00:00:00
foreign [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
00:00:45
Nick and with me as always is a man that just like Buffalo Bill he could also use
00:00:50
a hand moving a couch he is the captain and puts lotion on the screen it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
00:00:58
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] foreign by the hard-working men and women at the
00:01:11
Terrapin Beer Company garage grade three and three-quarter bottle caps out of five this beer was awarded the American
00:01:17
pale ale gold medal at the 2002 Great American Beer Festival made with five varieties of hops and a generous amount
00:01:26
of specialty malts Rye Pale Ale offers a complex flavor and Aroma that is both aggressive and well balanced just like
00:01:35
you my friend well and Rye was brought to us by these aggressive and well-balanced individuals first up we
00:01:41
have Kinsey from Kodiak Alaska and a big we like Egypt to Olivia in Portland Maine and here's a cheers in a Oh Canada
00:01:49
to our friend Jennifer and Didsbury Alberta I think I just did buried in My Pants next up we have Colleen from
00:01:57
Denver we also have Monique from Parts Unknown Monique loved the captain's puka not Hada
00:02:03
comment that like I kind of forgot about that that was a while ago I try to forget about everything I've said and
00:02:10
last but not least a big shout out and thank you to Rebecca and Pendleton Oregon and thanks for donating to the
00:02:16
Beer fund you can do so at our website True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate Banner also it is the last day if
00:02:24
you're listening to this on a Tuesday then Wednesday is the last day to order your hoodies or they'll be gone forever
00:02:31
all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:02:37
crime [Music] thank you [Music] family and friends say their final goodbyes to a South Georgia teen found
00:03:02
dead at a high school good evening I'm Jade beloxa thank you for joining us funeral services were held today for
00:03:08
Kendrick Johnson deputies say the 17-year-old was found more than a week ago inside a rolled up wrestling type
00:03:15
mat Ty Wilson is now live for us in The Newsroom Ty I bet it was an emotional time for people
00:03:21
[Music] foreign Jade good evening it was the funeral service was held today at Union
00:03:28
cathedral in Valdosta hundreds of people turned out to remember the team everyone who came to say goodbye to 17
00:03:35
year old Kendrick Johnson dressed in the same colors some even had roses red and
00:03:41
black they was his favorite colors and we're going to get these roses to his mama
00:03:47
you could see just how difficult this day was for Kendrick Johnson's parents Bishop Wade s McRae had the difficult
00:03:54
task of comforting all the people who love Kendrick so dearly to uh share with these children
00:04:01
um that regardless of the situation and the circumstances uh our aim our goal objective is to know the shepherd the
00:04:08
Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want uh he gives us Victory even in this battle inside the funeral service was
00:04:15
moving and emotional Kendrick's friends spoke so did his football and father had this to say
00:04:23
apparently get this connection with your kids you got to talk to them because you never know
00:04:32
[Music] we don't know who it is Kendrick's friends still seem stunned over his death I know we all expect to die at
00:04:42
some point but we ain't expect him to like leave this early seemed like it was like just two weeks
00:04:48
ago when we were all talking at McDonald's about what we're gonna do when we grow up and he was saying like
00:04:54
he wanted to go to college and play football on January 11th Johnson a student at
00:05:00
Lowndes high school was found dead inside the school investigators say they do not expect Foul Play
00:05:06
[Music] foreign [Music] we're going to be discussing the frustrating yet intriguing case of
00:05:28
Kendrick Johnson this is a very popular internet case but also a popular request
00:05:33
that we cover this case well Captain it was around 9 30 p.m on the night of January 10 2013 when Jackie Johnson says
00:05:44
that she really started to worry her son Kendrick had not come home from school and according to friends he had not gone
00:05:51
to a basketball game that he was supposed to attend now around 11 p.m Jackie we should make a note here she is
00:05:59
a school bus driver for the Lowndes County Schools she drove to the school looking for her son Kendrick this was to
00:06:09
be the first of many trips for Jackie that night as she drove back and forth from home to school getting more upset
00:06:16
with each passing trip it was not like her 17 year old boy not to call her to let her know where he was
00:06:24
now around 12 30 Jackie by this point she's frantic and she called the police and she reported her youngest son
00:06:33
Kendrick Johnson as missing the dispatcher told her that Kendrick was probably just out with some friends or
00:06:39
chasing some girl Jackie insisted that that was not the case she explained that even if he didn't call her he would have
00:06:48
called his sister or called his brother well this always frustrates me hey let's
00:06:52
just assume the worst let's not assume the best right let's assume the worst at any time that somebody goes missing
00:07:00
after some convincing a missing person's report went out law enforcement called Jackie around 4 a.m confirming that they
00:07:09
were out looking for her son Kendrick Jackie's husband Kendrick's Father Kenneth he's a truck driver and on this
00:07:17
night he was in Pennsylvania so while Jackie waited she sat with her mother all Jackie could do is worry and her
00:07:24
mother Prayed by sunup Jackie resolved to go to the high school the last place she knew Kendrick to be she visited the
00:07:33
main office around 8 30 a.m asking if anyone had seen her son she was taken to a guidance counselor's
00:07:42
office to wait she waited and she waited it felt like eternity I'm sure for her why were they
00:07:49
not telling her anything is what she wandered as she sat waiting it was a while she she was sitting there
00:07:56
