CNN has obtained graphic photos from the scene where a 17-year-old boy was found suffocated inside a rolled up wrestling mat at his high school gym in January.
Kendrick Johnson’s parents and supporters are pushing the feds to investigate the boy’s death as murder. However, both the state and Lowndes County investigators have determined there was no foul play involved in Johnson’s death.
The NY Daily News reports Johnson was found on Jan. 11 stuffed inside an upright mat behind some bleachers at Valdosta High School in south Georgia.
Officials believe Johnson climbed on top of the mat and reached down inside the mat to retrieve a shoe (pictured above) when he fell in head first and became wedged upside down in the mat.
In that position it would have been nearly impossible for the 5-foot-10 student to free himself from the mat.
A coroner who performed a second autopsy on the teen — at his parents’ request — determined Johnson suffered a blunt force injury to his head — most likely when he fell inside the mat and struck his head on the gym floor.
Blood naturally flows downward with gravity. So if Johnson was stuck upside down for a prolonged period of time, the blood would pool in his head. This would explain the graphic photo of Jonson’s distorted facial features that surfaced online.
To the trained eye, Johnson’s distorted features are consistent with blood pooling in the head from his body being in an inverted position for over 24 hours.
Johnson’s parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, (pictured above) requested the second autopsy to rule out foul play. So the body was exhumed.
Update: In a shocking twist, Johnson’s internal organs were missing and the body was stuffed with newspapers. “They stuffed him with newspaper like he was a garbage can inside his body,” Johnson’s mother told CNN.
During an autopsy coroners usually remove the organs to be weighed and examined for abnormalities. Then the organs are packed back inside the body. But after the exhumation of Johnson’s body, the pathologist discovered the organs missing.
WGHP notes that the funeral home sent the Johnsons a letter explaining that the organs “were destroyed through natural process” and were “discarded by the prosecutor.”
The newly released photos shows Johnson’s body in the position where he was found upside down in the upright mat. Other photos taken at the scene show blood stains on a wall in the gym, and a gym shoe with what appears to be blood on it.
The basketball shoe was splattered with a red substance that the authorities later determined was not blood.
Also, the blood stains on the wall was not Johnson’s blood.
Surveillance video shows Johnson entering the gym alone around 1 pm the day before his body was found. He is not seen leaving the gym.
Many questions remain, such as why was Johnson retrieving a shoe when his own shoes are clearly visible in the top photo?
Who did the single shoe belong to?
Why didn’t a gym class, which was in the gym later that day, hear him inside the mat?
Was he unconscious from the blow to his head when he fell inside the mat?
Thanks to loyal reader Robyn W. for the tip.
