EPISODE 59: Kendrick Lamar Johnson

A Christmas singalong turns into a hard pivot, and for good reason: we’re stepping into one of the South’s most contested cases, the death of Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old athlete found upside down in a rolled gym mat at Lowndes County High School. The official story says accident. The details refuse to cooperate. We walk through the timeline with clear eyes—how the mats were stored, where the shoes actually lay, the students who came into the gym minutes later, and the six-hour delay before the coroner was called. We look at the surveillance gaps, the blood that wasn’t tested to identify a source, and the power dynamics around key figures who insisted they never saw Kendrick that day—despite footage later placing everyone within feet.

From there, we follow the family’s fight: exhumations, independent autopsies, and a forensic report pointing to blunt force trauma. We talk about what it means when organs are missing and a body is stuffed with newspaper, and why embalming practices, evidence custody, and medical examiner documentation matter so much in cases like this. Along the way we highlight reporting, documentaries, and community activism that kept the story alive, as well as the lawsuits, counter-suits, reopened investigations, and a substantial reward that still hasn’t yielded an indictment.

This conversation isn’t about sensationalism; it’s about accountability. If the system calls something an accident, the evidence must be able to stand in daylight. We’re close to Valdosta, but proximity isn’t what keeps this case in our minds—integrity does. If you’ve followed the Kendrick Johnson story or have verified updates we missed, reach out. And if you’re new to it, start here, then watch the documentary Finding Kendrick Johnson and review public records for yourself.

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