The Mysterious Death of Kendrick Johnson

Kendrick Johnson was born on October 10, 1995, he lived with his family in Valdosta, Georgia, and attended Lowndes High School. His family and friends described him as a sweet and quiet boy. He was a three-sport athlete and dreamed of playing professional football.

But those dreams were cut short when his body was found by students entering the gymnasium rolled up on a standing gym mat. His sneakers were shoved behind his knees. But investigators quickly closed their case on the theory that Johnson had fallen into the mat while reaching for one of his sneakers.

The investigation

On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, headfirst in the center of a vertical rolled-up wrestling mat. The body was discovered by fellow students who had climbed up to the top of a cluster of mats, each of which stood nearly six feet tall and three feet wide. An autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that Johnson had died from positional asphyxia, and the case was ruled an accidental death by the Lowndes County investigators.

Authorities hypothesized that Johnson had fallen into the mat while looking for a shoe and died after being unable to get out. Three students at Lowndes High School told investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled-up mats; Johnson was not wearing shoes when he was found. A student at the school said that he shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Johnson and that after gym class, Johnson would always "go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole." The mat in which Johnson was found was around six feet tall. The mat left a 14-inch hole in diameter in the center when rolled up. Johnson’s shoulders measured 19 across and were five feet, ten inches tall. It seemed possible that if Kendrick was trying to squeeze into the center of the mat, he could have scrunched his shoulders together to make himself narrower. But his parents would later maintain that his size versus the size of the mat alone was enough to debunk the investigators’ case. Almost a full day had passed until Johnson had been discovered. As he was upside down, blood would have rushed to Johnson’s head, and he eventually would have begun to bleed from his facial orifices. One of the most baffling mysteries of this case: the black and white gym shoe that lay on the ground below Kendrick Johnson, the one he was presumed to be reaching for, was lying on top of a pool of blood, but there was no blood on the shoe itself. A hoodie and a pair of orange and black gym shoes were also found lying on the gym floor, as well as traces of blood on the wall nearby. Investigators tested the blood, revealing that it did not belong to Kendrick Johnson they stated that a girl had an incident in the gym due to the blood that was found and that the blood had likely been there for a long time. Even with the clothes found in the gym and the crime scene, they decided not to take the items into evidence.

Transcript

Kendrick Johnso

Welcome back, all you lovely humans. You are listening to Murder by Nature. We discuss true crime, mystery disperses, and unsolved cases. I'm Jasmine Hernandez, your host today. So today is a little different. I'm recording the episode of again ahead of time. We have a football game that we're going to tomorrow with our chapter for football. My son plays football and it's also my birthday, so we will not be around at all. I actually have to go to bed soon and get up super early, but I wanted to make sure that we got an episode out since we did miss it last time. I know it's also Labor Day weekend, so all of you beautiful people are probably out having a great time with your family and enjoying the long weekend. But we're going to dive into the case of Kendrick Johnson. So this case, it's very tricky. It's technically closed and rolled in accidental death. But as we go into this case and all of the information, I want you to let me know in the comments what you think. Do you think that this is a murder or do you think it was an accidental death? And I am so mixed. So my responses will be left to the very end to go through that. But as we jump into this episode, remember, always be respectful when you go to search their name. If you ever go and search these after you listen to this, remember that this is someone's family. This one, though, I will say is a little 2s his autopsy photos and the way that he was found, pictures are all over the Internet. If you Google his name, you're going to see it all. So fair warning, trigger warning, please be careful. Unless you don't want to see those. You literally put it into Google and they're right there. With that, we're going to jump into the references of today's episode. Wikipedia, CNN, Y Times, New York Times. All that's interestingcom. W SBTV betuncoveredcom the lineup. Crime junkiepodcast 1s bellsogat. I can't pronounce that one. I'm sorry, guys. NCBI. And then WCTV again. And with that, we're going to dive into the episode of Kendrick Johnson. Kendrick Johnson was born on October 10, 1995. He lived with his family in Baltimore, Georgia, and attended Lady's High School. His family and friends described him as a sweet and quiet boy. He was a third spot athlete and dreamed of playing professional football. But those dreams were cut short when his body was found by students entering the gymnasium rolled up in a stand up gym mat. His sneakers were shoved behind his knees. But investigators quickly closed their case on the theory that Johnson had fallen into the mat while reaching for one of his sneakers. 