that she began to receive text messages on her phone they said there are ambulances and fire trucks in the
00:08:04
parking lot no one can come in the entrance this of course did not make her feel any better while sitting there
00:08:12
fretting over Kendrick missing the counselor's phone rang and he picked up during this short conversation Jackie
00:08:21
overheard something she wasn't intended to hear someone said to the guidance counselor a
00:08:28
little too loudly on the other end of the phone something very ominous she could clearly hear one short terrifying
00:08:36
sentence and that was they found a body in the gym the counselor then got up from his chair and left the room and
00:08:44
Kendrick Johnson was 17 years old he was a basketball player a football player he
00:08:49
was a track star sophomore in high school and this was not going to be a typical school day the Lowndes high
00:08:57
school is in Valdosta Georgia and this is a town of about 54 000 people now Lowndes was one of two high schools in
00:09:07
the town in 2013. the school had around 3 000 students the high school's mascot was the Vikings
00:09:16
now school had only been back in session for about two days after a long winter break after The Long Winter Holiday
00:09:24
that morning around 10 a.m athletic trainer Philip pipelow he was teaching a life Sports class in the old gym so just
00:09:34
a side note here like many schools that have added on to their facilities over the years this High School had a new gym
00:09:42
and an old gym and the story that we are going to talk to you about today takes place in the old gym
00:09:51
the teacher had handed out a survey for the students to take after having completed her survey a female student
00:09:59
climbed from the bleachers onto an upright set of rolled up mats there were 21 of these mats rolled up and standing
00:10:09
upright in this area of the gymnasium these mats are used by the athletic department conflicting reports here but
00:10:17
some reports indicate that they are wrestling mats others say that they were used for cheerleading uh I'm I'm too old
00:10:25
to have an opinion a very strong opinion of of what this is but remembering back
00:10:30
in my day Captain uh at our high school it was very common that these mats were primarily used for wrestling but they
00:10:38
were often they often served a multitude of purposes right so the mats were tightly rolled and placed vertically
00:10:45
packed together in a tight group in the corner of the gym and there was a girl that first Saul Kendrick in the mat
00:10:53
right well she looked down the hole the you know the the center of one of these mats and noticed two feet visible inside
00:11:02
one of the rolled up mats she called friends over to see you know what this is and to the student's horror they saw two
00:11:11
white socks with gray Toes that were sticking that were still on the feet of someone's body down inside this mat yeah
00:11:20
I think at first I just thought somebody was hiding some of the students began to
00:11:24
scream the teacher sprinted over to the mats in one by one pulled them down onto
00:11:31
their sides until he could get to the mat that the students were pointing at when he pulled the mat down it hit the
00:11:38
floor with a loud thud the bottom end of the mat so the the end of the mat that had been touching the floor well when
00:11:46
the teacher knocked the mat over from that end out spilled halfway Spilled Out the body of a male student with
00:11:54
dreadlocks and there was also blood and vomit it was clear to the teacher that the person in the mat was dead another
00:12:02
teacher quickly cleared the students from the gym and the school was placed on locked down and 9-1-1 was called and
00:12:10
obviously this is the body of Kendrick Johnson so Kendrick Johnson was born October 10 1995 to Jacqueline and
00:12:18
Kenneth Johnson his friends who called him KJ describe him as a quiet boy unlikely to cause trouble who was
00:12:27
obsessed with math and football Kendrick was a three-sport athlete he played football basketball and he was on the
00:12:34
track team he was five foot ten around 160 pounds and was known for being a hard-hitting safety on the football team
00:12:43
there were some accounts out there that indicate that Kendrick's home life was less than perfect some say that his
00:12:49
father was living with a girlfriend and his mother was known to be less than involved uh but I'm going to make a
00:12:57
little bit of an argument here um that I think can an argument that can be made against this
00:13:03
as Kendrick he enjoyed spending a lot of time at his friend's houses right so typical teenager right that's very
00:13:13
common for uh you know for a teenager to want to be at his friends homes often and it might give the appearance of a
00:13:20
mother that's not really involved but well frankly how much can you be involved when the child decides not to
00:13:26
be at home well right and but also the child maybe doesn't want you to be involved I
00:13:32
mean it's a teenager I mean you're not telling your parents much of anything you know they ask you how school was you
00:13:38
go that was good and then yeah and and I think both of us did that too in high school you go to high school and then at
00:13:44
night you'd be hanging out with your friends or over at a buddy's house yeah and when you're 16 17 God forbid anybody
00:13:51
ask you how your day was right right that's okay did you learn anything no yeah what did you do nothing school was
00:13:59
prison it's like prison well on the morning of January 11th that was a um when Kendrick's body was found in the
00:14:07
gym mat the Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Pine's office was called to the high school the sheriff himself was on his
00:14:15
way back to Valdosta with his Deputy Joe Crow when he received the call about the
00:14:22
body at the school in the interim Patrol officers and EMTs arrived at the scene and taped off the gym with crime scene
00:14:31
tape the school was placed in lockdown mode until police assured that there was no
00:14:38
threat to the students classes resumed while the investigation proceeded it's not clear when Sheriff Preen arrived at
00:14:47
