Sword and Scale - Episode 232

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

When the body of 17-year-old high school student Kendrick Johnson was found in his own Lowndes County gym back in January of 2013, the whole nation took notice. The case was odd, the investigation seemed to have major holes, and Kendrick’s family was convinced that law enforcement was involved in a county-wide murder coverup. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listen or discretion is advised. It's almost like she got up on no strength and teared him. Y'all kill my child. Y'all kill my child. Hello and welcome. This is season 10, episode 232 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the war monsters are real. Today, we have a story about patterns, and how we as a species is designed to spot them

even when they're not there. It's a highly relevant look at the big picture of what we're dealing with in society today, a little something called systemic racism. But it all starts, of course, with a tragedy and a preventable one at that. Stay tuned. There's this phenomenon. You know how sometimes people say things like, you'll always find what you're looking for? They don't necessarily mean it in a folksy, encouraging way.

They mean that you literally tend to find what you look for in life, whether good or bad. You find it everywhere around you, which is apparently why it's important to look for things that bring you happiness every day. I guess. It's the law of attraction to reduce it into somewhat of its simpler terms. For example, you ever think of a number that may be important to you, maybe it's a birthday or some other important number in your life, and then you start seeing that number again and again and again. Suddenly, it seems like the number is all around you. Like it's a message, from somewhere, or someone.

Even though that number would have been there anyway, had you not noticed it. Sometimes these predispositions to find patterns in the world, find those things we're looking for, are helpful. When law enforcement reviews a crime scene, it's important for suspicious things to stand out. Anything and everything can be seen as evidence. Sometimes though, as you can imagine, we get ourselves in a trouble by looking for things a little too hard. For instance, when you get cheated on one too many times, you may start to see suspicious

signs of cheating in every relationship moving forward. But what happens when a whole town, then a whole nation sees something that law enforcement does not. These things become important when there are lives on the line. Valdausta, Georgia was a hot topic location in 2013. A boy was missing. A high school student at Lowns County High. He hadn't returned home from school that day and he was a good kid. A 17-year-old athlete with no reason to keep his mother out of the loop about his location. Lowns 101, where's your son's name? Kendrick Johnson

Can't relocate a missing 17 year old out of the counties can be a Kendrick Johnson Three series of questions. See if he's there possibly with another subject in the comments Normally when he when Jack get off her route Kendrick if he didn't have football practice or basketball practice, track practice, and thing like that, he rode the bus home and he rode to the bus shop with Jack. This was Kendrick's Aunt Lydia. She saw him leave that morning,

but he didn't come back that afternoon. He didn't show up that night. Nobody heard from him. It was a basketball game at the school that night, nobody heard anything. I think it was like, for something at the school that night. Nobody heard anything. I think it was like, for something in the morning, she had already posted this. I got up and I looked, checked my Facebook page.

And I saw a poster, she posted it, and it said, Lord, my child, my child. That's what the text said, but she said, Lord, my child, my child. That's it. He still hadn't come home. So I called Jack and I was like, can't you still not show it up?

She was like, girl, now, we just talking now, we just didn't, we started joking. I say, I say, you wet the heat, get home, and say, we gonna take his ass off. Kendrick being unaccounted for isn't what made headlines, though. On January 11th, Kendrick's classmates made a discovery inside their high school that they'd remember forever.

They found Kendrick. He was upside down in the opening of a vertical wrestling mat. It was standing tall amongst a forest of other mats, and Kendrick's shoes were at the bottom of the mat, his arms reaching as if he'd been stuffed inside of it. In statements released by Lounges County Sheriff's Office, students wrote, we always leave our shoes inside the mats during class. But to retrieve the shoes, we tilt the mats over

and get the shoes from the bottom. Detectives think Kendrick reached for a black Jim shoe from the top of the six foot mat, slipped into the center and got stuck while no one was around. And a relative says the shoes in this picture are his two. I got a phone call and a person on the other end was like, um, you okay? I'm good, why? Not, you know, not taking that, not thinking.

