Kendrick Johnson /// Part 2 /// 196 | Forensic Files

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[Music] all right Captain where we left off yesterday was with the second autopsy
that was performed on Kendrick Johnson's body his body had been sent to pathologist Dr William Anderson for this
second autopsy that was paid for by the family and supporters of the family and their cause Dr Anderson's autopsy report
directly contradicted the original autopsy findings of an accidental death Anderson's report stated that there was
physical evidence of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues consistent with inflicted injury
Anderson went on to state that the injury was likely inflicted by someone else and that the death should be
investigated as a homicide so the Johnson submitted the report to the Lowndes County coroner's office the gbi
and the United States Department of Justice the family began calling for a Coroner's inquest a process similar to
to an investigative grand jury whereby the jury listens to all the evidence and then rules on the cause of death
now in October of 2013 one thing that we're the the main focus of today's show Captain the main reason why you and I
got together tonight in the garage is to drink beer over coldies is to discuss the questionable items that surround
this mysterious death of this young man we have this is this is a highly debated
case this is a very controversial case and as you will see today we're going to try to go through these things line by
line maybe clear the air a little bit on some of them and see what we can find yeah and just so we're clear so we're
all on the same page the first investigation the first autopsy they claim that this is accidental death that
he was going into this mat after shoes he got stuck in there he then suffocated and then we found Kendrick the second
autopsy in the second investigation is kind of saying hey that's not what happened we think that somebody hit M
and then rolled him up in one of these mats to cover that up and not only did the person that attacked Kendrick tried
to cover the sub but law enforcement and the sheriff and the school and the coroner and everybody was trying to
cover this up well in probably the strangest thing for me was this report that came out in
October of 2013. this is a report that stems from the second autopsy that they discovered that
Kendrick's body that it had been stuffed with newspapers before it was closed up and prepared for
burial yeah yeah so Kendrick's internal organs this this included his brain heart lungs and liver these items were
nowhere to be found and protocol is that the organs are sealed up in in plastic placed inside
the body cavity and disposed of with the body right now a gbi spokesperson told CNN that after Kendrick's initial
autopsy the organs were placed in the body the body was closed up and then it was sent off to the Harrington funeral
home now Harrington's owner says that the the funeral home never received the organs at all Harrington states that he
was told that the organs had been destroyed by the quote natural processes end quote right so decomposition and
that the the organs had been discarded by the person who had opened up the body at the pathologist's office so this is
this is I do want to point out something here so this one this is a very strange
thing to hear that the this young man's body you know the the organs have gone missing
sometime between the first autopsy and the second autopsy right right it starts smelling like a cover-up so we have we
have a couple of issues here captain this is the second time that we are presented with evidence that
something has gone missing between the transportation of the body from gbi right to the funeral home so I think we
I think we need to really go through this one because there's there's some interesting stuff within this whole
statement so first of all for those of you panicking and freaking out out there I guess it's you know it's
not uncommon that they do in fact stuff the body with something right and from my understanding I've never witnessed
this hope never to witness it or really hope that I never knew anything about it
to begin with was that typically they use sawdust or cotton do I have that right right and I
guess that it might have been kind of an old practice for funeral homes to stuff
a body with newspaper it's something that has gone fallen out of practice since I don't know sometime
in the 70s maybe the 60s but it but we're not talking about something it sounds something that's like something
that's so incredibly unbelievable and then we learned that this is actually somewhat of a common thing the problem
here though which is pointed out to us by the man that conducted the second autopsy is that when we do not have
these organs that prevents them from further testing those those items now they did have
slides they did they created different slides and they would x-ray the different organs so they did have those
to make their opinions or their findings of the second autopsy the other thing though too is isn't it
strange that we've now we've we've had clothing that magically disappeared between the transportation of this young
man's body from the gbi to the funeral home and now we have these organs because we have gbi stating no we we
followed protocol we put these organs in plastic we sealed them up we put them back in the body we transported the body
to the funeral home now a little background on the funeral home because people you know it's it's looking like
these people are very bad people the funeral home it's my understanding that they provided the Johnson family
with a service with funeral services for Kendrick at no cost right just the cost
of the organs right yeah well uh that they were they were trying to do a good thing for the family that had suffered a
terrible tragedy right and they wanted to do something good for these people now they may here's Here's my thought
you know I I just got done saying how good and how nice they probably were is there a chance that they may have cut
some corners right because they're giving you a free service it's very possible I mean first
of all the clothes let's not put any blame on the uh gbi because the clothes were with Kendrick and whoever
transported Kendrick messed that up so no fault of the gbii no sense of cover-up there
was conflicting stories the there's one story that the funeral home said well we
never got the organs they were not there they said they never got the clothing as
well right but again it it's it's on the report so then you start wondering where the if the clothes
were misplaced in the transportation where the origins is placed or was there something where they go again I also
heard reports that the funeral home said well we actually received those but we discarded them now I've heard both
