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[Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:46
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that just like Buffalo Bill he could also use a
00:01:53
hand moving a couch he is the captain puts lotion on the screen it's going to be seen and it's good to see you thanks
00:02:01
for listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are drinking rye by the
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that is both aggressive and well balanced just like you my friend well and Ry was brought to us by these
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aggressive and well balanced individuals first up we have Kinsey from Kodiak Alaska and a big we like your jib to
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Olivia in Portland Maine and here's a cheers in a O Canada to our friend Jennifer and diberry Alberta I think I
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just did berried in my pants next up we have Colleen from Denver we also have Monique from Parts Unknown Monique love
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the captain's puka not had comment that like I kind of forgot about that that was a while ago I try to forget about
00:03:11
everything I've said and last but not least a big shout out and thank you to Rebecca in Pendleton Oregon and thanks
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for donating to the Beer fund you can do so at our website true Crim garage.com and click on the Donate Banner also it
00:03:25
is the last day if you're listening to this on a Tuesday then Wednesday to is the last day to order your hoodies or
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they'll be gone forever all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:37
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime family and friends say their final
00:04:02
goodbyes to a South Georgia teen found dead at a high school good evening I'm Jade bxa thank you for joining us
00:04:09
funeral services were held today for Kendrick Johnson deputies say the 17-year-old was found more than a week
00:04:15
ago inside a rolled up wrestling type mat Ty Wilson is now live for us in The Newsroom Ty I bet it was an emotional
00:04:22
time for [Music] people Jade good evening it was the funeral service was held today at yunan
00:04:31
Cathedral in valdasta hundreds of people turned out to remember the team everyone
00:04:36
who came to say goodbye to 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson dressed in the same colors some even had roses red and black
00:04:45
there was his favorite colors and we're going to give these roses to his mama you could see just how difficult this
00:04:52
day was for Kendrick Johnson's parents Bishop wayes McCrae had the difficult task of comforting all the people who
00:04:59
love Hendrick so dearly to uh share with these children um that regardless of the
00:05:05
situation and the circumstances uh our aim our goal objective is to know the shepherd the Lord is my shepherd and I
00:05:12
shall not want uh he gives us Victory even in this Valor inside the funeral service was moving and emotional
00:05:19
Kendrick's friends spoke so did his football and basketball coach Kendrick's father had this to say parents you got
00:05:27
there get this connection with your kids you got to talk to him cuz you never know sometime it's a knock can come at
00:05:37
the door we don't know who it is Kendrick's friends still seem stunned over his death I know we all expect to
00:05:44
die at some point but we ain't expect him to like leave this early seemed like it was like just two
00:05:51
weeks ago when we were all talking at McDonald about what we going to do when we grow up and he was saying like he
00:05:57
wanted to go to college and play football on January 11th Johnson a student at Lou's high school was found dead inside
00:06:05
the school investigators say they do not expect Foul [Music] Play all right we're going to be
00:06:27
discussing the frustrating yet intriguing case of Kendrick Johnson this is a very popular internet case but also
00:06:34
a popular request that we cover this case well Captain it was around 9:30 p.m. on the night of January 10th
00:06:43
2013 when Jackie Johnson says that she really started to worry her son Kendrick had not come home from school and
00:06:52
according to friends he had not gone to a basketball game that he was supposed to attend now around 11:00 p.m. M Jackie
00:07:00
we should make a note here she is a school bus driver for the loun county schools MH she drove to the school
00:07:08
looking for her son Kendrick this was to be the first of many trips for Jackie that night as she drove back and forth
00:07:16
from home to school getting more upset with each passing trip it was not like her 17-year-old boy not to call her to
00:07:25
let her know where he was now around 12:30 Jackie by this point she's frantic and
00:07:32
she called the police and she reported her youngest son Kendrick Johnson as missing the dispatcher told her that
00:07:39
Kendrick was probably just out with some friends or chasing some girl Jackie insisted that that was not the case she
00:07:47
explained that even if he didn't call her he would have called his sister or called his brother well this always
00:07:54
frustrates me hey let's just assume the worst let's not assume the best right let's assume the worst at anytime that
00:08:02
somebody goes missing after some convincing a missing person's report went out law enforcement called Jackie
00:08:09
around 4:00 a.m. confirming that they were out looking for her son Kendrick Jackie's husband Kendrick's Father
00:08:17
Kenneth he's a truck driver and on this night he was in Pennsylvania so while Jackie waited she sat with her mother
00:08:25
all Jackie could do is worry and her mother Prayed by up Jackie resolved to go to the high school the last place she
00:08:33
knew Kendrick to be she visited the main office around 8:30 a.m. asking if anyone
00:08:40
had seen her son she was taken to a guidance counselor's office to wait she waited and she waited it felt like
00:08:48
eternity I'm sure for her why were they not telling her anything is what she wondered as she sat waiting it was a
00:08:57
