UNSOLVED: The School Gym Murder 1
Murder: True Crime Stories
Crime House
4.6 • 766 Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson failed to come home from school in Valdosta, Georgia, his family’s world was turned upside down. The next morning, Kendrick’s body was discovered inside a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School. Authorities ruled his death a freak accident — but his family refused to believe it. In the first of this two-part investigation, host Carter Roy takes you inside the case that shocked the nation. From the mysterious discovery of Kendrick’s body to conflicting autopsies, missing evidence, and allegations of a cover-up, this episode examines the early investigation and how one family’s search for truth became a national movement.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Crime House. |
| 0:11.9 | We put a lot of trust in schools. |
| 0:15.2 | They're where our kids spend most of their days, |
| 0:17.4 | where they learn not just math and science, |
| 0:20.0 | but how to navigate the world, |
| 0:22.4 | how to solve problems, deal with conflict, and be better humans. So it makes sense that we expect |
| 0:29.0 | and hope that our kids will be safe when we send them off to school every day. For the Johnson |
| 0:35.6 | family of Valdosta, Georgia, Louns High School was like a second home for |
| 0:41.1 | their son. They didn't have fears about sending him to class or worry about him staying late for a |
| 0:46.6 | basketball game. But when Kendrick never came home one day in 2013, the trust they had shattered. |
| 0:56.1 | Their child had been failed by the one place he should have been protected. |
| 1:01.9 | And as the investigation dragged on, the Johnson family started to wonder if they would |
| 1:07.8 | ever learn what really happened to Kendrick. |
| 1:16.6 | People's lives are like a story. |
| 1:22.6 | There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. |
| 1:25.6 | But you don't always know which part you're on. |
| 1:28.0 | Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, |
| 1:32.1 | and we don't always get to know the real ending. |
| 1:35.1 | I'm Carter Roy, and this is murder, |
| 1:38.1 | true crime stories, a crime house original |
| 1:41.0 | powered by Pave Studios that comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. |
| 1:45.0 | Prime House is made possible by you. Follow murder, true crime stories, and subscribe to |
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