reports so is it possible you know I heard some crazy conspiracy from some Pastor saying well these young black
people are being killed to sell their organs because that black market is so hot so you're going to tell me that this
high school kid was killed and school when there's hundreds of people in the school
so you can harvest the organs right well well let me here's the question I would
like to post to that that Pastor look I went to school for computer I don't know anything about you know
pathology here's my guess the poor young man whether he was murdered or a tragic accident
he laid in the in a mat upside down for close to 24 hours right you can't use those you can't
Harvest those organs and use them for anything can you I I wouldn't they're not working at this point don't don't
they try to like like me I'm a donor so if something were to happen to me aren't
they trying to harvest those organs as fast as possible so that they're they are usable for lack of better term I
don't know the answer uh to that but I would assume that some organs would be salvageable more so than the other
ones depending on temperature and some some probably have to be transferred right away and other ones maybe not so
much well I'm only pointing out Captain the conflicting stories between the gbi and the funeral home for one simple
reason we're looking at each of these items today because there is questions around did they get this investigation
right was he murdered right was there a cover-up okay so a couple couple items with the
missing clothing and with the missing missing organs we have gbi saying we sent those items
to the funeral home we have the funeral home saying we never received them so what I'm getting at here is if if gbi is
right if gbi is right in saying that we sent these items to the funeral home there's no cover-up as far as the
missing clothing or organs go right because then that means they got to the funeral home and the funeral home chose
to dispose of these items in a different manner than what was expected and instead they might be passing the buck
and saying I don't think we ever received them however so one key thing here when we talk about cover-ups the
funeral home's not going to cover up for gbi the funeral home's not going to cover up for the sheriff's department or
for the people that actually murdered this young man they don't they don't have a stake in the in in the in the
claim here they don't have a they don't have a dog in the fight they're just people that are trying to do something
nice for the Johnson family something nice for Kendrick and give him proper services and I understand that but but
the the other thing with the gbi is if they claim that they sent the clothes and they claim that they sent the organs
were with him and the organs weren't found on him when they when they dug him back up right well then they have reason
to cover their own ass and again we got another step so if gbi is telling the truth and the funeral home's telling the
truth the person you need to look at is who was transporting his body agreed and
here's where I have an issue with it because the organs might be the organs might be a bigger deal you know who
knows what evidentiary or value the organs could have or the clothing one could argue one over the other right
right the the issue I have is that in one instance regarding the clothing we have the Transport company saying that
we signed for clothing when we picked up this young man's body we signed for clothing right
you can't sign for organs because according to the gbi they were inside the body itself right okay so now we
have the funeral director or the funeral home owner stating we never received the
clothing right right how does that work why is there why is there a sign why is there a list of what
we are picking up and it's signed for when we pick it up but when we do the drop off to the
funeral home there's no list that that we go over with someone at the funeral home that signs off on that I'm sure
there is but again but then why are we this is what I get mad about with some of these
um with some of these potential cover-up stories right you almost feel like you don't get to hear the entire story
because it would only make sense if there's a if I'm signing for a list of items that I'm picking up
you when I'm delivering to you you should be signing for the items that I'm dropping off to you right that would
agree that would straighten out the whole Jazz with the with the clothing again I I'm I'm guessing that there is
some kind of protocol and we don't know we don't have that evidence that's why it's as simple as gbi says one thing and
the funeral home says a different thing and we don't know what the truth is the other issue though too Captain is if in
fact gbi disposed of the clothing or the organs or both then it's pretty fishy then
there could be a cover-up but at the very least again we see protocol not being followed right
definitely so we talked about the missing organs we talked about the missing clothing
well there's some others there's some other missing things as well so let's talk about the video footage that was
from the lounge High School this is the video surveillance system that they have
there yeah so just a little bit of this background so all these cameras or most these cameras are motion uh censored so
they only turn on when somebody actually enters the room and they stay on as long
as there's motion there what's interesting is if you start diving into the video footage right away is that
most of the cameras themselves are not synced up so for example you might have Kendrick going down a hall and it says
time stamp you know let's say 120 but they know that that period would have been like 115 or whatever right then he
walks into the gym James camera turns on but now all of a sudden it's uh you know
1 30. right right and you go he just walked through a doorway did he hang out in that doorway for 15 minutes
my point is that their time codes are not synced at all yeah not only are they not synced with each other but they're
not synced with the actual time now again if this is true it's it's why would you have this system set up
like this uh and why would you have the time codes off either way because of that
there becomes a lot of issues which lean more towards the conspiracy side well in yeah so there's there's several
issues that I have with this somebody that's very from as someone that's very familiar with these types of systems
right right what I can tell you is that they do they're they're set up they're installed
professionally they are set up professionally everything is usually tight as a drum tip top shape ready to
rock and roll when these cameras are set up over time there will start to be glitches in the system things will get
off sync like you had just said things will start to not work properly the problem with that is you have school