while she she was sitting there that she began to receive text messages on her phone they said there are ambulances and
00:09:05
fire trucks in the parking lot no one can come in the entrance this of course did not make her feel any better while
00:09:14
sitting there fretting over Kendrick missing the counselor's phone rang and he picked up during this short
00:09:22
conversation Jackie overheard something she wasn't intended to hear someone said to the guidance
00:09:29
counselor a little too loudly on the other end of the phone something very ominous she could clearly hear one short
00:09:38
terrifying sentence and that was they found a body in the gym the counselor then got up from his chair and left the
00:09:46
room and Kendrick Johnson was 17 years old he was a basketball player a football player he was a track star
00:09:53
sophomore in high school and this was not going to be a typical school day the um last TOS high school is in valdasta
00:10:02
Georgia and this is a town of about 54,000 people now louns was one of two high schools in the town in
00:10:11
2013 the school had around 3,000 students the high school's mascot was the Vikings now school had only been
00:10:20
back in session for about two days after a long winter break after The Long Winter Holiday that morning around 10:00
00:10:28
a.m. ath atic trainer Philip pipo he was teaching a life Sports class in the old
00:10:35
gym so just a side note here like many schools that have added on to their facilities over the years this High
00:10:43
School had a new gym and an old gym and the story that we are going to talk to you about today takes place in the old
00:10:52
gym the teacher had handed out a survey for the students to take after after having completed her survey a female
00:11:01
student climbed from the bleachers onto an upright set of rolled up mats there were 21 of these mats rolled up and
00:11:11
standing upright in this area of the gymnasium these mats are used by the athletic department conflicting reports
00:11:19
here but some reports indicate that they are wrestling mats others say that they
00:11:24
were used for cheerleading uh I'm I'm too old to have an opinion a very strong opinion of of
00:11:31
what this is but remembering back in my day Captain uh at our high school it was
00:11:36
very common that these mats were primarily used for wrestling but they were often they often served a multitude
00:11:43
of purposes right so the mats were tightly rolled and placed vertically packed together in a tight group in the
00:11:50
corner of the gym and it was a girl that first uh saw Kendrick in the mat right well she looked down the hole you know
00:11:59
the the center of one of these mats and notice two feet visible inside one of the rolled up mats she called friends
00:12:07
over to see you know what this is and to the students horror they saw two white socks with gray Toes that were sticking
00:12:17
that that were still on the feet of someone's body down inside this mat yeah I I think at first they just thought
00:12:24
somebody was hiding some of the students began to scream the teacher sprinted over to the mats and one by one pulled
00:12:32
them down onto their sides until he could get to the mat that the students were pointing at when he pulled the mat
00:12:39
down it hit the floor with a loud thud the bottom end of the mat so the the end of the mat that had been touching the
00:12:47
floor well when the teacher knocked the mat over from that end outs spilled halfway Spilled Out the body of a male
00:12:56
student with dreadlocks and there was also blood and vomit wow it was clear to the teacher that the person in the mat
00:13:03
was dead another teacher quickly cleared the students from the gym and the school
00:13:09
was placed on lockdown and 911 was called and obviously this is the body of Kendrick Johnson so Kendrick Johnson was
00:13:16
born October 10th 1995 to Jacqueline and Kenneth Johnson his friends who called him KJ describe him as a quiet boy
00:13:27
unlikely to cause trouble who was obsessed with math and football Kendrick was a three- sport athlete he played
00:13:35
football basketball and he was on the track team he was 5' 10 around 160 lb and was known for being a hard-hitting
00:13:44
safety on the football team there were some accounts out there that indicate that Kendrick's home life was less than
00:13:51
perfect some say that his father was living with a girlfriend and his mother was known to be less than involved uh
00:13:59
but I'm going to make a little bit of an argument here um that I think can an argument that can be made against this
00:14:06
as Kendrick he enjoyed spending a lot of time at his friends houses right so typical teenager right that's very
00:14:15
common for a you know for a teenager to want to be at his friend's homes often and it might give the appearance of a
00:14:23
mother that's not really involved but Frank how much can you be involved when the child decides not to be at home well
00:14:30
right and but also the child maybe doesn't want you to be involved I mean it's a teenager I mean you're not
00:14:36
telling your parents much of anything you know they ask you how school was you go I was good and then yeah and and I
00:14:43
think both of us did that too in high school you'd go to high school and then at night you'd be hanging out with your
00:14:48
friends or over at a buddy's house yeah and when you're 16 17 God forbid anybody
00:14:53
ask you how your day was right right I was okay did you learn anything no yeah or like what did you do nothing school
00:15:01
was prison it's like prison well on the morning of January 11th that was a um when Kendrick's body was found in the
00:15:10
gym mat the louns County Sheriff Chris Pine's office was called to the high school the sheriff himself was on his
00:15:17
way back to valdasta with his Deputy Joe Crow when he received the call about the body at
00:15:25
the school in the interim patrol office ERS and EMTs arrived at the scene and taped off the gym with crime scene tape
00:15:35
the school was placed in lockdown mode until police assured that there was no threat to the students classes resumed
00:15:44
while the investigation proceeded it's not clear when Sheriff pin arrived at the school but he confirmed to the media