2s On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered in the gymnasium of Ladaus high school in Beldosta, Georgia. Headfirst in the center of a vertical world of wrestling match, the body was discovered by fellow students into a climbed onto the top of the cluster mats. Each one of them stood nearly 6ft tall and 3ft wide. The autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations stated that Johnson had died from positional asphyxiation, and the cases ruled an accidental death by the loudest clowny investigators. Authorities hypothesized that Johnson had fallen into the map while looking for a shoe and died after being unable to get out. Three students at the high school told investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled up mats. Johnson was not wearing shoes when he was found. A student at the school said that he shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Johnson and that after Jim class, Kendrick would always go to the mat, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole. The mat in the hole was found to be 14 inches in diameter of the center when rolled up, and Johnson was found around 6ft tall. His shoulders measured 19 inches across and were 5ft ten inches tall. So you'd be able to see him kind of and on top of that, 1s His shoulders were really broad, so his parents always said that it was really hard. His parents maintained that his size versus the size of the man alone should have been enough to debunk investigators that he was 19 inches across. So how was he going to squeeze into that? He would have to scrunch himself up together to make himself narrower, which just didn't make any sense. Almost a full day had passed until Johnson was discovered. As he was upside down, the blood would have rushed to his head, and he eventually would have began to bleed from his feet, like his facial stuff, from his ears, his eyes, his mouth was being that down for that low. And one of the most baffling mysteries of this case, though, is he had a gym shoe that was underneath him. It was supposedly the one that he was trying to get, but there was no blood found on the shoe itself, which was directly underneath him. A hoodie and a pair of orange and black jim shoes were also found lying on the ground floor, as well as traces of blood on the wall nearby. Investigators did test the blood, revealing that it did not belong to Kendrick Johnson. They stated that a girl had an incident in the gym and that had caused the blood to be on there, but the blood was likely there for quite some time from when this incident happened. Even though that the clothes were found in the gym, the crime scene, the blood, everything, they didn't take anything into evidence. On June 15, 2013, lieutenant Stride Jones stated that they never had any credible information that indicated that anything happened besides an accident. They are basically saying that this was an accident from the get go. There's no information or anything that points otherwise. Kendrick's family questioned this. Though unsatisfied with the results of the investigation, they ended up hiring an independent autopsy that was conducted by William R. Anderson with the Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida. Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues. This suggested that the accident was not 1s the cause, that he died of blunt force trauma. 1s Sheriff Padowak said that there is no evidence to show that anyone else is responsible for Kendrick's death, though. Before his death, according to his report, one of the students investigated by the prosecution team was on a bus headed to a wrestling match at the same time that Kendrick went into the gym. Footage from the cameras at the high school showed that Kendrick did not cross paths with either of the two people that they thought may be responsible for this at any point on January 10, 2013. That was the day that he died. At 01:27 p.m.. That day, camera footage showed Kendrick walking by himself at the gym towards the bleachers where the gymnasts were rolled and stored vertically. A teacher and student found his body the next morning. See, Kendrick's parents felt like something was off with the investigation. They felt like the Sheriffs weren't doing something. They believe that the Sheriff Department was too quick to rule out foul play as the cause of death within 24 hours of finding Kendrick. Even with the swelling, bruising, blood on the walls, and everything else, they ruled in an accident. The other big issue with this case was the Corner wasn't called to the scene immediately. Georgia State law dictates that the Corner must be contacted immediately on discovering a body. But Watson, which was the corner for Georgia State, claimed that he wasn't notified until 6 hours later. When the police were questioned on this, they stated that they didn't want to have him waiting around while they investigated the scene on the accident, which was really weird to them. So he's always called to the scene, but all of a sudden, he's not. 2s On November 2013, 2290 hours of surveillance tapes from 35 cameras that covered the gym area was released to CNN. Following