Mystery: What Happened to Kendrick Johnson’s Organs?

There may be no mystery to solve, but the case reminded me of the 2008 change in Georgia’s organ donor law that passed with little or no publicity then and now. Questions about this case:

Q. What happened to Kendrick Johnson’s internal organs?
The GBI said they were put in the body after the autopsy and were therein when it went to a funeral home.

Q. Is it customary to use newspaper to fill body cavities left by organ removal?
Ordinarily, more appropriate substances are used to fill cavities, but it’s not illegal to use newspapers.

Q. When were the newspapers found in Kendrick Johnson’s body?
After exhumation, in a second autopsy a private expert found newspapers stuffed in the body and skull.

On January 14th, Valdosta’s WTXL reported the death of Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old high school athlete whose body was found January 11th at Lowndes High School. County officials said he got stuck in a mat at the school’s old gym and accidentally suffocated to death. A GBI autopsy found no death-causing injury, but officials promised to perform additional tests.

On October 10, 2013 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported findings of a private pathologist the Johnsons hired to perform another autopsy, made possible by an exhumation order. After his independent autopsy, forensic expert Dr. William Anderson reported on August 15th that the cause of death was a fatal blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissue near the carotid artery. The blow appeared to be non-accidental and “consistent with inflicted injury.” WXIA added, “Dr. Anderson said when he opened Johnson’s body, it was stuffed full of newspapers.”

As of October 9th, the Lowndes High School had not released the video of Johnson’s last moments at school. However, CNN obtained a 15-minute-video and nearly 700 photographs taken by sheriff’s investigators in Lowndes County. Kendrick’s parents asked the Justice Department to get involved, but they declined. U.S. Attorney Michael Moore in Macon has monitored the case but has not indicated what he will do. The Johnsons are preparing a lawsuit requesting a coroner’s inquest, hoping to change Kendrick’s manner of death from accidental to homicide on his death certificate, to pave the way for reopening a criminal investigation.

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