00:15:53
that day that the body was that of a student and that the student's death was being investigated as a possible
00:16:00
homicide PR's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations the gbi for short spent all of the day and the next
00:16:10
day carefully documenting the scene collecting evidence and interviewing Witnesses at the school right here's
00:16:17
what we know from the crime scene Report law enforcement statements media reports
00:16:23
and the video of the scene so the crime scene investigator this is James Thor torton he arrived at the high school's
00:16:30
old gym at approximately 10:48 a.m. on January 11th thoron was briefed by investigation staff sergeant Jack
00:16:41
Winningham that a teacher had pulled down the mat in which feet were seen by students sitting on the mat and that a
00:16:49
body had been positioned head first inside the rad up mat when EMTs arrived on the scene the victim was identified
00:16:58
as student student Kendrick Lamar Johnson M he was slightly pulled out of the mat and it was determined by EMTs to
00:17:06
be deceased now we do not know how Kendrick was identified whether he was identified by a teacher or a student
00:17:15
right or an administrator we we don't know but we do know that the school knew that Kendrick Johnson's mother was
00:17:21
looking for him well and presumably they they may have known that Kendrick did not show up for his fourth period class
00:17:27
the day four right so multiple law enforcement and investigative Personnel were on the scene at this point so we
00:17:36
have people from the county sheriff's office we have people from the regional crime lab and the Georgia Bureau of
00:17:43
Investigations as well it was noted that the old gym contained bleachers along the north and south walls and that there
00:17:52
were approximately 21 rolled up mats in the southwest corner of the gym investigators inspected the entry/exit
00:18:00
doors and windows and determined that there were no signs of forced entry into the gym the following items were found
00:18:10
at the scene one was a black and white Adidas shoe size 9 and2 this was found on the floor in front of a rolled up mat
00:18:19
they also found a yellow folder found on the gym floor in front of a rolled up mat a science textbook on the floor
00:18:27
behind two rollup mats near the Southwest wall a medium-sized gray Hollister brand pullover hooded
00:18:35
sweatshirt was found on the concrete floor near the rolled up mats a rolled up mat containing Johnson's body lying
00:18:44
in the horizontal position on the concrete floor in the southwest corner of the old gym there were possible blood
00:18:51
stains on the South Wall of the old gym a test was later performed and these stains
00:18:59
were tested and and found by a tech from the gbi that they were determined to be
00:19:04
blood right they also found a pair of black gray and orange Nike shoes near the bleachers on the north wall of the
00:19:14
old gym all of these items of evidence were collected they were tagged and locked inside a car belonging to the
00:19:22
crime scene technician at approximately 400 p.m. the County coroner Bill Watson arried to conduct his examination on
00:19:30
Kendrick's body now Georgia law requires that the coroner be called as soon as law enforcement discovers that there is
00:19:38
a body but here the coroner didn't arrive for approximately 6 hours after they found the body Sheriff PR would
00:19:48
later say that the custom custom despite the law requiring immediate notification was that the
00:19:55
sheriff would call the coroner only after the scene had been cleared and then been thoroughly investigated so
00:20:02
that the coroner wouldn't have to just be sitting in the parking lot waiting for the sheriff to clear the scene but
00:20:08
the law is that right when a body is found you call the coroner yeah and that was not done right well let's talk about
00:20:17
that for a second captain because here is an issue that we have seen time and time again you know we've covered feels
00:20:24
like a bazillion cases now mhm so bazillion and one so when you have these different law enforcement agencies a lot
00:20:32
of them you know like okay so a lot of people have jobs where you have a hundred different supervisors that are
00:20:39
kind of watching what you're doing that they're kind of cataloging your work if you don't perform your job or your task
00:20:45
well or do things how you're supposed to according to protocol you don't work there for a long time right now when you
00:20:52
have like the sheriff's office or these different law enforcement agencies there's very little people to police the
00:20:58
police so so the sheriff who he's the head honcho over there in the county yeah he only has some people to listen
00:21:06
to answer to one the governor who's not going to get involved in much because he
00:21:10
has other stuff he or she has other things to do correct then you also have well you know well may he has to answer
00:21:18
to the general public because they elect him well a lot of stuff gets forgotten over the course of you know we don't we
00:21:26
don't sit down and elect the new sheriff every 30 days uh this is this takes place over some time so some things like
00:21:33
this get re get lost well we do in Parts Unknown every 30 days we we elect a new
00:21:40
sheriff so what I'm getting at though is this quote unquote custom this might not be a terribly
00:21:49
uncommon thing where you have individuals that kind of do things their own way and it's not right it's
00:21:56
absolutely not right they should be following the law however there's not really anybody there to police that so
00:22:04
we also have the sheriff stating that no law enforcement Personnel touched the body in the gym until the coroner
00:22:12
arrived and had examined the body the coroner later stated that he didn't agree with with prim's statement about
00:22:20
the custom and said that the sheriff had breached protocol with the six-hour delay in notification
00:22:28
in April of 2013 this is in a statement from the coroner he said that by the time he had arrived at the old gym the
00:22:37
scene had been compromised he didn't elaborate to what that meant but what we have here Captain is it's kind of a he
