THE GYM MAT INCIDENT: KENDRICK JOHNSON

Crime Salad

Weird Salad Media

True Crime

4.4 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On January 11, 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Students discovered his sock-clad feet sticking out during gym class, prompting calls to 911. His mother, Jacquelyn Johnson, who had been searching for him since the night before, arrived at the school unaware of the tragedy unfolding inside the gym. The fight for justice for Kendrick is still as strong as it was that day. Join us as we unravel the details, theories, and lingering questions surrounding this case.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	According to investigators, the tragedy at Lownd's High School came without warning.
0:07.8	That morning on January 11th of 2013, students walked into the gym for class.
0:12.7	They sat down to fill out a survey and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
0:17.4	Some students sat on the bleachers, while others moved towards the cluster of mats that were rolled up, strapped, and stored vertically in the corner of the chim. Each mat stood about six feet tall, three feet wide. No one could have imagined the horror hidden among them. Everything changed when a pair of sock-clad feet was spotted sticking out from the center
0:38.8	hole in one of the mats. The casual chatter stopped, students shouted for help and called 911,
0:44.9	and the gym teacher rushed over, grabbed the victim's ankle, and later recalled that there was
0:49.7	no response, and he knew that he was lifeless at that point. While police and paramedics raced to the scene,
0:56.6	Jacqueline Johnson, Kendrick's mother, was already at the school with her young daughter,
1:01.5	completely unaware of the nightmare unfolding inside the gym. She was simply trying to find her son,
1:07.8	Kendrick. 17-year-old Kendrick hadn't come home the night before, something that was completely out of character for the reliable, responsible teenager.
1:17.6	Kendrick had a close and open relationship with his parents.
1:20.6	Most days, he would be home by the time his mom returned from work to talk about his day.
1:25.6	If he stayed late to run laps, work out, or shoot
1:29.2	hoops, he'd always ask for permission first. His father, Kenneth, was a truck driver and away that
1:35.3	Thursday night. So Jacqueline wondered if maybe Kendrick had asked his dad instead, and the message
1:40.8	just didn't reach her. But that wasn't the case. There were no games,
1:45.5	no practice, and no word from Kendrick all night, which was deeply unusual.
1:51.9	Jacqueline and Kenneth didn't waste any time searching for their teenage son. They reported
1:56.1	him missing around 12.30 a.m. when he didn't come home from school that evening. But instead of actively
2:02.4	looking for Kendrick, Jacqueline had recalled that law enforcement officers who came to the
2:08.0	house didn't seem to take his disappearance seriously at all. In fact, she says that they told her
2:13.5	that Kendrick was probably out with a girl and that she had nothing to worry about.
	...

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