the school but he confirmed to the media that day that the body was that of a student and that the student's death was
00:14:55
being investigated as a possible homicide preen's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations the gbi for
00:15:04
short spent all of the day and the next day carefully documenting the scene collecting evidence and interviewing
00:15:12
Witnesses at the school right here's what we know from the crime scene Report law enforcement statements media reports
00:15:20
and the video of the scene so the crime scene investigator this is James Thornton he arrived at the high school's
00:15:28
old gym at approximately 10 48 a.m on January Thornton was briefed by investigations
00:15:36
staff sergeant Jack Winningham that a teacher had pulled down the mat in which feet were seen by students
00:15:44
sitting on the mat and that a body had been positioned head first inside the rolled up mat when EMTs arrived on the
00:15:52
scene the victim was identified as student Kendrick Lamar Johnson he was slightly pulled out of the mat
00:16:01
and it was determined by EMTs to be deceased now we do not know how Kendrick was identified whether he
00:16:09
was identified by a teacher or student right or an administrator we we don't know but we do know that the school knew
00:16:16
that Kendrick Johnson's mother was looking for him well and presumably they they may have known that Kendrick did
00:16:22
not show up for his fourth period class the day before right so multiple law enforcement and investigative Personnel
00:16:31
were on the scene at this point so we have people from the county sheriff's office we have people from the regional
00:16:38
crime lab and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations as well it was noted that the old gym contained bleachers along
00:16:46
the north and south walls and that there were approximately 21 rolled up mats in
00:16:52
the southwest corner of the gym investigators inspected the entry slash exit doors and windows and determined
00:17:01
that there were no signs of forced entry into the gym the following items were found at the scene
00:17:08
one was a black and white Adidas shoe size nine and a half this was found on the floor in front of a rolled up mat
00:17:17
they also found a yellow folder found on the gym floor in front of a rolled up mat a science textbook on the floor
00:17:25
behind two rolled up mats near the Southwest wall a medium-sized gray Hollister brand
00:17:31
pullover hooded sweatshirt was found on the concrete floor near the rolled up mats a rolled up mat containing
00:17:39
Johnson's body lying in the horizontal position on the concrete floor in the southwest corner of the old gym
00:17:47
there were possible blood stains on the South Wall of the old gem a test was later performed and these stains were
00:17:56
tested and found by a tech from the gbi that they were determined to be blood right they also found a pair of black
00:18:05
gray and orange Nike shoes near the bleachers on the north wall of the old gym all of these items of evidence were
00:18:14
collected they were tagged and locked inside a car belonging to the crime scene technician at approximately 4 pm
00:18:23
the County coroner Bill Watson arrived to conduct his examination on Kendrick's body now Georgia law requires that the
00:18:32
coroner be called as soon as law enforcement discovers that there is a body but here
00:18:37
the coroner didn't arrive for approximately six hours after they found the body Sheriff Preen would later say
00:18:46
that the custom despite the law requiring immediate notification was that the sheriff would
00:18:54
call the coroner only after the scene had been cleared and then been thoroughly investigated so that the
00:19:00
coroner wouldn't have to just be sitting in the parking lot waiting for the sheriff to clear the scene but the law
00:19:06
is that right when a body is found you call the coroner yeah and that was not done
00:19:13
right well let's talk about that for a second captain because here is an issue that we have seen time and time again
00:19:20
you know we've covered feels like a bazillion cases now so bazillion and one so when you have
00:19:27
these different law enforcement agencies a lot of them you know like okay so a lot of people have jobs where you have a
00:19:34
hundred different supervisors that are kind of watching what you're doing that they're kind of cataloging your work if
00:19:40
you don't perform your job or your task well or do things how you're supposed to
00:19:44
according to protocol you don't work there for a long time right now when you have like the sheriff's
00:19:50
office or these different law enforcement agencies there's very little people to police the police
00:19:56
so so the sheriff who he's the head honcho over there in the county yeah he only has some people to listen to answer
00:20:04
to one the governor who's not going to get involved in much because he has other stuff he or she has other things
00:20:10
to do correct then you also have well you know well maybe he has to answer to the general public because they elect
00:20:18
him well a lot of stuff gets forgotten over the course of you know we don't we don't sit down and elect a new sheriff
00:20:25
every 30 days uh this is this takes place over some time so some things like this get re get lost what are we doing
00:20:33
Parts Unknown every 30 days we we elect a new sheriff so what I'm getting at though is this quote-unquote custom
00:20:44
this might not be a terribly uncommon thing where you have individuals that kind of do things their own way and it's
00:20:53
not right it's absolutely not right they should be following the law however there's not really anybody there to
00:20:59
police that so we also have the sheriff stating that no law enforcement Personnel touched the body in the gym
00:21:08
until the coroner arrived and had examined the body the coroner later stated that he didn't agree with with
00:21:15
prine's statement about the custom and said that the sheriff had breached protocol with the six hour delay in
00:21:24
notification in April of 2013 it this is in a statement from the coroner he said
00:21:31
that by the time he had arrived at the old gym the scene had been compromised he didn't elaborate to what that meant