00:22:46
said he said situation we don't know if the sheriff PR if he's to blame or is the you know was this actually a real
00:22:56
custom that an agreement that the coroner and the sheriff had together this could be this is either the coroner
00:23:02
stating look the sheriff's statement is wrong and he broke protocol or it's the coroner just covering his own butt right
00:23:11
but you have these protocols you have these laws in place to one kind of Poli the police but it's also to cover your
00:23:18
own butt because if then if there is some something wrong with the investigation that the police can say
00:23:25
look we followed uh our procedures to the letter mhm and they didn't in this case and there's also a bunch of crime
00:23:33
scene photos that they were taking place that they were taking uh where you can see the investigators just wearing
00:23:39
regular shoes where their shoes should have been covered those little blue things or whatever but you could clearly
00:23:45
see that their shoes weren't so when you have a scene whether you think it's a accidental death or murder
00:23:54
or whatever it is you should follow the protocol that's set up for you the coroner observed Kendrick's body lying
00:24:00
on its left side sticking out of the rolled up mat the rest of his body from the abdomen down was inside of the mat
00:24:09
his head was lying in a pool of blood now the coroner noted the following Kendrick was wearing a white undershirt
00:24:16
and an orange T-shirt and white T-shirt blue jeans boxers and white socks there was a pair of white gray and orange
00:24:25
Nikes inside of the mat but not on Kendrick's feet the crime scene photos taken from the end of the mat where
00:24:32
Kendrick's feet were shown that these shoes were located at the same end as his feet not at the end where his head
00:24:41
was Kendrick's right arm was in a position that appeared to cover his face and his left arm was along his body with
00:24:49
his forearm bent toward his head his fingers were curled on both hands a black wire with white earphone was
00:24:57
hooked around his left hand at the middle finger and index fingers Kendrick's face was swollen and he had
00:25:04
blood coming out of his eyes nose and mouth dried blood was visible on his arms chest and face Kendrick's eyes were
00:25:13
swollen with blood visible in his eyes and burst blood vessels and it appears that there is no signs of blunt force
00:25:20
trauma to Kendrick on his face or his body it also appears that there's no wounds like puncture wounds or anything
00:25:27
to his body as well yeah and that's specifically noted in the lab report by the crime scene technician now also
00:25:35
found at the scene was a second black and white Adidas shoe that was located on the concrete floor near Kendrick's
00:25:41
head this was sitting in a pool of blood it was as was the other a nine size 9 and A2 matching the shoe that had
00:25:50
previously been found intact there was also a LG cell phone which was found in Kendrick's left front jean pocket the
00:25:59
mat that Kendrick was found in measured 74 in in length so just a touch over 6 ft tall when standing on its side and 34
00:26:09
in in diameter that's 34 in rolled up the end where Kendrick's feet were positioned was approximately 142 in
00:26:18
diameter at its widest point this is the opening right okay and then the end where his head was positioned was
00:26:26
approximately 14 and 3/4 in in diameter at the opening and there was some bloody
00:26:32
paper towels that were found in a trash can in the girls restroom which is located uh near the old gym these like
00:26:40
all of the other items for evidence were collected to be tested and all evidence
00:26:46
was taken to the crime lab for further testing and investigation there's so much more to get into on the Kendrick
00:26:53
Johnson case we'll get to it right after this quick beer break [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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all lowercase shopify.com podcast free shopify.com slmp podcast [Music] free all right we're back cheers mates
00:28:45
cheers now this next thing Captain is according to CNN I want to be very clear about that so according to CNN the
00:28:52
initial patient care report written by EMTs with the south Georgia Medical Center who were on the scene in the gym
00:29:01
on January 11th stated bruising noted to the right side jaw MH now the coroner arranged for Kendrick's body to be
00:29:10
transferred to the crime lab for an autopsy thoron who we had talked about earlier the uh technician accompanied
00:29:20
the body and placed it in crime cooler number two around 5:30 p.m. that evening after having investigated the scene for
00:29:29
several hours and Consulting with the coroner Sheriff Prine and the school superintendent this is Wes Taylor
00:29:37
released a joint statement that that reads as follows although the exact cause of death is yet to be determined
00:29:46
as of this stage of the investigation nothing has been discovered to indicate Foul Play was involved an autopsy will
00:29:55
be conducted on Monday by the the Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner office to attempt to determine
00:30:03
an exact cause of death Taylor went on to express his sadness at the death of a student and offered condolences for the
00:30:11
family but neither the sheriff nor the superintendent named the student Kendrick Johnson's name was not released
00:30:19
until the following day at some point on January 11th law enforcement met with Jackie Johnson presumably they told her
00:30:29
that Kendrick had been found deceased on Sunday January 13th Sheriff PR received
00:30:37
a request from Kendrick's father to personally identify his son's body according to James Thorton's lab report
00:30:45
thoron escorted Kendrick's parents to the cooler room at the lab and they identified Kendrick's remains Kenneth
00:30:53
later said that his handsome son looked nothing like himself lying there on the slab the following day on Monday January
00:31:02
14th Kendrick's body was taken to the gbi for an autopsy late that night the local ABC news station ran a piece
00:31:11
reporting that Kendrick's preliminary autopsy results indicated no foul play and that Kendrick had no visible
