A very sad, very strange case in Georgia may finally be getting the attention it deserves, following one family’s dogged persistence to find out what killed their son, Kendrick Johnson. Last January, Kendrick’s body was found hidden in a gym mat. The initial autopsy report was that Kendrick had died in a bizarre accident, falling into the rolled up gym mat from the bleachers while searching for a missing tennis shoe. The next day, Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine ruled there was no foul play.
It took a few months, but the Johnson family finally got a second autopsy performed by a third party coroner, who came to a decidedly different conclusion. This autopsy found that Kendrick had not died of suffocation, but blunt force trauma. He also found that Kendrick’s fingernails had been pulled out, his vital organs including his brain removed and his body had been stuffed with newspaper. The Johnson family took to the Georgia state capitol with a rally full of prominent speakers, hoping to draw attention to the disturbing facts surrounding their son’s death …