00:21:40
but what we have here Captain is it's kind of a he said he said situation we don't know if the sheriff Prime if
00:21:48
he's to blame or is the you know was this actually a real custom that an agreement that the coroner and the
00:21:56
sheriff had together this could be this is either the coroner stating look the sheriff's statement is wrong and he
00:22:03
broke protocol or it's the coroner just covering his own butt right but you have
00:22:09
these protocols you have these laws in place to one kind of police the police but it's also to cover your own butt
00:22:16
because if then if there is some something wrong with the investigation that the police can say look we followed
00:22:23
uh our procedures to the letter and they didn't in this case and there's also a bunch of crime scene photos that they
00:22:31
were taking place that they were taking uh where you can see the investigators just wearing regular shoes where their
00:22:38
shoes should have been covered and those little blue things or whatever but you could clearly see that there shoes
00:22:43
weren't so when you have a scene whether you think it's a accidental death or a murder or
00:22:52
whatever it is you should follow the protocol that's set up for you the coroner observed Kendrick's body lying
00:22:58
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
00:23:06
his head was lying in a pool of blood now the coroner noted the following Kendrick was wearing a white undershirt
00:23:13
and an orange T-shirt and white T-shirt blue jeans boxers and white socks there was a pair of white gray and orange
00:23:22
Nikes inside of the mat but not on Kendrick's feet the crime scene photos taken from the end of the mat where
00:23:30
Kendrick's feet were shown that these shoes were located at the same end as his feet not at the end
00:23:37
where his head was Kendrick's right arm was in a position that appeared to cover
00:23:42
his face and his left arm was along his body with his forearm bent toward his head his fingers were curled on both
00:23:51
hands a black wire with white earphone was hooked around his left hand at the middle finger and index fingers
00:23:58
Kendrick's face was swollen and he had blood coming out of his eyes nose and mouth dried blood was visible on his
00:24:07
arms chest and face Kendrick's eyes were swollen with blood visible in his eyes and burst blood vessels and it appears
00:24:15
that there is no signs of blunt force trauma to Kendrick on his face or his body and also appears that there's no
00:24:22
wounds like puncture wounds or anything to his body as well yeah and that specifically noted in the lab report by
00:24:29
the crime scene technician now also found that the scene was a second black and white Adidas shoe that
00:24:36
was located on the concrete floor near Kendrick's head this was sitting in a pool of blood it was as was the other a
00:24:44
nine size nine and a half matching the shoe that had previously been found intact there was also a LG cell phone
00:24:52
which was found in Kendrick's left front jeans pocket the mat that Kendrick was found in measured 74 inches in length so
00:25:01
just a touch over six feet tall when standing on its side and 34 inches in diameter that's 34 inches rolled up the
00:25:11
end where Kendrick's feet were positioned was approximately 14 and a half in diameter at its widest point
00:25:18
this is the opening right okay and then the end where his head was positioned was approximately 14 and three quarters
00:25:26
inches in diameter at the opening and there was some bloody paper towels that were found in a trash can and the girls
00:25:33
restroom which is located near the old gym these like all of the other items for evidence were collected to be tested
00:25:42
and all evidence was taken to the crime lab for further testing and investigation there's so much more to
00:25:49
get into on the Kendrick Johnson case we'll get to it right after this quick beer break
00:25:58
[Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers now this next thing Captain is according
00:26:17
to CNN I want to be very clear about that so according to CNN the initial patient care report written by EMTs with
00:26:25
the south Georgia Medical Center who were on the scene in the gym on January 11th stated bruising noted to the right
00:26:34
side jaw now the coroner arranged for Kendrick's body to be transferred to the crime lab
00:26:41
for an autopsy Thornton who we had talked about earlier the technician accompanied the body and
00:26:49
placed it in crime cooler number two around 5 30 PM that evening after having investigated the scene for several hours
00:26:58
and Consulting with the coroner Sheriff Prine and the school superintendent this
00:27:04
is Wes Taylor released a joint statement that that reads as follows although the exact cause of death is yet
00:27:13
to be determined as of this stage of the investigation nothing has been discovered to indicate Foul Play was
00:27:21
involved and autopsy will be conducted on Monday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner's office
00:27:29
to attempt to determine an exact cause of death Taylor went on to express his sadness at the death of a student and
00:27:38
offered condolences for the family but neither the sheriff nor the superintendent named the student
00:27:45
Kendrick Johnson's name was not released until the following day at some point on
00:27:51
January 11th law enforcement met with Jackie Johnson presumably they told her that Kendrick had been found deceased on
00:28:01
Sunday January 13th Sheriff preen received a request from Kendrick's father to personally identify his son's
00:28:10
body according to James Thornton's lab report Thornton escorted Kendrick's parents to the cooler room at the lab
00:28:18
and they identified Kendrick's remains Kenneth later said that his handsome son looked nothing like himself lying there
00:28:27
on the slab the following day on Monday January 14th Kendrick's body was taken to the gbi for an autopsy late that
00:28:36
night the local ABC news station ran a piece reporting that Kendrick's preliminary autopsy results indicated no
00:28:43