00:31:17
injuries to his body that could have caused his death the article goes on to state that investigators saw no signs of
00:31:25
a struggle and that they believe that Kendrick somehow got into the mat and couldn't get himself out M investigators
00:31:33
believe that Kendrick fell or reached inside the mat to get a shoe and got stuck Kendrick's father immediately
00:31:40
questioned the police findings stating that he believes Kendrick was murdered and it wasn't until May 2nd of that year
00:31:47
that the official autopsy report would be released to the public and let's go through some of the uh report so the
00:31:54
detailed report states that the official cause of death of Kendrick Johnson was positional asphyxia uh so this is
00:32:01
suffocation due to the position of the body the body was in a position that prevented it from breathing causing the
00:32:08
death there was no significant injuries identified in this report fluid has drained from the nose and mouth
00:32:16
decomposition smell was detected and skin slippage was visible on the body bloating and skin discoloration were
00:32:23
noted as well the body was found with earbuds and a wire there was also a Starburst wrapper that was found stuck
00:32:32
to the left elbow two tiny abrasions were noted on Kendrick's right wrist and left fourth finger both are less than an
00:32:41
eighth inch a third abrasion was noted on the same finger approximately 516 of an inch was this
00:32:49
abrasion drug test were con conducted on the body and were found to be negative everything else was noted to be normal
00:32:57
there was no indication that any bruising on the jaw was observed or noted in this detailed report the
00:33:05
conclusion of the doctor's report is that Kendrick's death was an accident the release of the autopsy report came
00:33:11
at the conclusion of the Sheriff's Office 4mon investigation into Kendrick's death in the course of that
00:33:18
investigation hundreds of students were interviewed and Witnesses or people connected or rumored to be connected to
00:33:25
Kendrick were interviewed as well lab results surveillance video and physical evidence were all reviewed and
00:33:32
their findings were as follows you want to go you would you like to go through this I find this part maybe the most
00:33:40
interesting thing here in this case Okay so this is they're going to lay out what
00:33:47
they believe went down based off of the evidence that they found uh which includes surveillance video and the
00:33:54
state of the body once it was found mhm so according to this report Kendrick was
00:34:00
last seen on surveillance footage entering the old gym at 109 p.m. on January 10th
00:34:07
2013 he entered the gym behind another student who went in a different direction but was confirmed to have gone
00:34:15
immediately to class Kendrick was seen entering the gym and bearing right in the direction of the mats in the corner
00:34:23
no one else is visible within 15 minutes other students can be seen entering the
00:34:29
gym for class and playing basketball in the gym and that evening multiple teams held practices in the gym without anyone
00:34:38
noticing anything unusual Kendrick was known to not have a locker for his gym stuff okay many of the kids didn't want
00:34:47
to pay the locker fees required to store their things so they would hide their items including shoes inside the rolled
00:34:55
up mats that were in the old gym lying horizontally seems a little silly that a school would make students pay for a
00:35:02
locker that they had to use for class but go ahead the kids would just reach into the mat tuck their shoes in out of
00:35:11
sight and retrieve them later it was confirmed that Kendrick did this and he even shared the shoes he hid
00:35:20
in the mat with another student they would just each use the shoes as necessary and then place them back into
00:35:27
the mat so that the other one could retrieve them later and I wonder if the shoes were a part of like their gym
00:35:33
outfits cuz I know he's part of a weight training class uh just like any other gym class but uh at my school you didn't
00:35:41
have to change your shoes you just had to change your outfit M and then you could but maybe this school said not
00:35:49
only do you have to change your clothes for class but you have to change your shoes as well I think there's one piece
00:35:55
that we just went over that I want to highlight real quick before we move on into this report okay so one item that I
00:36:01
hope everybody picked up on was when we talked about the locker fees and how many of the students didn't want to pay
00:36:07
the locker fees it was noted that most of these that the students that didn't want to do this they would hide their
00:36:13
items which included shoes inside the rolled up mats in the old gym but the mats are typically placed horizontally
00:36:21
they're they're sitting they're lying on their side on the ground okay on the floor of the gym yeah cuz how would you
00:36:28
hide in the mats if it they were placed vertically there you go I always thought
00:36:32
that was pretty strange but so they're normally vertic or normally horizontal and that way you can kind of just stick
00:36:40
your shoes in either side and then also if there's other shoes in there you can kind of just push those aside as well
00:36:47
mhm well the report goes on to state that over the holiday break which had ended on January 9th the day before
00:36:54
Kendrick's death the mats had had all been moved into an upright position and packed into the corner of the gym the
00:37:01
sheriff concluded that Kendrick had run into the gym to get his shoes but couldn't find them because the mats had
00:37:08
all been moved so he climbed up onto the top ends and walked along until he saw the sneakers down in the bottom of one
00:37:16
of the rolled up mats the sheriff then says that students were clearly used to hanging out up there when the mats were
00:37:24
stored in this way as they found numerous candy wrappers and soda bottles among the mats Kendrick likely climbed
00:37:32
into the bleach onto the bleachers I'm sorry walked on top of the mats and then reached in to grab his shoes he likely
00:37:40
