy his age and size. 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. The only way Im going to know is to look at the evidence myself.. Over the years, the Johnsons have publicly implicated brothers Brian and Branden Bell in Kendricks death. But investigators quickly closed their case on the theory that Johnson had simply fallen into the mat while reaching for one of his sneakers. He was a three-sport athlete and dreamed of playing professional football. "I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. U.S. Attorney Michael Moore in Macon has been monitoring the case but has yet to announce whether he'll take any further action. Adding to the confusion is the fact that in October 2013, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told CBS that Kendrick's organs were returned to his body following the autopsy, as per protocol. More migrants expected Monday as Lightfoot pleads with Texas governor, EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Lightfoot opens up about election defeat, Crews to begin removing tree older than Chicago at Lincoln Park Zoo, JPMorgan Chase to take over most assets of First Republic Bank, At least 27 shot, 5 fatally, in Chicago weekend shootings: police, Toddler dies after being shot inside Chicago home last week: officials, Teen boy shot to death on South Side ID'd: officials, NFL player's 2-year-old daughter drowns in swimming pool, Authorities continue search for Texas man suspected of killing 5, NW Side restaurant burglarized 4 times in 5 weeks, owners say: VIDEO, Chicago family escapes Sudan as deadly fighting rages on, Paying more despite good credit? All Rights Reserved. Eight years after the body of Kendrick Johnson was found in a rolled-up gym mat at a high school in Georgia, the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office has announced it is reopening the case after . In June 2018, Kendrick Johnsons body was exhumed for a second time and a third autopsy was performed. Doctor Anderson has pictures of Kendrick's body he'd taken during the second autopsy, which show Black Friday ads and JC Penny circulars. "There may not be any law that prohibits it. 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. Two entities had custody of Kendrick's body and access to his organs the first time he was buried: the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the first autopsy in January, and Harrington Funeral Home, which the Johnsons chose to embalm and prepare Kendrick's body for burial, days later. Students had also told police that it was common for them to leave their belongings in the mats when they didnt want to pay for a locker. Kendrick Johnson death investigation will be reopened, Georgia sheriff CNN's Victor Blackwell investigates what happened to Kendrick Johnson's missing organs after his mysterious death. CBS affiliate WCTV reports the family's lawyer is also calling on authorities to release surveillance video that they say could have captured what happened in the gym the day Johnson died. - were not with the body," Anderson said. [12] The family retained the services of attorney Benjamin Crump. "It's unbearable, just about. This article will explain the details of tongue anatomy and how each part contributes to its movements and to functions such as eating, taste . The photo, in which Kendrick Johnsons face is extremely swollen, almost does not look human. From May 17 to 24, a white mob of 700 lynched at least 13 African Americans, including pregnant 21-year-old Mary Turner. A spokeswoman for the state told CNN after its autopsy, "the organs were placed in Johnson's body, the body was closed, then the body was released to the funeral home." 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. Indeed, when the mat was first unrolled, Johnson did have one arm stretched above his head and the other down around his waist as though struggling for his shoe. He said Johnson's organs were missing when the body arrived at Harrington. However, Pollock said Kendricks lungs post mortem were a normal weight for a boy his age and size. Johnson was a three-sport . Ive never seen a doctor rule on a theory without being able to present facts to me, Credle told CrimeOnline, claiming the medical examiner kicked him out of her office when he questioned her about her findings. "I'd never heard of that before, never. He was stuck upside down in the middle of a wrestling mat that had been rolled up and propped upright behind bleachers. Kendrick Johnson Case Will Be Reinvestigated By Georgia Sheriff's - NPR Kendrick vanished at Lowndes High School around 1:20 p.m. on January 10, 2013. Nor had the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, who said he's "never heard of this practice.". I don't know. "I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. 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 private pathologist presented a four-page report of his findings Aug. 15 saying he detected hemorrhaging on the right side of Johnson's neck. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. "The brain. Kendrick was found dead in the gymnasium at 10:30 a.m. on January 11, roughly 10 hours after his family reported him missing. Georgia: Nothing illegal in filling dead youth's body with newspaper - CNN Inside Biden's new mortgage fee rules. 1. They believed that the Sheriffs Department wastoo quick to rule out foul play as a cause for Johnsons death, considering that within 24 hours of finding Kendrick Johnsons body, they concluded that it was an accident. [37] However, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk stated that he would not be claiming there was something wrong with the original investigation or that the original investigation's conclusion of an accidental death was wrong. He also said standard embalming practice is to fill empty space in body cavities with material such as sawdust or cotton. The second time, he was being pulled out of it. Investigators did not take the hoodie and orange and black gym shoes into evidence. Tongue: Anatomy, Function, and Disorders - Verywell Health [15], Johnson's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. He said it was too soon to be more specific. N on Twitter: "Along with his organs, Kendrick Johnson's fingernails . 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. Kendrick Johnson's organs missing - YouTube 0:00 / 5:25 Kendrick Johnson's organs missing CNN 14.9M subscribers Subscribe 27K 3.2M views 9 years ago The body of Kendrick Johnson came back.