foul play and that Kendrick had no visible injuries to his body that could have caused his death the article goes
00:28:51
on to state that investigators saw no signs of a struggle and that they believed that Kendrick somehow got into
00:28:58
the mat and couldn't get himself out investigators believe that Kendrick fell or reached inside the mat to get a shoe
00:29:06
and got stuck Kendrick's father immediately questioned the police findings stating that he believes
00:29:12
Kendrick was murdered and it wasn't until May 2nd of that year that the official autopsy report would be
00:29:18
released to the public and let's go through some of the reports so the detailed report states that the
00:29:25
official cause of death of Kendrick Johnson was positional asphyxia so this is suffocation due to the position of
00:29:32
the body the body was in a position that prevented it from breathing causing the
00:29:37
death there was no significant injuries identified in this report fluid has drained from the nose and mouth
00:29:44
decomposition smell was detected and skin slippage was visible on the body bloating and skin discoloration were
00:29:52
noted as well the body was found with ear buds and a wire there was also a starburst rapper that was found stuck to
00:30:01
the left elbow two tiny abrasions were noted on Kendrick's right wrist and left fourth
00:30:08
finger both are less than an eighth inch a third abrasion was noted on the same finger approximately
00:30:15
5 16 of an inch was this abrasion drug tests were con conducted on the body and were found to be negative everything
00:30:24
else was noted to be normal there was no indication that any bruising on the jaw
00:30:30
was observed or noted in this detailed report the conclusion of the doctor's report is that Kendrick's death was an
00:30:37
accident the release of the autopsy report came at the conclusion of the Sheriff's Office four-month
00:30:43
investigation into Kendrick's death in the course of that investigation hundreds of students were interviewed
00:30:49
and Witnesses or people connected or rumored to be connected to Kendrick were interviewed as well lab results
00:30:57
surveillance video and physical evidence were all reviewed in their findings were
00:31:03
as follows you want to go you would you like to go through this I find this part
00:31:07
maybe the most interesting thing here in this case okay so this is they're going to lay out
00:31:15
what they believe went down based off of the evidence that they found which includes surveillance video and
00:31:23
the state of the body once it was found so according to this report Kendrick was last seen on surveillance
00:31:30
footage entering the old gym at 109 pm on January 10 2013. he entered the gym behind another student who went in a
00:31:41
different direction but was confirmed to have gone immediately to class Kendrick was seen entering the gym and
00:31:48
bearing right in the direction of the mats in the corner no one else is visible within 15 minutes other students
00:31:56
can be seen entering the gym for class and playing basketball in the gym and that evening multiple teams held
00:32:04
practices in the gym without anyone noticing anything unusual Kendrick was known to not have a locker for his gym
00:32:13
stuff many of the kids didn't want to pay the locker fees required to store their things so they would hide their
00:32:21
items including shoes inside the rolled up mats that were in the old gym lying horizontally seems a little silly that a
00:32:29
school would make students pay for a locker that they had to use for class but go ahead the kids would just reach
00:32:36
into the mat tuck their shoes in out of sight and retrieve them later it was confirmed that Kendrick did this
00:32:45
and he he even shared the shoes he hid in the mat with another student they would just each use the shoes as
00:32:53
necessary and then place them back into the mat so that the other one could retrieve them later and I wonder if the
00:33:00
shoes were a part of like their gym outfits because I know he's part of a weight training class uh just like any
00:33:07
other gym class but at my school you didn't have to change your shoes you just had to change your outfit and then
00:33:15
you could but maybe this school said not only do you have to change your clothes
00:33:19
for class but you have to change your shoes as well I think there's one piece that we just went over that I want to
00:33:25
highlight real quick before we move on into this report okay so one item that I hope everybody picked up on was
00:33:32
when we talked about the locker fees and how many of the students didn't want to
00:33:36
pay the locker fees right it was noted that most of these the the students that didn't want to do this they would hide
00:33:42
their items which included shoes inside the rolled up mats in the old gym but the mats are typically placed
00:33:49
horizontally they're they're sitting they're lying on their side on the ground okay right on the floor of the
00:33:55
gym yeah because how would you hide in the mats if it they were placed vertically there you go I always thought
00:34:01
that was pretty strange but so they're normally vertical or normally horizontal and that
00:34:08
way you can kind of just stick your shoes in either side and then also if there's other shoes in there you can
00:34:14
kind of just push those aside as well well the report goes on to state that over the holiday break which had ended
00:34:21
on January 9th the day before Kendrick's death the mats had all been moved into an upright position and packed into the
00:34:29
corner of the gym the sheriff concluded that Kendrick had run into the gym to get his shoes but couldn't find them
00:34:36
because the mats had all been moved so he climbed up onto the top ends and walked along until he saw the sneakers
00:34:43
down in the bottom of one of the rolled up mats the sheriff then says that students were clearly used to hanging
00:34:51
out up there when the mats were stored in this way as they found numerous candy wrappers and soda bottles among the mats
00:34:58
Kendrick likely climbed into the bleed onto the bleachers I'm sorry walked on top of the mats and then reached in to
00:35:06