She was like, you sure? I said, yeah, why was going on? I'm driving now. So after a while, the person says, well, I just got worried that they found Kendrick dead at the school. And I was like, wait, what? She said, yeah, they found Kendrick dead at the school.

So I'm in the middle of traffic and the middle of traffic. And my phone rang again. And it was another person on the other in him's like, lady, you alright? And I was just like, what are y'all talking about? Was Kendrick my nephew? And after a while I was just, I was driving and I just stopped in the middle of the road and I just broke down. The way Kendrick's body looked when they unrolled him from the gym mat was, Grotesque, to say the least. His face was bloated and patchy and coloring, and he was stained iron red with blood that had escaped his face from an inverted position and pooled onto the floor below him. His family didn't get to see him at the scene though. They were shown

photos from his autopsy and Kendrick's face looked even worse, even more distorted. They showed us a picture, autopsy picture of Kendrick and that just sent us straight into work mode. It was hurtful to see because that's not Kendrick. The picture that we hold up down time, that wasn't Kendrick. This is Kendrick, but who is this? And then that the funeral, I rarely remember it. Remember the funeral because I like I say I was jumping into work mode with my sister. Things just didn't seem right. This feeling only intensified as autopsy results were released, just a few days after the discovery

of the 17 year old's body. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations Medical Examiner found no indications of injury that would have caused the death of Kendrick Johnson. Later on, the medical examiner offered more details. Kendrick's cause of death, positional asphyxia. Basically, death in this scenario is caused by the physical position of the body blocking airflow. Whether the lungs don't have room to expand and fill with oxygen, or the arms are pinching the trachea, any physical positioning of the body that restricts airflow and causes death can be coded as positional asphyxia.

In Kendrick's case, according to the medical examiner, it was the gym mat and gravity. Kendrick was found upside down after all. I think it came out then. That's when we found out that they say it was positional exphyxia, accidental. We examined all the alternatives that were presented to us and the only one that fit the physical evidence and the forensic evidence that fit the physical evidence, and the forensic evidence, and the testimony of evidence that we received was this as an accident.

By this time, Kendrick's friends and family had publicly released the images from the autopsy displaying the shocking reality of Kendrick's demise to the world. The story was making its rounds. The evidence being reported in addition to the hasty autopsy and closure of the case made people uneasy. For Kendrick's family, the answer was simple. This had to be a cover-up. Couldn't people see that someone had murdered Kendrick? About like what the sheriff and the detect the told us when we were at the Board of Education,

they came straight in. We don't find any signs of fire play. You don't think it's our that a child rolled up in a gym mat in high school is fire play and he bleeding. And he got bruises. You can just tell that, well, what we do now, that was my nephew. I had a personal relationship with him.

He was taken from us. He was taken from his mom and his dad and his sister's and his brother. I'm crazy about my nieces and nephews. You took my nephew. I don't like having to wear pictures on a shirt. I don't like that. Kendrick didn't really have enemies. He was popular at Lowns County High and seemed to get along with everyone while simultaneously not really getting

close to anyone at all. He was real real quick. He always been like if he don't know you outside of his family and his friends, you know, his cousins, anything or anybody I say he's real quiet. The most popular kid, but the quietest one. He loved Lime Ty, he loved his friends, he loved his family, just all around a good kid. This is Kendrick's sister, Kenyatta. I guess for the social, he was popular in school, everybody liked him. According to Kenyatta, all the girls had a crush on Kendrick, a handsome and charismatic athlete, but serious relationships didn't interest him. He didn't have a girlfriend and I,

I used to sneak and have, go through his phone. So I would have seen it. Kendrick's family was tight-knit. His parents were married, and the extended family kept in touch regularly. The procession of people thinking that all black people did not grow up in a two-parent home. Kendrick did.

They didn't know Kendrick, like we knew Kendrick. They didn't know Kendrick on a personal level like his mom and dad had did. They never let nobody go identify his body. So that could have been anybody. We back in the, at the Board of Education and the sheriff he came in and he was like, well, for all we know, we

don't find any sign of file play. He said that that day. He said that day. He did and then striped Jones came in and said the same thing. They had already made it in my case closed, not the day. No, something happened to him. How did he end up in that mat? What are the cameras showing? Why y'all want to go look at the camera and see what happened to him. How did he end up in that mad? What are the cameras showing?

