Kendrick Johnson’s Family Still Awaits Justice

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department’s 2021 decision to reopen the case regarding the unusual death of Kendrick Johnson in 2013 reignited hope for many. Johnson’s family and others across the country have relentlessly advocated for a more in-depth investigation of Johnson’s death. The same Sheriff’s Department declared his death to be the result of accidental positional asphyxia, or suffocation by way of bodily position, during the initial 2013 investigation. Convinced that someone had killed Kendrick Johnson, protestors were devastated after finding out that the case had been closed this January with no charges filed, once again–– their hope had been extinguished, once again. Johnson’s family, however, has not stopped searching for justice: “We fight until it’s over and it ain’t over,” stated Johnson’s mother, Jacqueline.

Kendrick Johnson was a 17 year old sophomore at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia when his body was found upside down in a wrestling mat in his school gym on January 11, 2013. The initial investigation and autopsy concluded that Johnson, reaching for a shoe placed inside the upright, six foot mat, accidentally slipped into the center of the mat and got stuck, leading to his suffocation.

Johnson’s parents were nevertheless skeptical of this report and determined to find out the truth. They hired Dr. Bill Anderson, a private pathologist, to exhume the teen’s body from his grave and conduct a second autopsy. Dr. Anderson determined that the cause of death was instead “unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt-force trauma” to the neck. Anderson also unexpectedly discovered that Johnson’s organs were bizarrely missing and had been replaced with newspaper, but the pathologists of the first investigation insisted they had nothing to do with this. After the second autopsy, Federal prosecutors agreed to a formal review, but the Justice Department officially closed the case in 2016. The justification: there was apparently not enough evidence to prove it was a murder. So, people following Johnson’s case were not necessarily surprised when it was closed once again this year.

In reference to this year’s closing of Johnson’s case, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk called Johnson’s death a “weird accident,” stating that “there is nothing to substantiate a homicide.”

Many who suspect that Johnson’s death was no accident have strongly disagreed with Paulk—especially after watching Finding Kendrick Johnson, a revealing documentary directed and released by Jason Pollock in 2021. The documentary explores the inconsistencies, absurdities and facts of Johnson’s case. It points out the case’s numerous mind-boggling discrepancies and exhibits new information about the incident that lead to new questions regarding what really happened to Kendrick Johnson.

One of the facts the documentary reveals is that Michael Moore, the U.S. attorney working on Johnson’s case during the initial federal investigation, resigned shortly after the investigation’s start. Seven judges also mysteriously removed themselves from the case during this time. As told in the documentary, Johnson’s parents, Jacqueline and Kenneth Jackson, suspect that these sudden withdrawals from the case point to people being silenced by others who do not want the truth to be revealed.

The documentary also revealed a never-before-seen surveillance shot that features Johnson and Brian Bell next to one another in a hallway at school; many have long speculated that Brian and his brother Branden were involved in Johnson’s death. The Bell brothers, who attended Lowndes High at the same time as Johnson, have stated that they never saw Johnson on the day of his death––investigative officers have accepted these claims. Yet those involved in making the documentary found this surveillance shot in federal files—a shot that was never taken into account during the federal investigation. The documentary’s film crew was astounded that it took their effort, rather than the effort of investigative officials, to find crucial evidence that problematizes the federal narrative of what happened to Kendrick Johnson.

Today, both those newly inspired by Finding Kendrick Johnson and those who have been invested in the case since day one continue to protest for Kendrick Johnson. Jacqueline has stayed true to her promise that she will never stop fighting for her son: on Tiktok, where she has over 200K followers, she regularly posts videos telling Kendrick’s story and asking viewers to join her in her struggle for justice. After nine years, Johnson’s family continues to await answers to their suspicions.