grab his shoes he likely had one arm down in the mat and the other holding on and either fell
00:35:13
into the hole or squeezed into it trying to reach the shoe and then couldn't get
00:35:18
himself out and then slipped down further into the mat as he squirmed he couldn't reach his cell phone to call
00:35:27
for help remember we said that was found in his pocket now the cell phone his parents actually didn't know about this
00:35:33
was a cell phone that he got from a cousin which the cousin didn't even know how he got it the last call was made on
00:35:40
the cell phone I think a couple weeks before this incident and so they don't even know if he could have made a call
00:35:48
if it was even being used for phone calls yeah they think he was using it as like an MP3 player or PayPal iPod or
00:35:55
something right and I also think um with these texting apps he could have been using some app to text people when
00:36:01
he had Wi-Fi but he might have thought if I can get to my phone I could at least text somebody it's it's believed
00:36:09
that he likely affixiated fairly quickly this would have happened from the abdominal organs compressing Kendrick's
00:36:15
diaphragm the tightness of the mat constricting his chest and or the mat impeding his ability to breathe through
00:36:23
his mouth investigators said Kendrick likely died and the blood was postmortem Purge from all the blood that had rushed
00:36:31
to his head and as he was suspended upside down in the mat now the mats weighed 700 pounds each and were over
00:36:39
six feet tall when standing on their ends they were all packed together and the one Kendrick was in was at the back
00:36:46
of the pack he would not have been able to move that mat without moving several other mats one of the things that I find
00:36:53
interesting here too is when they talk about the opening uh his shoulders were roughly about four or five inches bigger
00:37:01
than the opening so meaning that it would have caused him to suffocate a lot faster because now
00:37:08
there's no air that's you know the the amount of air that's in the mat is very little but I also wonder you have people
00:37:18
in the gym 15 minutes after him 20 minutes after him you have classes all day you have practices all night
00:37:28
but he's at the far back surrounded by all these mats and how much was that cutting off any sound
00:37:37
you know like his body was also cutting off sound from the mat so if he even if he was yelling
00:37:44
how much would that dead in the sound well depending on how quickly he got to the top of the mats
00:37:50
and reached down in there there's a decent chance he may have expired before those students entered
00:37:57
the gym gym 15 minutes later right as I said in this report they believe he would have died very quickly once
00:38:03
falling into the mat uh the folder in the science book that were found at the scene were Kendricks uh it's believed
00:38:11
that he had put them down on top of the mats when he climbed up and they fell down when the mats were moved by the
00:38:18
teacher to get at the body along with one sneaker that was not found inside the mat with Kendrick right we don't
00:38:25
know whether maybe just one sneaker was down inside the mat or whether Kendrick somehow managed to retrieve one but then
00:38:33
got trapped while reaching for the other the paper towels found in the girl's bathroom which
00:38:40
um yeah the bloody paper towels yeah these actually the report states that they are paper towels that they were
00:38:47
bloody Paper Towns found in the trash can later the report says that these are tissues so they had a trace of blood on
00:38:55
them um it was from a flag girl uh who had gotten hurt during a practice and used
00:39:03
the tissues just to clean herself up so the the blood was confirmed to contain female DNA so not male DNA right the
00:39:12
dried blood spatters on the wall that were found about 50 feet from the mat where
00:39:19
um Kendrick was later found yeah was determined through DNA testing not to be Kendrick's blood but it is not known who
00:39:29
this Blood belongs to yeah and if you look at these uh the pictures of these blood droplets or whatever on the wall
00:39:37
they're very dark they don't even look red so they almost does look like some kind of crud could have been there for
00:39:44
quite some time yeah I I think so and there's a bunch of arguments that impossible that these wouldn't have been
00:39:53
cleaned off it's impossible oh yeah because my school was so clean that I regularly ate
00:39:58
off the floor yeah my high school my middle school both were I mean they're relative relatively
00:40:07
clean right right but they weren't I mean they weren't like doctor office clean not even close yeah they were they
00:40:15
weren't even household clean right you know now the sheriff concluded at the conclusion of his four-month probe into
00:40:22
Kendrick's death that it was a tragic freak accident that had occurred because of a perfect storm of events leading up
00:40:30
to it the sheriff and his deputies emphasized that their lengthy investigation had been as thorough as
00:40:36
possible and that the freak accident conclusion was the only possible one there was no evidence whatsoever they
00:40:43
said of any kind of struggle or scuffle either on Kendrick's body or in the gym where he was found Kendrick had neither
00:40:52
fatal wounds nor defensive wounds of any kind but we have wounds on his hands right there were some abrasions what's
00:41:01
what was listed as abrasions on his hands on his fingers right Kendrick's parents were not satisfied with the
00:41:09
results of the autopsy and the Sheriff's Department's conclusion from the beginning they were convinced that
00:41:15
Kendrick's death was not accidental they were skeptical that Kendrick really could have died
00:41:21
you know how could he have died in such a bizarre way how could their muscular son fit inside this rolled up mat
00:41:29
uh wouldn't there at least be part of his legs possibly sticking out of the mat right which they said appear to be
00:41:36
uh just a little over six feet in height and be visible to students who entered the gym just 15 minutes later
00:41:45
and we had just kind of talked through another one of the the Johnson's questions they wondered why nobody would