administrators that are not they're not trained in these areas they're not trained to fix these things they're not
trained to fix to to realign everything so it's working and functioning properly
so again that it's tight as a drum ready to rock and roll that's when a phone call has to be made
to those installers to those software Engineers to people that know how to do this stuff right I have witnessed and
we've talked about it here on the show as well you know hotels uh street corners bars we've talked about glitches
and questions within their surveillance systems that what tends to happen I think in these situations is you have a
little glitch that either goes unnoticed or it's noticed and it's always thought
of I'll make that call tomorrow right and then tomorrow turns into next week and the next week turns into next month
and before you know it you've gone through four months and the time stamps wrong or the time stamps are off now the
problem with that though is these are in a sense their government officials aren't they School administrators
they're paid for by the local taxes right and with the with the expectation that our children are going to be safe
that during these hours they are at the school and the school is supposed to be a safe place run by people that
that are looking out for our children's best interests right so the first problem is gbi Goes to School
administrators and they say that we need all video evidence related to Kendricks
to this incident yeah that's the first problem I see because I think you should just say hey give me all the the video
footage you have for the last 48 hours or the last three days yeah so just to jump in here real quick Captain it's
estimated that there was approximately 1900 hours of footage that would have been taken from the 36 cameras that
should have been recording on January 10th and 11th so the day that Kendrick Johnson died and then the day after
which would have shown portions of the investigation right the problem I have with this is that people claim or
they're suspect to claim that there's missing footage and if gbi would have went in and said give us all the footage
age and there was missing footage well then the problem lies with the school administrators right but you didn't do
that so now all these people suspect that there are gaps in time that nobody can account for so it makes it look very
suspicious of a conspiracy and you have no way to defend yourself other than saying well we we looked at all the
footage they gave us well okay then why is this part missing is it coming from your end or is it the
administrator's end there's several several problems that people bring up regarding this camera footage the first
being that the Sheriff's Office had released some still images that were taken from the videos themselves this is
portions of the video that showed Kendrick walking into the gym and heading toward the mats right okay so
the issue being there is there's there's some concern like we talked about with the time stamps later
what's going to happen and this was made possible I believe through CNN who started making open records requests to
the school for them to release the actual footage and then later a judge ordered that some small portions of the
surveillance footage be released well when they released that the the videos that were released they do not appear to
be time stamped so now people are wondering why does why did the images coming from the Sheriff's Office have a
time stamp on them that are still images and now the actual video footage comes out and there's no time stamp on it
right and it could be as simple as the fact that we know that that time stamp was not reality that that time stamp was
off you know actual time by 15 minutes or whatever and and that would be a reasonable explanation just have the
wrong time stamp on there another fishy thing that starts making you think that there's some kind of
conspiracy here here's the other thing with these security systems so if you are the sheriff and you're reviewing the
security footage with me the Security administrator let's say in my office and we're looking at the monitors together
you can take a camera and you can take a picture of that monitor and that monitor
may have the time stamp on it right but if somebody gives me a court order and says hey we need you to give us this
information well what I'm going to have to do is actually go in to the database and I'm going to have to transfer that
information transfer that surveillance footage to something else you know a zip drive or something and hand it off to
them by the time that I do that that time stamp may not accompany that actual footage right because it's only going to
be transferred in the manner that I tell it to unless there's certain default settings set up for that that method of
transfer of of transferring it now the other thing that people called into question is is that we have images that
seem to jump around we also it seems like the cameras that were focused on the mat area and the old gym that they
only captured blurry images and they don't appear to have videoed anything around the time of Kendrick's death
people speculate stuff like okay we see uh somebody walk into frame and then all
of a sudden the next frame somebody disappears out of nowhere yeah they appear and disappear out of nowhere
which again could just be glitches in the system because they're motion sensored systems and so it might not
have picked up the first motion of of that individual and then all of a sudden they pop up like they're you know
teleporting well CNN took it the extra mile they they had filed suit to access the video footage and then they hired a
forensic video analysis uh analyst I'm sorry to analyze the 290 hours of material that were received from all of
the cameras the video footage analysis was this there was jumpiness present on the video there was blurriness present
there were time stamp issues this is all confirmed by a a third party that doesn't have a dog in the fight right
well but they are being paid by CNN to do the investigation so well yeah paid by CNN to do the investigation but what
I mean by that is their loyalty lies with CNN it doesn't lie with the gbi or with the Johnson family right you know
that's they're only beholden to CNN now the analyst states that there was jumpiness there's blurriness there's
time stamp issues however he says that this is all pretty easily explainable um you can explain it by erratic motion
sensors unfocused or outdated lenses on the cameras right or dirty lenses the analyst also said that the
non-sequential footage this is the footage where it will appear that people were appearing or disappearing out of
nowhere here is the result of lost information and or corrupted files now whether the data was corrupted just via
system malfunction or processing error or whether it was the result of deliberate tampering could not be
