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Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

S1 Ep17: The Death of Kendrick Johnson

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Society & Culture, Science, True Crime

4.010.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On January 11, 2013, the body of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found inside a vertical rolled up gym mat in the gymnasium of his high school in Valdosta, Georgia. A preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that the death was accidental. But a second autopsy determined that he died from blunt force trauma. So which was it - a tragic accidental death? Or was it murder?

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Fasten your seatbelts. Easy jets big orange sail is now on. With up to 20% of 700,000 seats

0:10.0

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0:19.0

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0:25.0

Travel restrictions since he's in season. He's applied.

0:32.0

How does a perfectly healthy high schooler with no enemies end up dead in his own high school gym?

0:41.0

How is a parent do you deal with the loss of your child? Especially when the manner in which you're told they died seems impossible and is just so mind-bogglingly gruesome?

0:53.0

Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I'm a writer and an actor who is sometimes like,

1:00.0

who's asked do I have to kick, but who more often ends up with their own foot in their mouth?

1:06.0

This week, I am sorry in advance, Kendrick Johnson, the devastating story of his bizarre death and the investigation around it.

1:24.0

In 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was a junior at Lowns High in Valdosta, Georgia. He was a herdler, a power-forward and basketball, and something called a safety in football.

1:37.0

Which I'm going to go ahead and assume is not someone who stands on the sidelines of a football game and goes,

1:42.0

this is a super dangerous sport, please be gentle with each other. Anyway. On the morning of January 11, 2013, Kendrick's mother Jacqueline was at the guidance counselor's office of Lowns High looking for her son.

2:01.0

He hadn't come home from school the day before and he hadn't answered his phone. This wasn't normal behavior for Kendrick.

2:10.0

According to his parents, Kendrick was a good kid with average grades. He was polite and had a sunny disposition. He was good with numbers and finances.

2:21.0

His grandmother called him her peculiar grandchild because he was quieter than his brothers and sisters, which is like,

2:28.0

okay, grandma, judgy much? Like a kid can't be quiet without being weird? I'm pretty sure I never shut up when I was young and let me tell you if there's anyone who deserved to be called peculiar, it's me.

2:41.0

It was definitely not normal for Kendrick to just not come home and not respond to calls or texts from his family. His mother knew something was wrong.

2:56.0

When Kendrick still wasn't home by 12.30 a.m. and after driving back and forth between home and school to look for him, Jackie Johnson called the police to report her son missing.

3:08.0

Now, Lord knows we have heard some awful responses from police to parents who report their children missing, right? Something vaguely judgmental toward the kid or the mom or probably both?

3:20.0

When Jackie Johnson called to report her son hadn't come home from school, the 911 dispatcher had this response. He's probably just out with some fast-tailed girl.

3:33.0

Okay, you know what? I'm going to skip the commentary on this one because we only have a half hour together, folks, and I could write a dissertation on this shitty ass sexist backward statement.

3:46.0

Like where would I even begin? Anyway.

...

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