The second investigation into the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson, a Black 17-year-old whose body was found rolled up in a high school gym mat in Valdosta, Georgia; has concluded without any charges. The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office closed the case on Thursday (Jan. 27) after re-opening it this March.
In a 16-page document, Sheriff Ashley Paulk said his investigation did “not produce anything to prove any criminal act by anyone that would have resulted in the death of Kendrick Johnson.” Local and state officials ruled Johnson’s death an accidental asphyxiation and say he climbed into the rolled-up wrestling mat to retrieve his sneakers and suffocated.
However, the teen’s family has long disputed this and reiterated on Thursday that they believe the true cause of his death is being covered up.
“I will fight as long as I have to, to uncover what exactly happened to Kendrick Johnson,” his father, Kenneth Johnson, said at a press conference.
“We have not had faith in Lowndes County. We knew what the outcome would be from the very beginning,” he added to CNN. “You can’t do an investigation with the same investigators who covered it up. They’re not going to uncover something that they covered up.”
Paulk responded to “rumors and accusations” surrounding the case in his report, claiming that because so many federal and local officials investigated the teen’s death, “it would be impossible to conceal any evidence.” Paulk also noted that a separate FBI investigation found there was no cover-up.
Some pieces of evidence included in the sheriff’s report include a video inside the school gym, which showed Johnson “walking at a fast pace toward the area where the mats are stored” just before 1:30 p.m. local time on Jan. 10, 2013; when he was last seen alive.
The report states that Johnson’s body was discovered the next morning by students sitting on the gymnasium’s bleachers. The teenager was head-down in the vertically positioned mat and his feet were visible from the top, it reads.
One person reportedly told authorities they saw a small bruise on Johnson’s jaw, while another person “who viewed the body” said they didn’t see any signs of trauma.
Seven people also testified that students, including Johnson, frequently stores their shoes and other items in the rolled-up mats. According to the report, one student said he and Johnson had stored their shoes in the mats before and another person said students would go down into the mats to retrieve their items.
The report also included the findings of several autopsies that produced inconsistent results. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation listed Johnson’s death as positional asphyxia with the manner accidental, while a doctor hired by the teen’s family said he died from “blunt force trauma to the right neck involving the right mandible,” which was later amended to “right thorax.”
The final autopsy was performed in 2014 by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, which listed Johnson’s death as positional asphyxia and ruled it accidental. However, the agency changed their report two years later and said the cause and manner of Johnson’s death were undetermined.
“This change is attributed to the fact that additional materials were submitted for evaluation by the United States Department of Justice,” the report says. “The most significant item that was added appears to be a report from the South Georgia Medical Center Mobile Healthcare report that states they saw a bruise on the right side of the jaw.”
Paulk’s report also addressed claims that two students might have been involved in Johnson’s death. The teenager got into an altercation with one of them before his death, the report states, but an FBI video showed that both of the students were in different areas of the school when Johnson went to the gym.
The report also acknowledged Johnson’s missing organs, which Paulk claims were “disposed of” during the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s initial autopsy “because of their advanced decomposition.”
“In closing, I am quite sure that there will still be a contingent that will believe there was foul play. I encourage everyone to study ALL the evidence in this file before forming an opinion,” Paulk added.