a court request, a forensic analysis enlisted by ICNN found that two tapes from two cameras were missing an hour and five minutes of footage, while another set of the cameras was missing 2 hours and ten minutes of footage. Some apparent lapses in the coverage resulted from the camera system not synchronizing with one another. Time stamps between the separate cameras gave the impression of a gap for about a good portion of the footage where their gaps simply existed. Other missing footage from the camera resulted from the camera's motion activation function not being properly triggered and that the camera was changing in light pixels to turn recording on and off. The area where Johnson's body was discovered, though, and the mats that were stored were outside of the surveillance cameras completely. Now a private pathologist was hired to carry out a second autopsy. His parents really felt like, because of his race, that this case wasn't being treated properly. They felt like their kid was murdered. And if you look at the photos, I can totally understand why they would feel that way. But the one thing that really stuck out to me is, and we're going to get into it a little bit, is Kendrick's family knew about some issues that he was having at school and the issues that he was having more with two brothers, and their father was an FBI agent. So with the coroner not being called and all of this and no one looking for him, 2s it makes it hard when you're going through this, all the evidence, all the court documents, the autopsy and all that, not to be like, what the hell? 2s Back to what we're talking about this time. The autopsy revealed that Kendrick Johnson has suffered a hemorrhage on the right side of his neck, which meant that he likely died from blunt force trauma. The pathologist concluded that his death was not an accident. The second autopsy revealed that some of Johnson's organs were missing in their place and his body was stuffed with newspapers. The funeral home that processed the body following the FBI's investigation stated that they never received Kendrick's internal organs from the corner. The organs must have been destroyed through natural process and were discarded by the prosecution before the body was sent back to Bell Stone. It has said that according to the funeral home that this left a void and the funeral home will usually fill that void. They said that it's standard practice to fill the void in this fashion or that was caught in air or sawdust may be employed for this purpose. Johnson's family ended filing a complaint against the funeral home operator with the regulatory of the body. 2s Ultimately, that triggered investigation by the Georgia security of state office, and they found that the funeral home did not follow best practices, but other than that, there was 2s like other than that, it's because the material material, and they said that the other material was more acceptable than newspaper, but they used newspaper nevertheless. The investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing. A spokesman person for the secretary of state said then the investigation 1s didn't produce any violations to any rules, that the funeral didn't do anything that would have caused any issues. And Johnson's family ended up filing the civil lawsuit against the funeral home to seek some monetary damages. And they also request that his body bay Exune for a second time, and that was granted by the city officials. In June of 2018, Kendrick's body was then exhumed for a second time, and a third autopsy was performed. The findings of this ended up saying that Johnson's death was not accidental and that it was caused by blunt force trauma, likely due to being struck in the neck with a 45 pound dumbbell. This was confirmed. Kendrick Johnson's parents were hoping that the results of the third off top seed the surveillance footage that they were it was convinced that something was tampering with the evidence, and the mishandling of the evidence at the scene would be enough to reopen their son's case. On January 10, 2013, johnson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the loud house county board of education, it's superintendent and the principal of the high school. The suit alleged that Johnson was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and was subject to insult and a loss of life. While the lawsuit did not name the Pearson or persons involved, it basically was saying that the events of the 10th, it was identified for race that the alleged perpetrators were it was race based for the mention of the entire hypothesis of the assault. 