determined so the analyst is saying this is occurring on the video footage right
however I cannot in my expert opinion tell you why it occurred it could have just been some kind of glitch or error
or it could have been a person going in there and manipulating the file correct which again either way it starts making
you think well hey this is somebody covering their tracks now where it gets weird though is you have to remember
people could be covering their tracks just because they did a shitty job of the initial investigation so if you're
covering up the shitty initial investigation that doesn't mean you're covering up a murder yeah well of more
concern was this the the analysts he determined that at least an hour was missing
there was there was missing footage that that would make up about an hour this is
coming from a long time well it seems like a long time but it is a long time well
I don't think I don't necessarily think we're actually talking about a real hour
as you and I know an hour okay they're not talking about a consecutive time right they're not clear on this
statement what they're stating is that there is at least an hour missing from the video footage from all four cameras
around the gym so meaning that what I believe this to mean and I could be wrong they're not outwardly stating one
way or the other I believe this to mean that collectively when we take all four of these cameras when we collected all
that information together that adds up to about an hour of missing footage well but that could also be like the one
camera where you see Kendrick walk in the camera doesn't start back up for another 15 minutes because there's
nobody in frame so could they be talking about 15 minutes in a few times if you times that by four that gives you your
hour oh good job so furthermore the analysts told investigators that they needed to Pina the actual surveillance
servers in order to determine where the missing footage went as opposed to just relying on what was given to them by the
school and quote those files are not original files they're not something investigators should rely on for the
truth of the video [Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers welcome back in cheers Captain you had a few items on
your laundry list that you wanted to speak about well if we don't talk about them I think people will bring them up
so let's talk about the blood that was found it wasn't found that far from where Kendrick was found it was in about
six droplets of blood that was on a wall it's very dark it looks almost like Black smudge right now they did collect
this and they did test it and it wasn't Kendrick's blood now that's fine and it probably was left
there I believe it probably was a lot of people on the side that say it's such a
conspiracy say hey blood is not just left on walls in high school like we talked about before high schools are
just not that clean and if this is in the area that they would have put the mats up in it's possibility that when
they put the mats up a janitor couldn't get to this and clean it so you have that evidence
you have that sample so you could at least find out who that that belongs to and that might take a lot of work and
time but you could do that to rule that out and cover your own ass the other piece of item is this hoodie that people
bring up all the time it's I think it's a structure hoodie well before we move on to the hoodie I think you know what
the biggest part of the argument for the blood evidence that's found approximately 50 feet from the map that
the Kendrick was later found in is that you know just because you rule out that it's Kendrick's blood does not
mean that it doesn't have anything to do with this situation I mean it could be the offender's blood how many times have
we talked about an attack that goes down in the offender injures themselves or the person there that they are attacking
defends themselves and injures the offender so I think that's the big concern there that it's not just okay
well thanks for letting us know that it's not Kendrick's blood however we would like to know who it belongs to
right especially I think where you run into the trouble here with a lot of this investigation
and I think specifically with the blood evidence is that most of the people at this school
they're minors they're not they're not adults and that makes it a little trickier when you're talking about the
privacy of these children their children you know and I think that's that's where
they ran into some issues regarding the surveillance footage too because the school's like well look we can't just
willy-nilly release all this surveillance footage it's camera it's camera footage of children walking
around right you know whose identities need to remain anonymous it's their job to protect them right and
so there in fact I think with the the blood we're looking at pretty much the same problem so that's why they're like
you know what well let's at least rule out Kendrick right uh to put this in the right direction where I take where I
have a problem with this is that there were some people some some people that were named
as suspects now in their defense they were only named by Kendrick's parents they were never named by by law
enforcement officials but these persons I would have loved to have seen the opportunity
for somebody to say look we're going to test this Blood we'd like to compare it to yours right you have the opportunity
here to come forward and say and and prove to us that this is not your blood I one potential problem though Captain
is the way that you've described the the blood that was found there it sounds like this is a a poor sample
um possibly contaminated but I guess it was strong enough to to determine that it was not Kendricks right so so yeah I
think that's all an issue and and you wanted to move on to the sweatshirt we mentioned that one of the amongst the
other items that were found at the scene we already explained away the textbook and the folder that was
located those were Kendricks there was a sweatshirt a hooded um a hooded Hollister brand sweatshirt
that was found at the scene again again I think they should have tagged and bagged they didn't but they did give
back this hoodie supposedly to Kendrick's family so they're the ones that are saying or they're the ones that
came out and said hey we don't think this was accidental death we think somebody
um hit him or murdered him and then put him in the the mat and then and then put
the mat back up they're the ones saying that so you do have that piece of evidence so if you
want anything done to that shirt I'm going to then put that on you again like I said they should have tagged and
bagged it and kept it in evidence they didn't but they did give it back to the family that's my thoughts on that piece
of evidence well and I think before we move too far away from the surveillance footage that we that we discussed
