Family members of a 17-year-old who was found dead inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at Georgia high school are refuting a police investigation that found the teen died of natural causes.
The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office recently closed a second investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson, whose body was discovered January 11, 2013 in the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia.
Once again, the investigation found that "nothing criminal happened" and that the teen's death was simply a "weird accident," Sheriff Ashley Paulk told CNN. He said he came to that conclusion after reviewing the extensive FBI investigation, including 17 boxes worth of evidence.
The news didn't sit well with Johnson's mother, Jackie. She believes her son was murdered.
"You didn't find nothing in 17 boxes? That's the craziest lie you could have told," Jackie Johnson told WSB-TV, referring to the sheriff. "We already knew what team you were on. You are not on the team of righteousness."
The department released a 16-page report of its findings after spending more than a year reviewing the case, which was initially closed months after Johnson's death and ruled an accident.
The report indicates that Johnson's body was vertically inside the gym mat in a head down position with his "feet visible from the top." There appeared to be no signs of blunt force trauma, the report noted, but there were visible signs of "skin slippage" on Johnson's abdomen, face and arms.
Seven different people testified that students often stored shoes and other objects inside the mats, according to the report. One individual told police that he and Johnson stored shoes in the same mat and they would retrieve them by tipping the mat over.
Police theorized that Johnson had tried to reach down into the vertically-stored mat instead of tipping it over as usual, when he slipped inside and became stuck. An initial autopsy determined the cause of death was accidental position asphyxia.
Two other autopsies have been conducted over the years. One was performed by a pathologist who was hired by the Johnson family and a third was conducted by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner as part of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Johnson's parents said their forensic pathologist determined that the teen died as a result of blunt force trauma. That conflicts with the first and third autopsy, which indicate positional asphyxia as the cause of death.
"We have not had faith in Lowndes County. We knew what the outcome would be from the very beginning," Kendrick's father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. "You can't do an investigation with the same investigators who covered it up. They're not going to uncover something that they covered up."
The family has vowed to continue searching for justice in the case.
Paulk, meantime, said the evidence speaks for itself.
"I am quite sure that there will still be a contingent that will believe there was foul play," he wrote in the report. "I encourage everyone to study ALL the evidence in this file before forming an opinion."
The sheriff's office said the case is officially closed, again, unless they are presented with "tangible evidence" that would warrant further investigation.
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