1s The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were neglected and violated Johnson's constitutional rights to equal protection based on race. It alleged that the defendants ignored reports that white students had been already physically attacking and harassing Johnson in. It's alleged that Johnson was attacked on a bus trip 14 months before his death. And the lawsuit further allocated that another student, Brian Bell, had a history of provoking and attacking Johnson at school, saying that their provocations took place in the presence of coaching staff and employees after his mother complained about the previous attacks. The suit also alleged that the school officials failed to properly monitor the activities of the students throughout the areas of the campus and to maintain proper functioning. Video surveillance systems. In August of 2014, a 5 million lawsuit against Albany Magazine was filed after the magazine published a series of articles naming two students as possible suspects in Johnson's death. The magazine used basically theories, but was otherwise according to the description of the boys, including the fact that their father was an FBI agent. The article was used as a source of an anonymous email to the Sheriff's office and in their lawsuit the parents were accused. Basically the parents of the boys accused asserted that their sons were not involved in any of the death and that there is no considered suspect of them and they've been harassed. Due to the publication of this, I will say from my research, this is true. They weren't harassed. Brian Bell actually had a full ride scholarship to a college for football and when it was coming time for him to go, they pulled the scholarship. 1s So I will say that there's also other people that were interested in him that no longer want him on campus because they felt like it would be too much of a division. And when it was released that someone was interested in him, there was a bunch of people that would go and harass that school and say that he was a murderer, that he was involved in this, send him news articles, all of this stuff. So he lost a lot of opportunities with this. I just want to put that there. That was in the research that I went through and found. So that's why they're saying that their sons were being harassed. They were getting death threats. In January of 2015, Johnson's family filed a 100 million dollar civil lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the De Palko County against 38 individuals. The respondents include three of Johnson's classmates, two or three respondents were left unnamed, and a local, state and federal officials, the school superintendent, the crime lab, the police chief and many sheriff deputies, the entire city of Valdelsta, the medical examiner, the GBI, the five of its agents, and one FBI agent. The lawsuit alleged that the FBI agent ordered two of his sons and a classmate to attack Johnson and that his death was a murder. It also said that the respondents engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide as well. Jim Elliot, the county attorney, said that stated that the allegations were unfounded and baseless I cannot talk today and that any response would be made in court. All local Superior Court judges, they didn't want any of this. They were trying to take themselves out of the proceedings of this case and preventing the lawsuit from being filed. Are heard in Lording County. So they were siding and saying that their city was too close to approximation to the accused, that they were too close to them. Shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the US. Attorney, Michael J. Moore, said in a statement that the federal investigation was still open and that the investigation has proven more complicated and has taken longer than originally anticipated. After More resigned in 2015, the case was transferred to the Northern District of Ohio under the US. Attorney Stephen Delpache, and shortly after receiving the case, he also resigned. Despite these resignations, the Justice Department's investigation continued. In 2015, the Department of justice filed a motion in the civil case to intervene and stay the case. The US. Attorney stated that allowing evidence discovering the civil suit to continue would have a chilling effect on the federal investigation, which expanded into investigating the possible obstruction in the grand jury witness tampering. After the Department Justin the Department of justice motion was denied, johnson's parents ended up dismissing their own wrongful death lawsuit, saying that they hope to refile it after the conclusion of the federal investigation. They were. 1s In turn ended up being sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and 1 million in defamation damages. In June of 2016, the Department of justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death, stating, after an extensive investigation into the tragic events, 1s federal investigators determined that there wasn't enough evidence to provide beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or a group of people wrongfully violated Kendrick Johnson civil rights or committed anything else to a federal crime. On August 10, 2017, Georgia's Judge Richard Porter ruled that Johnson's family and their attorney had to pay more than 200 and $9200 in legal fees to the dozens of respondents in their civil suit. Writing testimony shows that there's no evidence to support the claims that the brothers killed Johnson or that any of the other defendants engage in any conspiracy to conceal that cause a matter of Johnson's death. This family was hitting so many roadblocks with what they were trying to do. They felt in their heart that something wasn't right, and people just didn't care. They're just like, no, sorry. Don't want to hear it. Don't want to hear it. And this is where it pulls back down to race for them. So his mother released a statement that if his son was white, that this would have been taken differently, which, when you go through this and you're read all the stories, I completely agree. There's one tape of news reporter that the sheriff let