it sounds to me like that there was an opportunity for the Johnsons to view this surveillance footage right at the
school within days of the death and they didn't do that for whatever reason and actually I believe that they were
encouraged through I don't know if it was their attorneys but there we had already mentioned the
NAACP the uh SCLC right those groups at the very least were encouraging them to go and view that footage and for
whatever reason they did not at that time but I I think we should push on forward Captain because in 2014
things are going to start to heat up a bit this is when the Johnsons and their attorneys are becoming increasingly
aggressive in their pursuit of Justice they had even gone so far as to mention by name the two boys who they declared
had a reason to hurt Kendrick right this is Brian and Brandon Bell so it's not only these are brothers Brian and
Brandon Bell the Johnsons alleged that the Bell Brothers had used an unnamed female to lore Kendrick into the old gym
where they had killed him and stuffed his body into the mat they further claimed that the crime had been a
cover-up with the aid of the Bell brother brothers father right because he was a FBI agent yes that's like when you
start reading about this case and you hear that you go what what FBI agent all of these allegations were laid out in a
lawsuit filed by the Johnsons against more than 30 defendants that claim game were complicit separately in July 2014
they sued the school system and the superintendent for the wrongful death of their son the lawsuit alleged that a
white student had a history of provoking and attacking Kendrick at school now yeah I believe that they got into some
kind of fight and I don't know what that fight was one of the Bell Brothers and Kendrick supposedly they were somewhat
friends now this is what the Bell family says but the Johnson family says we we don't know him never heard of him they
weren't friends the first issue I have with this is Lord him Lord Kendrick in the old gym by
using a female decoy right my first problem with that is we do know that he had weight training class
and that's the reason why he was in the gym right yeah and they don't back that up with saying hey we see a young female
going into the gym before he does right so that's just my first problem with this yeah well okay so let's talk about
that incident that you had mentioned between one of the Bell Brothers and Kendrick okay so when this first comes
out Captain it's Kenneth and Jackie they're claiming you know Kendrick's parents are claiming that the bell boys
that this whole thing stemmed from an incident that had took place between Kendrick and Brian Bell that this had
occurred this incident occurred just before Kendrick had died there are people that looked into this
and what the the result of their investigations are this that that incident there was an incident but but
in fact it actually took place 18 months earlier this would be in 2011 when the two boys were freshmen members of the
Vikings football team okay so picture this they it's after a football game they're riding home on the bus okay and
what the report States is that Brian and Kendrick were in some kind of they're trading mama jokes you know your
mama's so fat that kind of thing don't get your mama's so fat when she sits around the house she really sits around
the house yeah so they're trading these mama jokes and for whatever reason it gets out of
hand and the two ended up getting in a fight yeah one was better than the other uh at mama jokes yeah it comes down to
yeah well but we've we've been in school we've seen where these things start off
as some kind of friendly tug of war let's say and when they just turn into a fight yeah and they just had a football
game so you got adrenaline going and they're probably just coming down from that adrenaline High they're actually on
the bus with with an older team from the same school from the Vikings football team right uh I think it's the varsity
team maybe the JV I don't know so we have two teams on this on this bus they're heading home this fight breaks
out between Brian and Kendrick regarding these mother jokes so what ends up happening is the boys are separated very
quickly once this fight breaks out when the school bus arrived back at the school Brian is then with his brother
because his brother played football as well he he was a junior he was on the older team right all right so
the two Bell Brothers they go home they're picked up by their parents the complaint is regarding Kendrick as
this that Kendrick was sent home in the school resource officer's car um so what what you have here and this is
according to Kendrick's Father Kenneth that the white kids get to go home with their parents but the black kid was put
in a police cruiser yeah which is bowling around [ __ ] you know well they should be treated the
same exactly right if if putting if putting Kendrick in a police cruiser and taking him home is a form of punishment
then Brian Bell should have been escorted home by the police officer as well and told what had happened what had
occurred on the bus correct but if your son is take him back to your house and a quote
unquote pretty much a police cruiser then you should probably remember when this happened
and you should probably not say that it happened just before um you know your son was found dead and
that it happened 18 months beforehand well therein lies a big problem with this story so when you initially hear
the story and the way that Kenneth Johnson tells the story it sounds like there's a fight shortly before his son
is killed right and his son Not only was in a fight with the one of the people we
think killed him but the result was my son was punished and the white kid was not punished right
the truth of the matter that we end up learning once you once you dig through once you dig nothing that that that
Johnson says is completely wrong Kendrick absolutely was driven home by the the school's resource officer but
let's keep in mind that's that's a police officer that's working at the school it's not like they called the
police right and a cruiser came in and picked up Kendrick and took him home the way that this story works is it's
exactly like I started off with this is an old fight this was not a fight that started right before Kendrick ended up
dead in the match this was almost 18 months beforehand and then what we do learn is that yes the the Bell Brothers
did go home with their parents Kendrick didn't go home with his parents because his parents were not at the school to
pick him up right when he arrived back at the school he has no ride home the school resource officer that was already
there who would later tell the media I considered myself to be a family friend of the of the Johnson family right so I
took him home right I knew Kendrick I knew Kendrick outside of my job of being a resource officer at the actual High
