Teen found dead in rolled gym mat. Then his organs went missing in GA, suit says
The parents of Kendrick Lamar Johnson, whose body was found upside down inside a rolled gym mat at his Georgia high school in 2013, say a “wealth of new material” evidence contradicts the official determination that his death was accidental.
An amended federal lawsuit filed by Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson on July 25 against the Georgia Department of Public Health challenges what the filing says is a “scientifically and physically impossible narrative” that their 17-year-old son “died from a freak accident during school hours.”
An independent pathologist, who performed two subsequent examinations of his body concluded Kendrick died of non-accidental blunt force trauma.
The Johnsons’ lawsuit also questions why Kendrick’s organs went missing after his initial autopsy — an issue the parents say they have asked state officials about but have yet to receive answers on. The whereabouts of his organs remain unknown, according to the Johnsons’ amended complaint.
The Georgia Department of Public Health communications director Nancy Nydam Shirek declined McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 29. She said the department “does not comment on pending litigation.”
Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson have previously said Kendrick was murdered at Lowndes High School in Valdosta in 2013, according to prior reporting from McClatchy News. State and local investigators believe he accidentally died after he climbed into the rolled wrestling mat to grab a tennis shoe that was said to be inside and became stuck.
The new evidence obtained by the Johnsons in the last several months, according to the lawsuit, includes includes a photo from his autopsy performed by a state medical examiner with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who ruled Kendrick died of “accidental positional asphyxiation” — a conclusion his parents say is false.
According to the lawsuit, photos from the initial autopsy show Kendrick’s internal organs were “severely injured.” This contradicts the GBI medical examiner’s report that noted he had no major injuries, the complaint says.
Images of Kendrick’s body at his high school indicate he was stomped on “with extreme force,” according to the complaint.
Photos show “highly visible tread marks from the bottom of a shoe on Kendrick’s abdomen,” the complaint says.
GBI stands by initial autopsy findings
Kendrick’s death was investigated by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, with help from the GBI, as well as the FBI and the Department of Justice, according to GBI public affairs director Sara Lue.
In a statement on the agency’s behalf, Lue told McClatchy News on July 29 that the “GBI Medical Examiner’s Office conducted a thorough autopsy on this case.”
“The case is closed, and we stand behind our original findings,” Lue said.
The Johnsons previously filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the GBI, accusing them of a cover up in connection with their investigations of Kendrick’s death, McClatchy News reported.
Lue noted the separate litigation against the GBI is pending.
In the Johnsons’ federal lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Public Health, they are specifically suing the agency for failing to correct his “fraudulent cause of death.”
Kendrick’s parents sent the agency two requests, in September and October of 2023, to amend his death certificate, based on the independent pathologist, Dr. William Anderson, determining his death was no accident, the complaint says.
Supporting his conclusion, Anderson shared photos with the Johnsons of “a collapsed and hemorrhaging carotid artery from his autopsy,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint argues the state Department of Public Health is failing to act by not updating Kendrick’s death certificate as well as by not formally rejecting his parents’ requests to amend it, in violation of Georgia law and the 14th Amendment.
If the department rejected their requests, it would allow the Johnsons the opportunity for an appeal and to request a hearing, the complaint notes.
The Johnsons’ amended suit says new evidence in the case also “raises serious questions about the conflicting official claims regarding Kendrick’s internal organs, the chain of custody of the internal organs, and how/why those organs were not returned to the Plaintiff’s as required by law.”
After his body was exhumed for another autopsy, Anderson found Kendrick’s organs were gone, CBS news reported in October 2013. Instead of organs, the pathologist found newspapers stuffed inside his body.
“I feel outraged about them stuffing my son’s body with newspaper,” Jaquelyn Johnson told CBS at the time.
The lawsuit accuses state officials of refusing to share information about the disappearance of Kendrick’s organs.
The complaint states:
“The new evidence concerning Kendrick’s missing internal organs and the Georgia Department of State inquiry into the matter under then Secretary Brian Kemp, and the State Department’s refusal to provide the Plaintiffs with all information, evidences, reports, and final disposition of any inquiry into the missing organs under Georgia’s Open Records Act, would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the Defendant’s refusal to amend the cause of death on Kendrick’s death certificate in accordance to the Georgia Code isn’t based on the merits, but instead undue nefarious influences in higher state government positions of influence and power.”
The Johnsons further accuse the state medical examiner of butchering Kendrick’s back during his initial autopsy, “under the guise of performing a legitimate posterior autopsy,” and that tampering of his body took place, according to their lawsuit.
“By happenstance the Plaintiffs recently discovered their son’s body had been tampered with in a feeble attempt by authorities to conceal a multitude of injuries on KJ’s body,” the complaint says.
The Justice Department closed an investigation into Kendrick’s death in 2016.
Federal investigators “found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges,” the DOJ said in a news release at the time.
The Johnsons suspect Kendrick, who was Black, was killed by two white students at Lowndes County High School, McClatchy News reported in 2021.
Kendrick’s parents did not return McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 28.
With their lawsuit against the state health department, the Johnsons seek $12 million in damages and demand a jury trial.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Teen found dead in rolled gym mat. Then his organs went missing in GA, suit says."
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