In January 2013, Kendrick Johnson’s body was found in a rolled-up mat in the Lowndes County High School gym. Johnson’s death was ruled an accident, however, his parents think that their son was murdered.

Investigators concluded that Johnson had fallen into the mat while he was attempting to reach for a shoe that he shared with another student. The autopsy done by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation decided that Johnson had died from accidental asphyxiation. Johnson’s family hired a pathologist who also performed an autopsy and found that the cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the neck.

In 2016, the Department of Justice stated that there was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Johnson had been killed and that it was not just an accident.

The former sheriff of Lowndes County, Ashley Paulk retired in 2017, and in 2019 he requested that all of the information on Johnson’s case be released to his department. Paulk was initially denied the information, but recently received 17 boxes of evidence. Paulk intends to check for discrepancies in the prior investigation.

If you’d like more information on the death of Kendrick Johnson I have attached the 2019 Crime Junkie podcast episode.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Kz5MMOUdn6jb6ffcsi6AT?si=6jau50XcRbGERpVjNmQlgQ