No federal criminal charges will be filed in the death of a teen found at his high school rolled-up inside a large gymnasium mat, according to the Department of Justice.
According to The Associated Press, classmates at Lowndes High School discovered the body of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson of Valdosta, Ga., Jan. 11, 2013. Four months later, investigators concluded he reached for a shoe inside of the mat and died from a freak accident after falling in. The state medical examiner originally determined he passed away because of an inability to breath due to “positional asphyxia.”
Johnson’s parents did not believe the original diagnosis and strongly asserted that someone must have killed their son. The judge presiding over the case ordered that Johnson’s body be dug up and undergo a second autopsy. The parents recruited a private pathologist and the forensic expert reported that there was hemorrhaging around Johnson’s jaw and neck. This examiner concluded he suffered lethal blunt force trauma near his carotid artery and determined it “non-accidental.”
The Justice Department released a statement Monday saying that “After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson’s civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime.
“Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed without the filing of federal criminal charges.”
The detectives who originally investigated were convinced they found no signs of foul play. The high school has several motion sensor surveillance cameras, but the recorders were not activated because investigators suspected the gym mats were too far away. The only footage was of Johnson strolling into the gym, and attorneys for Johnson’s parents contend that what video evidence they were given could have been doctored.
Johnson’s parents are also skeptical because the county coroner was not contacted until six hour after the body was officially reported found.
“We regret that were unable to provide them with more definitive answers about Kendrick’s tragic death,” Acting United States Attorney Carole Rendon said in a statement Monday.
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