had one arm down in the mat and the other holding on and either fell into the hole or squeezed into it trying to
00:37:48
reach the shoe and then couldn't get himself out and then slipped down further into the mat as he squirmed mhm
00:37:55
he couldn't reach his cell phone to call for help remember we said that was found
00:38:00
in his pocket now the cell phone his parents actually didn't know about this was a cell phone that he got from a
00:38:06
cousin which the cousin didn't even know how he got it the last call was made on
00:38:12
the cell phone I think a couple weeks before this incident mhm and so they don't even know if he could have made a
00:38:19
call if if it was even being used for phone calls yeah they think he was using it as like an MP3 player or IP iPod or
00:38:26
something right and I also think um with these texting apps he could have been using some app to text people when he
00:38:33
had Wi-Fi mhm but he might have thought if I can get to my phone I could at least text somebody it's it's believed
00:38:40
that he likely affixiated fairly quickly this would have happened from the abdominal organs compressing Kendrick's
00:38:47
diaphragm the tightness of the mat constricting his chest and or the mat impeding his ability to breathe through
00:38:54
his mouth investigators said Kendrick likely died and the blood was postmortem Purge from all the blood that had rushed
00:39:02
to his head and as he was suspended upside down in the mat yeah now the mats weighed 700 lb each and were over 6 feet
00:39:11
tall when standing on their ends they were all packed together and the one Kendrick was in was at the back of the
00:39:17
pack he would not have been able to move that mat without moving several other mats one of the things that I find
00:39:24
interesting here too is when they talk about the opening uh his shoulders were roughly about 4 or 5 in bigger than the
00:39:33
opening so meaning that it would have caused him to suffocate a lot faster because now there's no air that's you
00:39:41
know the the amount of air that's in the mat is very little but I also wonder you
00:39:48
have um people in the gym 15 minutes after him 20 minutes after him you have classes all day you have practices all
00:39:58
night but he's at the far back surrounded by all these mats and how much was that cutting off any sound you
00:40:09
know like his body was also cutting off sound from the mat so if even if he was yelling how much would that deaden the
00:40:17
sound well depending on how quickly he got to the top of the mats and reach down in there there's a decent chance he
00:40:25
may have expired before those students entered the gym gym 15 minutes later right as they said in this report they
00:40:32
believe he would have died very quickly once falling into the mat uh the folder in the science book that were found at
00:40:40
the scene were Kendrick's uh it's believed that he had put them down on top of the mats when he climbed up and
00:40:46
they fell down when the mats were moved by the teacher to get at the body along with one sneaker that was not found
00:40:54
inside the mat with Kendrick right we don't know whether maybe just one sneaker was down inside the mat or
00:41:01
whether Kendrick somehow managed to retrieve one but then got trapped while reaching for the other the paper towels
00:41:08
found in the girl's bathroom which um yeah the bloody paper towels yeah these actually it the report states that they
00:41:16
are paper towels that they were bloody paper towels found in the trash can MH later the report says that these are
00:41:23
tissues so they had a Trace of blood on them um it was from a flag girl uh who had gotten hurt during a practice and
00:41:34
used the tissues just to clean herself up so the the blood was confirmed to contain female DNA so not male DNA right
00:41:43
the dried blood spatters on the wall that were found about 50 ft from the mat where um Kendrick was later found yeah
00:41:53
was determined through DNA testing not to be Kendrick's blood but it is not known who this Blood belongs to yeah and
00:42:03
if you look at these uh the pictures of these blood droplets or whatever on the wall um they're very dark they don't
00:42:10
even look red so they almost justes look like some kind of crud could have been there for quite some time yeah I I think
00:42:17
so and there's a bunch of arguments that it's impossible that these wouldn't have been
00:42:24
cleaned off impossible oh yeah because my school was so clean that I regularly ate off the floor
00:42:32
yeah my high school my middle school both were I mean they're relative relatively clean right right right but
00:42:40
they weren't I mean they weren't like doctor office clean not close yeah they they weren't even household clean you
00:42:48
know now the sheriff concluded at the conclusion of his 4mon probe into Kendrick's death that it was a tragic
00:42:55
free accident that had occurred because of a perfect storm of events leading up to it the sheriff and his deputies
00:43:03
emphasize that their lengthy investigation had been as thorough as possible and that the freak accident
00:43:09
conclusion was the only possible one there was no evidence whatsoever they said of any kind of struggle or scuffle
00:43:18
either on Kendrick's body or in the gym where he was found Kendrick had neither fatal wounds nor defensive wounds of any
00:43:26
kind but we have wounds on his hands right there were some abrasions which's what was listed as abrasions on his
00:43:35
hands on his fingers right Kendrick's parents were not satisfied with the results of the autopsy and the Sheriff's
00:43:42
Department's conclusion from the beginning they were convinced that Kendrick's death was not accidental they
00:43:49
were skeptical that Kendrick really could have died you know how could he have died in such a bizarre way how
00:43:56
could their muscular son fit inside this rolled up mat uh wouldn't there at least
00:44:02
be part of his legs possibly sticking out of the mat right which they said appear to be uh just a little over six
00:44:10
feet in height and be visible to students who entered the gym just 15 minutes later and we had just kind of
00:44:18
talked through another one of the the Johnson's questions they wondered why nobody would have heard their son