Why y'all want to go look at the camera and see what happened to them? Because y'all know something happening now. I know something happening, y'all know something happening now. And I just kept saying here something happened, something happening now. And they still wouldn't let nobody identify the body. So I'm sitting with my sister after sheer a prime. Said that he found no evidence of fire play. My sister it's almost like she she got up enough strength and

tell them y'all kill my child. Y'all kill my child. Said it was no fire playing. He had no bruises, no nothing. Did you believe that? No. And you still don't believe it? No, I don't. How some of my song was, then you see him like that,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's crazy. No matter who you are, how much money your parents have, the color of your skin, everyone deserves justice, everyone. Upset with the hasty autopsy in burial of their son, the Johnson family demanded answers. They gathered people to rally in front of the Lowns County Courthouse three months after Kendrick's burial. On June 6, 2013, a Lowns County judge granted the family permission to exume Kendrick's burial. On June 6, 2013, a Lowns County judge granted the

family permission to exume Kendrick's body so that they could hire a private pathologist to do a second autopsy. The results of this examination fueled the fire even further. Everyone wanted to know what the hell was going on. Everyone wanted to know what the hell was going on. Well, there are legal situations in a coroner medical examiner system. If a death is sudden, unusual, traumatic, unexpected, suspicious, the medical examiner may get involved in doing the autopsy. Now, the medical examiner's our forensic pathologist in general. Coroners, in many states, simply have to be 18 years of age and never convicted of a felony.

This is Dr. Anderson. He performed the second autopsy on Kendrick's body after it was exhumed. Well, I was contacted by Shireen King, who was the lawyer for the family, and they were quite concerned that this didn't make any sense, that all somebody had to do, if their shoe had fallen down in the middle of a gym mat. All he had to do was turn the gym mat over on its side. I mean, the standing there to turn it over. And it's sort of like, it's almost assuming that Kendrick was too dumb to do that.

You know, would do that. And, you know, with nobody's going to do that. And then, of course, the positionals fix you thing. And I said, well, send me the autopsy that the state had done. And look at the lungs. They're normal. Melodema, nothing. And they said, well, to make a diagnosis of positionphyxia, it means that the lungs, because an individual

has progressively unable to breathe properly, the diaphragmatic muscles gets tired, who lungs fill up with fluid, and normally you have eight or nine hundred grams lungs full with fluid, but to make the diagnosis of positional asphyxia. And Kendrick's had no fluid in it and they were normal weight. Well, just by definition, you can't diagnose positional fixia if you don't have the major component of the diagnosis. It's like calling a heart attack and say, well, the heart is normal, but we think he had a heart attack. This finding wasn't even the strangest part.

But he'd been in bomb well, so there was no situation where any more decomposition and so forth had occurred. And the tissues were actually better preserved now that he was in bomb. We would have liked to examine the organs again, but the organs somehow had disappeared and were not with the body. When we received the body, and since we received in the casket, that the organs somehow had disappeared and were not with the body. When we received the body, and since we received in the casket, that means it wasn't there when he was buried. Kendrick's organs were missing.

All of his internal organs had been removed as a standard when people are embalmed and buried. But Kendrick's torso was stuffed with newspaper, which was not at all customary. Well, normally what happens is you put the organs in the back of the body or in a bag with the same formaldehyde solution to preserve them in with the casket.

Now, some hospitals, when they do autops, they actually keep all the organs and cremate them later. But many families don't realize that. They haven't been returned. But generally medical examiners, for a number of reasons, they don't want to have to worry about that, getting rid of the organs. It's easier to send it back to the funeral home

after you've done your sections. And you avoid the possibility of the families getting upset because all the organs weren't put back. You take whatever you need for examination, but you don't necessarily just keep all the organs. So when we opened the body of Kendrick Johnson, all of us there was newspaper filling the cavities. The organs were not there.

