Family to have Kendrick Johnson’s body exhumed again for third autopsy
The tragic death of Kendrick Johnson has returned to headlines this week as the family announced that the teen’s body will be exhumed again for a third autopsy.
Kendrick Johnson
Johnson’s mother, Jacqueline Johnson, posted the news on social media Tuesday evening, confessing that disturbing his resting place breaks her heart, but “it has to be done.”
Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber confirmed the family of Kendrick Johnson has applied for him to exhumed and the city has signed off on it. That move is likely to happen late this afternoon.
This would be the third autopsy done on Johnson’s body since he was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at the school in January of 2013. The family refuted the initial findings from the GBI autopsy which claimed Johnson’s death was “accidental positional asphyxia.”
His family later paid for a second autopsy that found the cause of death was “blunt force trauma.” They subsequently sued the school, city, law officials and others who they claim are “covering up” Johnson’s death.
“If any parent loved their child, they’ll wanna know how that child died, if something happened to their child they’ll wanna know how their child died. If any parent on this earth would not wanna know how their child died, something is wrong with them,” stated the teen’s dad, Kenneth Johnson.
“It’s very hard–it’s very hard, you know to keep having to do this over, but like I said, our goal is to find out exactly how Kendrick died, we will not let no one sweep this under the rug as he died as an accident,” explained Johnson to WBRC.
When pressed about letting the body rest, the distressed father explained: “It’s not about letting my son rest… it’s about the truth being told, what happened to our son, if they have a child and they wanna just let it go, that’s on them.”
“We loved Kendrick–Kendrick was our child, and we want to know exactly what happened to our child and we want the ones who done this to our child to be held accountable–it’s no letting him rest,” concluded Johnson.
The long and arduous ordeal has been covered on the Dispatch, click here for more stories.
Kendrick Johnson facebook photo