00:44:24
screaming for help yeah they wondered how did his sneakers get onto the top on top of him inside the mat unless someone
00:44:34
had placed him there yeah there seems to be conflicting stories on the shoes where some people say that there was one
00:44:42
shoe you know that was behind him and one shoe that was still in front of him so that's that's an interesting thing to
00:44:50
talk about there was a shoe found on the gymnasium floor MH okay there's a shoe found found inside there were shoes
00:44:57
found inside the mat with Kendrick the troubling thing here is we have two pairs of shoes yeah we also
00:45:07
have students keeping their shoes inside these mats right um a lot of students yeah yeah several of them
00:45:14
so we have the shoes that Kendrick's wearing we have the shoes that he was presumably going after and then we have
00:45:21
other possible shoes belonging to other students I don't that we're going to have a 100% conclusion a great answer on
00:45:32
why the shoes were found in the positions that they were mhm um my thought would be that there was probably
00:45:38
some squirming going on if he had fallen in there right or if he was placed in there if he was attacked and rolled up
00:45:47
in this mat If he if he came to after being attacked he would probably be squirming
00:45:54
as well right so it it it it is very tricky It's tricky because it would look like somebody may have placed some of
00:46:02
these items in there but I mean how did how did any of this stuff come about I mean how is there a chance that
00:46:11
somebody drops some shoes in there afterwards not seeing his feet not seeing his socks in there right I mean
00:46:19
the girl that found him was described as having gone up on top of the mats and looking down down inside and we know
00:46:27
that that gym was being used regularly even though it was the old gym we have students going in there just 15 minutes
00:46:34
afterwards we have classes being conducted as well as all day and then we have practices all night yeah so and did
00:46:40
somebody use their gym shoes for one of these practice and then they're like wait these mats are normally set down
00:46:48
horizontal mhm but now they're vertical well I'll just toss my shoes up there and and then they fell on top of
00:46:55
Kendrick well I think what we should do here Captain is I think we should get into the Johnson's and their feeling
00:47:00
Kendrick's parents and their feelings and thoughts and that way to to to lead us into these important discussions on
00:47:07
the different items so we can take a look at them one by one but knowing why there is such a debate on certain items
00:47:16
right so sense it was it was Kendrick's father that saw his son's body in the crime lab yeah um and it's it's easy to
00:47:25
understand why his parents felt that he had been beaten to death his Kendrick's face appeared to be bloated uh
00:47:33
misshaped there was discoloration on his body there was skin slippage and red eyes so this must have been extremely
00:47:41
upsetting to the parents to see they eventually posted this picture on the internet mhm uh so I mean you can Google
00:47:48
it if you want um that's pretty horrific after hearing the sheriff's findings after hear heing the conclusion of the
00:47:57
autopsy report Kendrick's parents began a campaign to uncover what had really happened to their son this this started
00:48:06
kind of way back when because the day after his body was discovered his parents contacted Reverend Rose of the
00:48:14
Southern Christian leadership conference this is a civil rights organization Reverend Rose promised the family that
00:48:22
he would do anything he could to help so we will will refer to them as thec uh thec began an investigation into
00:48:31
the circumstances surrounding Kendrick's mysterious death at the same time the local chapter of the
00:48:38
NAACP was voluntarily looking into the case as well now the Johnson's they hired an attorney to help them pursue
00:48:47
legal action in their quest to find out what happened to Kendrick public statements were made claiming that
00:48:52
Kendrick's death was racially motivated and that if Kendrick had been white the outcome of the investigation would have
00:49:00
been different the Johnson's began to allege that there was an Institutional cover up concealing the true facts
00:49:09
around their son's death MH Independent Media Outlets such as CNN helped bolster
00:49:16
the Johnson's Case by providing coverage raising questions about the sheriff's investigation and filing requests for
00:49:22
information to try to obtain the case files and evidence the cause started to attract
00:49:29
attention hundreds of supporters began to March and rally demanding Justice for Kendrick according to CNN the
00:49:37
demonstrations in the streets with chance of no justice no peace became almost a daily occurrence after the
00:49:44
sheriff had closed his investigation Al Sharpton attended one of these rallies seven members of Kendrick's family were
00:49:52
arrested in April 2013 for obstruction they were participating in a rally and blocking the entrance to the County's
00:50:00
judicial complex mhm then a Facebook tribute page was established by the family well and remember when I said
00:50:08
they posted a picture of Kendrick after the autopsy yeah when he had to identify
00:50:13
them they took those pictures and they put them on t-shirts and so a lot of these events they'd be wearing those
00:50:20
shirts yeah and this has become a kind of a famous photo I would say because I believe through this Captain is you
00:50:28
know when they release the his parents release this picture online they start wearing it on a graphic T right at these
00:50:36
rallies and these events I think when people saw this photo this is when the public when the
00:50:43
public outrage started you know people really wanted this case to be reopened to figure out what had happened well it
00:50:50
looks like Kendrick was like beaten disfigured MH and so if you just hear you know black student is murdered at
00:50:58
school and you see a picture of his face you think well heck somebody beat him to
00:51:02
death but once you find out that he was trapped upside down and that all this blood is rushing to his face that that