School just offered him a ride home it was not a form of punishment I was just trying to help them out right yeah but
again sometimes people only see what they want to see it seems like that happens a lot with uh Mr Johnson well I
I don't even think you'd see what you want to see I mean it might be see what you want to see but could it also be
tell what you want to tell right I mean because control your narrative right when we hear the story from him it's a
it it sounds very damning and then when you really start digging through it you're like well it's not a complete lie
but there's things in here that just that they have different meaning than the way
that he describes them and it's not as simple as the white kid was not punished and the black kid was right
so these Braille Brothers I mean I think the thing initially that jumped out of me when they say hey we got these kids
that we think might be responsible for possibly hitting Kendrick and then rolling them up in the mat and you go
okay well these mats are mainly used for wrestling and one of the Bell Brothers is a wrestler so that seems a little
fishy but that doesn't mean anything okay so let's go through these these Bell boys together here well and they're
Brothers but they're also Bros well but the so the sheriff investigated them and
he determined that Brandon Bell was not even on school grounds at the time that Kendrick had died right so he's on a
school athletic outing with the wrestling team um this is 25 people on the wrestling
team he's one of them and that he he couldn't have been involved because they were out of town for some kind of
wrestling tournament right that day Okay so he's not even at the school the other
Bell brother was in a fourth period class and had like 20 some eyewitnesses placing them in the class I believe the
whole time right they're both accounted for in different locations making it seemingly impossible that either of them
let alone both of them could be involved this is where the sheriff points out that the boys were never considered
suspects because of these reasons now they're pretty much cleared right away yeah but the Johnsons would continue to
maintain that the bells were involved in in Kendrick's murder they even produced
a and made a public video raising questions about both of the bell boys and they also pointed out that the bells had
refused to cooperate with police and they pointed out what appeared to be a School record showing that the wrestling
bus had not left the campus until 4 pm on January 10th this giving Brandon plenty
of time to Kill Kendrick and still make it to the bus right so then we have the school's attorney comes out and counters
that statement stating that he points to the school bus travel log okay that Johnson's legal team was
referring to this is just a trip request that was filled out weeks before the tournament
to reserve the bus so they've not they may not actually know exactly what time they need the bus
yet it's so many weeks in advance right so actually on January 10th this is what
they could prove that the wrestling team had uh the school's first lunch session
which lasted from 11 32 a.m to 1202 p.m then the team and the coaches boarded a school bus and left for a 150 mile drive
to the tournament the wrestling coach's cell phone records indicate the team was
in Cordell Georgia at 1 53 p.m Cordell is approximately 85 miles north of the school indicating that the bus would
have already have left and been on the road at the time that Kendrick was last seen alive on that video footage right
so again Mr Johnson doesn't want to listen to the actual evidence I mean look is it wrong for you to suspect that
something happened for to your son no and was there definitely some shoddy police work yes but these two
individuals that you think have something to do with your son and possibly from rumors because if you look
at a lot of the police investigated the police reports and when they're talking to students now they're talking to some
of these students seven months later there was some rumors about this well when the parents of a dead child is
saying hey we think these kids had something to do with it you better believe in that high school there's
going to be rumors started so we have these rumors started but then they come back to you law enforcement
comes back to you and says hey we have their whereabouts we have their Alibis that's where it gets really fishy to me
though or fishy from the Johnson side to me is they go well okay so these guys have Alibis so now not only are the Bell
Brothers responsible but the superintendent's responsible in the and the the whole school's responsible and
the sheriff's responsible and they're all covering that up because the Bell Brothers their father is a FBI agent
that seems really really far-fetched well it's stretching it so I I think I think with that Captain we can kind of
lead into that leads us into what are our thoughts what are our conclusions after reviewing the evidence I'll let
you go first my main oh man I don't even know where to start because there is a lot of this stuff that it does bother me
uh do I think the investigation would have been handled a little different if it was one of the Bell Brothers that
were found in the mat I do believe that I believe that 100 percent I don't think
they would have been walking around just in their shoes I think they would have collected all pieces of evidence I think
they would cross their T's and dotted their eyes and uh I think they want to acted like a bunch of pieces of [ __ ] but
I think what happened here was they had to see their son and because the way he died
and I lean more towards accidental that the way he died and the way he his face looked afterwards
I think that was all the proof that Johnson needed to think that something you know bad happen and it wasn't just
an accident that somebody made his face look that way that his face had to be beaten up and it wasn't just
because he was basically upside down and also dead for probably what 12 hours before he's
found and I think him looking at his son was enough for him to go down this wild
goose chase now where it makes it weirder is that because the investigation didn't
cross her teeth didn't dot their eyes didn't bag and tag everything that they were supposed to
didn't wear coverings for their shoes didn't talk to students beforehand and I think
assumed right when they found him right when they found Kendrick Johnson that this was an accident
and they didn't do all the things that they should have done and then when the Johnsons are calling
them out and saying hey we think there's Foul Play here that everybody that was involved in the
investigation is covering their ass not because it was a murder but because they
did such a shitty job and so you know if you would have done your job correctly at the beginning we wouldn't have all