in to talk, but the minute they brought up John's, and he's like, no, not talking to you. And started, like, yelling at these reporters that he invited in, 2s This case is, there's a lot of twist and turns. In March of 2021, authorities reopened their investigation to Kendrick Johnson's death, according to the Loudest County Sheriff. Ashley Paulke and this is a guy, there are legitimate questions and he needs to know the answers. The only way I will know is to look at the evidence myself. Paul he and his team were able to secure a wealth of evidence from federal authorities, in part thanks to the appeal from Johnson's family in November 2020, now that the shares have enough evidence in hand to perhaps allow them to solve this mystery once and for all. He did release a statement saying that the investigation may take up to six months, and he and the Johnson family are optimistic that justice will finally be served. However, he also stated that he will not be claiming something went wrong with the original investigation, or that their original investigation's conclusion of an accidental death was wrong. The sheriff also stated that he does not consider this a homicide. And he further stated that the two brothers named in the previously action by the Johnson were not suspects. Now, in January of 2022, the second investigation was closed with no charges filed. 2s Now, 1s that is all the information that's out there for the cases, basically for if he was murdered, if he wasn't, 2s all those questions. Now there are thousands and thousands of theories on Reddit, on Facebook, on so many different things, and we're going to dive into those theories. So there are some people that believe that this was an accident. And then he dove in and it was just accident. It was a horrible accident. But early on came the who killed KJ? That was his nickname. They had rallies and then the accusation stated that Brian and Brandon Bell signs of a local FBI agent. Rick bell BKJ to death. It all started with a fight on a school bus more than a year before Johnson's death. According to Brian Bell, Betty freshman, the scuffle on the bus with the teammate KJ was over something minor and they forgot about it the next week. But after Kendrick's death, this bite would be framed to be far more dramatic than it was. The accusation would first service three days after Kendrick's body was discovered. In a YouTube video posted on January 14, 2013, eddie Twili KJ's family discovered, discussed basically the family suspicion, saying that they heard this has something to do with the GBI agent son who had an altercation on the bus some time ago. 1s Basically, this allegation had a bombshell. 1s It was revealed that Brian Bell, who claimed he didn't see Kendrick on the day of his death, was actually caught on surveillance footage walking a few feet behind Kendrick. Now there has been a documentary released. It's called finding Kendrick Johnson. The writer, our director and producer is Jason Pollock. In a wide range of conversations with the true crime report pollock and crew, they discuss that the racial perspective of everything in the cities, the towns like this town across the country, calling out the failures and avoidance of parts of the entertainment industry to tell black crime stories like Hendrix. So this suggested that something had to be done and the case had to be reopened. Now when they were talking about this and going through the interview for the promotion of this video, because I went into theaters and everything, they did have a q and A. And during that QAA, it is said that the crime report asked questions to Mitch Credible. He was a homicide veteran from the DC. Police department. And the question went so much of the suspicion in this case surrounded the involvement of a local FBI agent named Rick Bell, the father of two key suspects in the case and engaged in a rampant basic. But he did a lot like he was trying to check justice. He intimidated local witnesses and they're asking him how could he have such an abandonment and plain disregard for the law. Now, Mitch says what he did was an absolute obstruction of justice. And for a judge to sign roughly 21 search warrants meant that someone had some pretty good information. And I thought that he was going to be arrested. But then unexpectedly, my partner and I were taken off the case and I found out later that instead of getting arrested, he was allowed to resign. That was unbelievable to me. But I guess down there things work a little differently because if he had been in DC. He would have most likely have been charged. And for me, it took the air out of my balloon. When it came to law enforcement in general, I feel embarrassed. I felt like we let the Johnson family down and it was a huge disappointment that we couldn't at least go after an agent who was obstructing justice and as a result, improving the federal agency as a whole. Law enforcement and all the law is not supposed to interfere with an investigation. And as an FBI agent, he should have known better. 