00:41:52
have heard their son screaming for help yeah they wondered how did his sneakers get onto the top on top of him inside
00:42:01
the mat unless someone had placed him there yeah there seems to be conflicting stories on the shoes where
00:42:09
some people say that there was one shoe you know that was behind him and one shoe that was still in front of him so
00:42:17
oh that's that's an interesting thing to talk about there was a shoe found on the
00:42:21
gymnasium floor okay there's a shoe found inside there were shoes found inside the mat with Kendrick
00:42:29
the troubling thing here is we have two pairs of shoes yeah we also have students keeping their shoes inside
00:42:38
these mats right um a lot of students well yeah yeah several of them so we have the shoes that Kendrick's
00:42:45
wearing we have the shoes that he was presumably going after and then we have other possible shoes belonging to other
00:42:52
students I don't know that we're going to have a 100 conclusion and a great answer on why
00:43:01
the shoes were found in the positions that they were my thought would be that there was
00:43:07
probably some squirming going on if he had fallen in there right or if he was placed in there if he was attacked and
00:43:15
rolled up in this mat If he if he came to after being attacked he would probably be squirming as well
00:43:23
right so it it is very tricky It's tricky because it would look like somebody may have placed some of these
00:43:31
items in there but I mean how did how did any of this stuff come about I mean how
00:43:39
is there a chance that somebody dropped some shoes in there after words not seeing his feet not seeing his socks in
00:43:47
there right I mean the girl that found him was described as having gone up on top
00:43:53
of the mats and looking down inside and we know that that gem was being used regularly even though it was the old gym
00:44:00
we have students going in there just 15 minutes afterwards we have classes being
00:44:04
conducted as well and then we have practices all night yeah so and did somebody use their gym shoes for one of
00:44:11
these practice and then they're like wait these mats are normally set down horizontal but now they're vertical well
00:44:19
I'll just toss my shoes up there and and then they fell on top of Kendrick well I
00:44:25
think what we should do here Captain is I think we should get into the Johnsons and they're feeling Kendrick's parents
00:44:30
and their feelings and thoughts and that way to to to lead us into these important discussions on the different
00:44:37
items so we can take a look at them one by one but knowing why there is such a debate on certain items right so it was
00:44:46
it was Kendrick's father that saw his son's body in the crime lab yeah and it's it's easy to understand why his
00:44:54
parents felt that he had been beaten to death his Kendrick's face appeared to be
00:44:59
bloated uh misshaped there was discoloration on his body there was skin slippage and red eyes so this must have
00:45:09
been extremely upsetting to the parents to see they eventually posted this picture on the internet so I mean you
00:45:16
can Google it if you want um it's pretty horrific after hearing the sheriff's findings after hearing the
00:45:25
conclusion of the autopsy report Kendrick's parents began a campaign to uncover what had really happened to
00:45:32
their son this this started kind of way back when because the day after his body
00:45:38
was discovered his parents contacted Reverend Rose of the Southern Christian leadership conference this is a civil
00:45:47
rights organization Reverend Rose promised the family that he would do anything he could to help so we will
00:45:54
we'll refer to them as the SCLC the SCLC began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Kendrick's
00:46:02
serious death at the same time the local chapter of the NAACP was voluntarily looking into the case as well now the
00:46:12
Johnsons they hired an attorney to help them pursue legal action in their quest to find out what happened to Kendrick
00:46:19
public statements were made claiming that Kendrick's death was racially motivated and that if Kendrick had been
00:46:25
white the outcome of the investigation would have been different the Johnsons began
00:46:32
to allege that there was an Institutional cover-up concealing the true facts around their son's death
00:46:40
Independent Media Outlets such as CNN helped bolster the Johnson's Case by providing coverage raising questions
00:46:47
about the sheriff's investigation and filing requests for information to try to obtain the case files and evidence
00:46:56
the cause started to attract attention hundreds of supporters began to March and rally demanding Justice for Kendrick
00:47:03
according to CNN the demonstrations in the streets with chance of no justice no peace became almost a daily occurrence
00:47:12
after the sheriff had closed his investigation Al Sharpton attended one of these rallies seven members of
00:47:19
Kendrick's family were arrested in April 2013 for obstruction they were participating in a rally and blocking
00:47:28
the entrance to the County's judicial complex then a Facebook tribute page was established by the family well and
00:47:36
remember when I said they posted a picture of Kendrick after the autopsy yeah when he had to identify him they
00:47:43
took those pictures and they put them on t-shirts and so a lot of these events they'd be wearing those shirts yeah and
00:47:50
this has become a kind of a famous photo I would say because I believe through this Captain is you know when they
00:47:58
released his parents released this picture online they start wearing it on a graphic tee right at these rallies and
00:48:06
these events I think when people saw this photo this is when the public when the public
00:48:13
outrage started you know people really wanted this case to be reopened to figure out what had happened well it
00:48:19
looks like Kendrick was like beaten and disfigured and so if you just hear you know black student is murdered at
00:48:27
school and you see a picture of his face you think well heck somebody beat him to
00:48:31