these problems and we want to have all this conspiracy and wasting a bunch of people's time
well or would we that's what that's what I question because here's here's where I
stand on this on the surface and you know I'm going to say that I I go into every one of our cases right
down the middle and I'm going to look at it and I'm going to let the evidence lead me where it should lead me into
into the right direction with this one I did not because I'd already had some previous knowledge
well I thought I had previous knowledge about this case right because on the surface it does look very wrong it looks
like there's a lot of wrongdoing by a lot of people and that there was in fact a cover-up that's very fishy yeah when
you start to get a better understanding of the layout of the old gym and the the
setup of the mats and things like that it starts to look to you or to me anyway like it was
there's a chance that this was an accident right once you hear how this this was described that this is was set
up that that the children would often place things inside of these mats for safekeeping
it becomes it becomes apparent to me that we might have just an accidental strange bizarre death and you talked
about it you nailed it it's it's when when the parents saw their son they couldn't come to the same
conclusion that was already decided for them and I get that I get that it had to
been the worst thing for them to see their son in that manner now where the public becomes involved is that the
picture is released of Kendrick after death that was taken by his father we don't know the exact point that he took
this picture and but what we do know is it was either taken on that Sunday when he went to
identify the body or was taken after the autopsy right okay regardless the reason why he his appearance why he
appeared that way was because the amount of time that had gone by by the injuries
by the state of the body by being upside down and potentially the autopsy having
been conducted so where the public had a had an outcry for let's open up this case again it's because we're reacting
to that photo yeah and that photo is not fair to the public to Simply release it and let the public
believe the public believed when they saw this this was a picture this is what he looked like right when they found him
that's not the case man well but that's when you see his face and then you see his actual picture you go this is a face
of a man that was you know vicious viciously beaten right that's what that's what it looks like that's what
your eyes tell you it is and and for some people it's as simple as seeing is believing and that's just it but but
there's enough science to explain the reason that he appeared that way right okay now I so we're kind of taking
unpopular uh and unpopular stance on this I believe I I think that most people look at this case and I think
that they're still possibly a huge public outcry that this is an injustice that occurred
um I here's the thing it's not without question though I can't look at this and go 100 this wasn't this was an accident
and why because of things that you pointed out because of it being a shoddy investigation because protocol was not
followed because there is some surveillance footage missing yes you know those questions are not answered
but if I had to pick a side I think this is just a tragic accidental death and I
think the Tipping Point for me what really kind of pushed me towards that conclusion was there was an outstanding
um woman and her name is Lee Touchton okay so in 2015 she was an investigator with the NAACP she gave an interview to
Media publication regarding Kendrick's case touched an investigated Kendrick's death for two years first in her role
with the NAACP and then as an independent investigator working for the southern Christian leadership conference
Touchton was a seasoned civil rights activist whose role required her to investigate claims of racially motivated
civil rights violations she had lobbied the doj to investigate the case and she repeatedly contacted
the U.S attorney's office with the same request touched and conducted a thorough
probe into Kendrick's death after the Sheriff's Office had closed their investigation She interviewed numerous
local public officials including the county school superintendent the attorney for the sheriff the sheriff and
one of his deputies she talked to school board members and obtained Kendrick's case File she even toured the crime lab
several times interviewed the director visited the body cooler refrigeration unit and looked at the alarms and record
books she noted that contrary to Kendrick's father's statement and claims that the crime lab cooler was not
working that it was warm air she saw the alarm that would go off if electricity was shut off or if temperatures got too
high or too low and confirmed that there were backup generators in such a case as
a blackout right she noted that the chief forensic investigator is black he's an African-American right she spoke
with the school's attorney and gained an understanding of the lapses in the surveillance footage she toured the old
gym and was given a reenactment of how Kendrick was found touchton's conclusions
was that there was no credible evidence to even claim a murder had been committed Kendrick's death had been a
tragic accident she said I think the murder theory is not only false but also ridiculous and based only on wild
speculation and outright Fabrications based on the preponderance of medical evidence the diagnosis of positional
asphyxia is the only diagnosis that fits all of the facts there is no way that the accused boys could have been
involved in Kendrick's death in fact she resigned in protest from the NAACP because she
noted that the organization continued to provide assistance and funding to the Johnson parents who were making
allegations against the Bells that she said were lies well good for her after her resignation from the NAACP
she teamed up with Reverend Floyd Rose of the SCLC he had been requested by the family to look into Kendrick's death and
was one of the biggest supporters early on in the quest to find Justice for Kendrick touched in and Rose
investigated the case together and came again came to the same conclusion that Kendrick's death was an accident
Reverend Rose who is an African-American man told the USA Today you won't find a
person of any reputation in this town who says that boy was murdered are there other injustices around here you bet
there are but this is not one of them and I'm not going to be bossed around by whites or blacks he told Grant land
which is a sports blog owned by ESPN that he simply could not believe that the sheriff the detectives the forensic
scientists the criminal investigators the investigators from the gbi and the medical examiner had all colluded
and risked their careers to cover something up he went on to State maybe in 1951.
