On January 11, 2013, students walking into the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, made a discovery no one should ever have to make. Seventeen-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a three-sport athlete with dreams of going pro, was found upside down inside a standing, rolled-up gym mat. His shoes were behind his knees.
Authorities were quick with their answer: a tragic accident. Kendrick had crawled in to retrieve a shoe and couldn't get out. Case closed.
His family had a different word for it: murder.
What followed was more than a decade of competing autopsies, federal investigations, surveillance footage alleged to have been altered, missing internal organs, lawsuits, and a community split. Every official inquiry closed with the same conclusion. Every closure left new questions behind.
The case has never fully made sense and Kendrick Johnson's parents are still fighting to change the death certificate to this day.
This week, we go to Valdosta.
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