1s So that tells me a good story. When someone was working on the case and they had all that. Now, there's another conspiracy that's still framed around the Bells, but it was around Taylor. Taylor was Brian and Belle's girlfriend. Johnson was an honor student and well known athlete around the school, which caused him to gain a lot of attention, especially from females. However, one day, Kendrick Johnson's popularity began to make people jealous, which was when he got into the argument with Brian Bell. Both Kendrick Johnson and Brian Bell constantly argued with each other over Basically, they argued because they found out that Taylor was having a sexual affair with Kendrick. And they allege that Jane Doe, which they let her identify as Taylor, ended up lowering Kendrick into the gym so The Bells and a classmate can attack him. Taylor said it didn't take long to figure out that the prosecutors believed that she had slept with KJ, which she denied, and that they said that it was an ambush for payback. But according to Taylor, she said that she didn't start dating Brian until three months after Kendrick's death. And she said, how can I have cheated on Brian if we weren't dating at the time? Now, this is where it gets a little confusing. There was also a confession statement floating around which made national news. And the reason why I'm saying it gets confusing is because. 2s It's a lot of he said, she said. But the people that dismissed it and called it phony was the same police department that investigated the case. But it is said that both Brian Bell and Ryan Hall, who is Brian's friend, had had met Kendrick Johnson in the gym and then Brian killed Kendrick. Brian had also stated that he killed Kendrick multiple times over the phone. And Brandon Bell, Bryan's brother, got drunk at a party on July 4 of 2013 and told people that Brian had killed Kendrick. The second statement was about Ryan Anthony Domestic Hernandez, who is a friend of Brandon Bell. And this end of the story is what? She states that he went to Brandon Bell's apartment in Florida and Brandon told him that Brian killed Kendrick Johnson by striking him in the neck with a 45 pound weight or dumbbell after they began arguing over Taylor in 2013. Though 1s the possible confession to Kendrick Johnson's case should not be a hoax. Recorded by a 17 year old. And 4s it is said that 1s the recording stated that they're going to catch me anyway. A voice that was supposed to be Brian. I shouldn't have done this. I was young and stupid. Kendrick didn't deserve this. Man now the same. 2s Law enforcement that felt that this was an accident was the same one that looked into it. It is said that the Johnson pay about $1,000 for this recording from a man and they took it straight to authorities. And when they got to the authorities, the stated that oh, I know that voice. That voice is of someone that's been in and out of jail for making false confessions and that supposedly they tracked him down and he confessed that it was false and he didn't really do it, he just wanted the money. But again, it's hard because it's coming from the same exact police that investigated this to begin with. I will also say it doesn't state that any of these other things that they were telling people or things that were done or anything like that was false. It was said that the brothers continuously told people that he did this, he did this and the story never changed and it collaborates with the actual autopsy. So that's a whole other monster. I don't know what to think of that. But as of right now, this case is officially closed for now that it was an accidental death and no one has been charged in this case. Now we dive into my thoughts on this case and I don't really know where to start. My head was spinning when I was reading this. I went through so many different things. I also found that Brian and Taylor are married now. They got married earlier this year and they've been together ever since. 1s So 2s maybe it was an accident, maybe it wasn't. It's just strange. And I understand, like, why some FBI agent even involved in any of this. If it was an accidental death, why is the FBI involved? There's just so many any questions that I have on the way that this entire thing was handled and what they did with the body, with the organs. It is also stated in another conspiracy theory that Rick Bell ended up having his fingernails and all his organs taken out before going back to the funeral home, so they couldn't identify the time of death. 2s It seems weird, like, when you're looking at the surveillance footage, because it's out there, you can watch it, you see Kendrick cut through the corner. And what's weird is there are three kids in the gym playing basketball, but I don't know if they've ever been interviewed or if anyone spoke to them. So there's three kids actively paying basketball right in front of the camera, and then you see him slide through and go to the other side. So I don't know. I really don't know what to think about this one. But this one, it's a lot of evidence. And it struck me. So that's my thoughts. That's where I'm at on this case. Tell me what you're thinking in the comments. Send me an email and let me know. Let's discuss this. I'm really interested in what other people are thinking of this case. That brings us to the end of this episode. As always, thank you for listening to Murder by Nature. If you enjoyed our show, please rate us and review us on Apple podcasts spotify, or any streaming platform that you're currently on. And be sure to come back next Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jasmine Hernandez. Don't forget to stay safe. Don't get murdered. I'm people. You lovely humans.