but not in 2013. so I got a couple words for some people in this case if if you don't mind
so first of all this Sheriff there's this video footage of some news reporter that go in and they want to talk to him
about the Kendrick Johnson case and he says I'm not talking about that case and they
say why aren't you talking about this case he says because I don't want to well first of all this individual which
did a pretty shoddy job I believe you should be thankful that you worked on this case that you
made heirs and blunders and that possibly that you could learn from this and learn that these blunders and these
missteps that you took and instead of following the letter of the land you followed your own protocol and then look
how much hurt that caused the Johnson family and then the Johnson family bringing up that possibly there's a
conspiracy and then how much hurt that brought everybody else and so you should be one just take it in
and say yes I made a bunch of mistakes I wish I didn't make but I'm going to be a
better sheriff and a better better individual because I worked on this Kendrick Johnson case
well and I pointed out that the my Tipping Point for me was the final conclusion by Lee Touchton and then by
Reverend Floyd Rose and the reason why that was the Tipping Point for me was because just like me they went into this
case thinking that there was an injustice here thinking that there was a murder and that there was a cover-up these two
intelligent individuals spent a lot of time they spent two years investigating this only to end up at the other end of
this right that there was not an injustice that this was in fact an accident so where I can't say 100
percent that I believe this was an accident because of protocol being broken because of things that are
missing because things that have not been explained fully I'm going to rely on these two smart
individuals that spent two years on this investigation and they didn't work for anybody that was involved in the
cover-up and they went into this expecting to find a cover-up and it only turned out that they ended up at the
other end of it yeah and when I went into this I mean I love a good conspiracy as much as anybody else right
I think they're fascinating cases I just don't see the evidence of that and I'd be willing to hear the evidence I think
there's enough Reasonable Doubt to go hey if you can give me some solid piece of evidence to show me that this was
actually a murder and not an accident I'd be willing to listen I just don't see that evidence out there
[Music] and make sure you go to the iTunes Store it's been requested a bunch of times I
took 20 of the themes I'm going to be taking all the themes theme music theme music of the shows and putting them
together in these compilations and you can get the first volume of the themes on iTunes for pre-order
right now and before we wrap up Captain something I haven't done in a few weeks a little recommended reading yeah I
thought I just figured you were so into computer that you didn't like books anymore I actually had a few people
email me saying hey there's been no recommended reading for the last few weeks and that in fact has been true but
if you've noticed we've recommended movies podcasts a bunch of other things and what I pornos I typically don't like to
recommend too many things in one show so uh we're back at it this week and this week we are recommending a book called
the undercover Edge this is by Derek levasseer he's a former detective and TV personality uh if you could see his face
you would know he's on the ability leave the ID channel he has some kind of new new case that he's covering with another
Gentleman on there he's also uh on some OJ documentary he was at crime con last year I'm recommending this book because
he will be at crime con along with us again this year which is in May of this year in Nashville yeah he'll be the
second sexiest man at crimecon well the uh so this is called the undercover Edge
and it's one of these motivational uh inspirational books it's it's teachings that you can use in your life
um so you can find your hidden strength so you can find your hidden strengths learn to adapt and build the confidence
to win life's game you can check that out by going to our website truecrime garage.com click on the recommended page
we have a bunch of books there for you all right we'll see you guys next week uh be good be kind and don't let her
[Applause] thank you [Music]

Kendrick Johnson /// Part 2 /// 196

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Episode 196 - This week we cover the very controversial and bizarre death of 17 year old Kendrick Johnson. On January 11th 2013 Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a High School gymnasium. His body had been discovered by a fellow student. The circumstances surrounding his death have been the cause of much debate since. Kendrick’s death has been ruled an accident however many including Kendrick’s parents say different. They believe he was murdered by several students. The murder then covered up by the sheriff because the alleged killers father is a F.B.I. Agent. Grab a beer and find a comfortable chair because this will be a bumpy ride. Beer of the Week - Terrapin RyeGarage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode analyzes the Kendrick Johnson case, focusing on autopsy findings, missing evidence, and surveillance footage issues.

Key points

Kendrick Johnson's Second Autopsy. The second autopsy contradicts the initial findings, suggesting homicide instead of accidental death.
Missing Organs Mystery. Kendrick's body was found stuffed with newspapers, and his organs were reported missing.
Suspicious Surveillance Footage. Issues with the school's surveillance system raise questions about the investigation's integrity.
Missing Footage Mystery. An hour of footage is missing from the surveillance cameras, raising suspicions.
Blood Evidence Found. Six droplets of blood found near the scene were not Kendrick's, raising questions.
Bell Brothers Allegations. The Johnsons allege the Bell Brothers were involved in Kendrick's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a highly debated case.

Introduction to the case discussion

4:16WatchNov 26, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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