00:51:10
is the reason or at least part of the reason why his face looks that way well and it's a uh to put it bluntly it's a
00:51:19
it's a black student at a southern school right you know that's not we know we know this sad history of our country
00:51:27
and some of the people that have lived in this country along the way and um it doesn't make it any easier to it doesn't
00:51:35
make it any easier to accept that this is an accidental death giving the circumstances surrounding it and so many
00:51:42
questions surrounding it now the Johnson's they began to make allegations about people specific people that they
00:51:50
believe to be responsible for killing their son mhm the Facebook tribute page named some boys who the Johnson stated
00:51:58
had it out for Kendrick they posted that gruesome po picture that we talked about and with the caption that said
00:52:07
look what someone did to our son now the Johnson's didn't name the boys outright
00:52:13
that they believed were responsible but it was pretty clear to people in the area who they were
00:52:20
referring to because they name they you know they made some specific details about these individuals
00:52:28
that made it pretty easy to figure out who they were now people in the community they began to harass and
00:52:34
threaten the boys and their family the allegations became increasingly public um appearing in the media through TV
00:52:43
interviews and print Publications the Johnson's alleged that the coroner not being called for 6 hours
00:52:50
gave law enforcement in the gym a chance to cover up what had really happened that day
00:52:56
Kenneth said that when he went to identify Kendrick's body the air in the cooler was not cold it was warm it was
00:53:04
hot air this implying that the coroner was attempting to destroy physical evidence on the body by speeding up the
00:53:11
decomposition process MH Kendrick's clothing disappeared somewhere between the gbi which conducted the official
00:53:20
autopsy and the Harrington funeral home which received the body in prepar for the burial the Transport company who
00:53:28
picked up the body from the gbi signed an inventory receipt acknowledging that it received
00:53:34
Kendrick's personal effects but when the body arrived at the funeral home all that accompanied it was a broken pair of
00:53:43
headphones the clothes have never been located right okay but that's it was transported from gbi to the funeral home
00:53:53
mhm and when when they picked it up up there was clothed there when they dropped it off it wasn't
00:54:01
so the you know you want to blame somebody for the missing clothes blame the person that transported him because
00:54:09
if they sign that hey we picked them up and there was clothes and when they dropped him off at the funeral home the
00:54:15
funeral home said there's no clothes then we know who took the clothes yeah I don't think that this is the or misplace
00:54:22
them I don't think that this is the parents blaming the G bi I think this is the parents just pointing out this is
00:54:28
something strange that shouldn't have occurred that happened right so the clothing have has never been found
00:54:34
Kenneth and Jackie the parents alleged that the missing clothing clothing likely contained evidence of physical
00:54:41
struggle that the clothes had been destroyed by those out to cover up the actual murder they also point out that
00:54:49
the original EMTs on the scene had noted bruising that was noted on the EMT report the gbi pathologist did not note
00:54:58
this bruising on the autopsy report adding fuel to the fire a retired FBI agent who looked at the crime scene
00:55:05
photos agreed with the family this is Harold Copus who now works as a private detective he questioned why police
00:55:13
didn't collect the sneakers with no blood on them into evidence so let's yeah well we're going
00:55:20
to question you know I'm going to question anybody that doesn't tag and bag everything that they can find even
00:55:26
if you don't think it has any validity at all mhm in May of 2013 all of these questions led to the Johnson's this is
00:55:36
with the help of their attorney to get an Exum order to dig up Kendrick's remains for a second
00:55:43
autopsy the actual digging up of the casket was attended by family members teammates friends and supporters of the
00:55:51
Johnson's cause Kendrick's body was sent to Florida to Florida pathologist Dr William Anderson for an autopsy paid for
00:56:00
by the family and supporters Dr Anderson's autopsy report was explosive it directly contradicted the
00:56:09
original autopsy findings of accidental death Anderson's report stated that there was physical evidence of blunt
00:56:16
force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues consistent with inflicted injury
00:56:23
Anderson went on to state that the injury was likely inflicted by someone else and that the death should be
00:56:29
investigated as a [Music] homicide so though Kendrick Johnson it seems as if it's pretty simple it's
00:56:42
accidental death then these little things come out makes you pretty suspicious that you know why why was it
00:56:50
investigated this way why were these reports put out this way and is this possible possibly a murder and not an
00:56:56
accidental death well and I think what we're seeing here Captain is that in fact that it's Absolut that it's not
00:57:02
that simple that there were some question marks along the way there were some concerns by his family MH and we
00:57:10
had now have this 4month investigation that states that this was in fact an accidental death then once we
00:57:18
get the the opportunity for a second autopsy we find out we're getting information that that might squash
00:57:26
everything that was found in that first investigation the Johnson's just may be right and their son may have been killed
00:57:33
well let's dissect tomorrow these little points of contention and uh let's debate
00:57:38
them and let's hear your viewpoints and my viewpoints and let's see if we can get to the bottom of any of this all
00:57:44
right and we will see everybody back here tomorrow in the garage until then be good be kind and don't
00:57:53
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