death but once you find out that he was trapped upside down and that all this blood is rushing to his face that that
00:48:38
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
00:48:47
it's a black student at a southern school right you know that's not we know we know the sad history of our country
00:48:55
and some of the people that have lived in this country along the way and um it doesn't make it any easier to
00:49:04
it doesn't make it any easier to accept that this is an accidental death giving the circumstances surrounding it and so
00:49:11
many questions surrounding it now the Johnsons they began to make allegations about people specific people that they
00:49:19
believe to be responsible for killing their son the Facebook tribute page named some
00:49:25
boys who the Johnsons stated had it out for Kendrick they posted that gruesome picture that
00:49:31
we talked about and with the caption that said look what someone did to our son now the Johnsons didn't name the boys
00:49:41
outright that they believed were responsible but it was pretty clear to people in the
00:49:48
area who they were referring to because they named they you know they made some specific details about these individuals
00:49:57
that made it pretty easy to figure out who they were now people in the community they began to harass and
00:50:02
threaten the boys and their family the allegations became increasingly public appearing in the media through TV
00:50:11
interviews and print Publications the Johnsons allege that the coroner not being called for six hours gave law
00:50:19
enforcement in the gym a chance to cover up what had really happened that day Kenneth said that when he went to
00:50:26
identify Kendrick's body The Heir and the cooler was not cold it was warm it was hot air
00:50:34
this implying that the coroner was attempting to destroy physical evidence on the body by speeding up the
00:50:40
decomposition process Kendrick's clothing disappeared somewhere between the gbi which
00:50:47
conducted the official autopsy and the Harrington funeral home which received the body in preparation for the burial
00:50:55
the Transport company who picked up the body from the gbi signed an inventory receipt acknowledging
00:51:02
that it received Kendrick's personal effects but when the body arrived at the funeral home all that accompanied it was
00:51:10
a broken pair of headphones the clothes have never been located right okay but that's it was transported
00:51:18
from gbi to the funeral home and when when they picked it up there was clothes there when they dropped it off it wasn't
00:51:28
so the the you know you want to blame somebody for the missing clothes blame the person that transported him because
00:51:38
if they signed that hey we picked him up and there was clothes and when they dropped them off at the funeral home the
00:51:44
funeral home said there's no clothes then we know who took the clothes yeah I don't think that this is the or
00:51:50
misplaced them I don't think that this is the parents blaming the gbi I think this is the parents just pointing out
00:51:56
this is something strange that shouldn't have occurred that happened right so the
00:52:01
clothing have has never been found Kenneth and Jackie the parents allege that the missing clothing clothing
00:52:07
likely contained evidence of physical struggle that the clothes had been destroyed by those out to cover up the
00:52:15
actual murder they also point out that the original EMTs on the scene had noted bruising
00:52:21
that was noted on the Mt report the gbi pathologist did not note this bruising on the autopsy report adding fuel to the
00:52:30
fire a retired FBI agent who looked at the crime scene photos agreed with the family this is Harold copis
00:52:38
who now works as a private detective he questioned why police didn't collect the
00:52:43
sneakers with no blood on them into evidence so yeah we'll work on a question you
00:52:50
know I'm going to question anybody that doesn't tag and bag everything that they
00:52:54
can find even if you don't think it has any validity at all in May of 2013 all of these questions
00:53:03
led to the Johnsons this is with the help of their attorney to get an exumation order to dig up Kendrick's
00:53:10
remains for a second autopsy the actual digging up of the casket was attended by family members teammates
00:53:18
friends and supporters of the Johnson's cause Kendrick's body was sent to Florida to
00:53:24
Florida pathologist Dr William Anderson for an autopsy paid for by the family and supporters Dr Anderson's autopsy
00:53:33
report was explosive it directly contradicted the original autopsy findings of accidental death
00:53:41
Anderson's report stated that there was physical evidence of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues
00:53:48
consistent with inflicted injury Anderson went on to state that the injury was likely inflicted by someone
00:53:56
else and that the death should be investigated as a homicide [Music] so though Kendrick Johnson it seems as
00:54:09
if it's pretty simple it's accidental death then these little things come out makes you pretty suspicious that you
00:54:17
know why why was it investigated this way why were these reports put out this way and is this possibly a murder and
00:54:25
not an accidental death well and I think what we're seeing here Captain is that in fact that it's absolutely that it's
00:54:30
not that simple that there were some question marks along the way there were some concerns by his family and we now
00:54:39
have this four-month investigation that states that this was in fact an accidental death then once we get the
00:54:47
the opportunity for a second autopsy we find out we're getting information that that might squash everything that
00:54:55
was found in that first investigation the Johnsons just may be right and their son may have been killed well let's
00:55:02
dissect tomorrow these little points of contention and uh let's debate them and let's hear your viewpoints in my
00:55:09
viewpoints and let's see if we can get to the bottom of any of this all right and we will see everybody back here
00:55:15
tomorrow in the garage until then be good be kind and don't live [Music] thank you foreign
00:55:34
[Applause] [Music]