On January 11, 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found dead inside a rolled-up wrestling mat in the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Local and state investigators initially ruled the death accidental, with an autopsy listing positional asphyxia after concluding he had become stuck in the mat while trying to retrieve a shoe. Kendrick’s parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, rejected that explanation and commissioned a second autopsy that found blunt force trauma to the neck.

Their doubts prompted a federal civil rights investigation opened in October 2013, but in June 2016 the Department of Justice said it lacked sufficient evidence to bring federal charges. The Johnsons publicly named two brothers as potential suspects and filed a $100 million civil suit alleging a conspiracy; that suit was later withdrawn and the family was ordered to pay defendants’ legal fees amid accusations of fabricated evidence. The Lowndes County Sheriff reopened the probe in March 2021, then closed it in January 2022 again finding no evidence of homicide or a cover-up. No arrests or criminal charges have been announced.

Does anyone have verifiable information about Kendrick’s movements at school that morning or about the gymnasium mat storage practices?