I know the attorneys and I'll spend months trying to figure out where they had gone and nobody could ever explain where the organs had gone. Despite the missing entrails, Dr. Anderson still had some well-preserved tissue to examine. He believed Kendrick's neck had a story to tell. The neck had been not been dissected where we found the injury, which was way up at the angle of the jaw, and that had not been dissected where we found the injury was way up at the angle of the jaw and that had not been dissected. So we dissected that area and that's where the hemorrhage was found. And that's basically the conclusion that he died of a sudden death, not a positional fixative death, a sudden death. And because of that hemorrhage and the soft tissues there,

means there was force applied, either an arm across or a blow or something that essentially caused the heart to stop. Because there's a structure called the carotid body which basically feeds back and forces the heart. And if your blood pressure goes too high, the carotid body senses that and slows the heart down. But compression of that area can cause the heart to actually slow to the point that it briefly stops and sometimes the situation doesn't restart.

The racially divided community of Valdosta was looking at a case where a seemingly bright young man either did something really stupid that resulted in his untimely death or he was murdered and town officials were working to cover it up for some reason. The more the Johnson family began to publicize the suspicious details of the investigation, the more the first option seemed unlikely. Soon, the Johnson family got the NAACP involved, along with some other big names in the world of racism, like Al Shakton.

Just a recap on January 14, 2013, Lowns County declared Kendrick's death accidental. After the Johnson family rallied their army, Kendrick's body was exhumed and another autopsy was performed in June. In September, Dr. Anderson, the pathologist, privately hired by the Johnson family to carry out this autopsy, determined that Kendrick died from, quote, unexplained apparent non-accidental blunt force trauma. He was referring to the small bruise on Kendrick's neck. In October, a judge ordered the release of the school's surveillance footage on the day Kendrick's neck. In October, a judge ordered the release of the school's surveillance footage on the day Kendrick went missing. On October 31, the US attorney and the FBI became involved

in the case. During the next several years, the Johnson family would sue a lot of people. They sued the Harrington Funeral Home, a local family business that the Johnson's themselves once had personal ties to. They sued the Lowns County Board of Education for wrongful death, and most notably, they filed a $100 million lawsuit against 38 people, including the students they believed were involved

in Kendrick's death. They were pointing the finger publicly and loudly. A lot of times I sit and think and I'm just like, I wonder what he was thinking in that moment that all this was going on. What happened? What happened? What was going through his mind? Did he call out for his mama?

Did he call out for his daddy, you know? What was going through his mind. Did he call out for his mama? Did he call out for his daddy, you know? What was going through his mind? I wouldn't wish just something about it. Never wish just something about it. But some days I think why it happened to my family. It has been nine years since the discovery of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson's body in his very own Lowns County High School gym. Because of its politicization and the family's immediate inclination to link it to existing racial tensions, Kendrick's death has become quite a controversial story.

When considering all the evidence, it's difficult to make an argument for anything but an accident. The bruises allegedly observed during the second autopsy simply were not there when the officers responded were during the first autopsy. Even if the bruises were real, they weren't necessarily connected to his death. Maybe he struggled to get out of the wrestling mat and struck himself in a neck. There's no reason to believe that foul play was involved in this case, much less a massive conspiracy involving law enforcement and students at the high school. It's going to be doing another true crime case, and this case has kind of fluctuated again

during the whole Black Lives Matter movement that was going on for the past two weeks. I'm gonna be doing another true crime case and this case has kind of fluctuated again during the whole Black Lives Matter movement that was going on for the past two weeks. People have been kind of reopening cases that seem a little bit suspicious, that were maybe police cover-ups and this case really came up in everybody's attention because this case is crazy you guys. I really have no idea but I hope there is some type of justice for Kendrick. It's hard to believe that he would just die in a freak accent like that. You know what I mean?

Like just reaching in for your shoes, but you're not even in the position to be reaching in the first place. Ah, podcasters. The last bastion of truth. That savvy, intelligent bunch who moonlight as amateur detectives after a long shifted Starbucks. You know, the ones that got that murderer out of Baltimore Freed. And yes, I'm aware of the irony in what I just said. Actually, a lot of people think that this was an accidental death and that it wasn't

murder, but then a lot of other people are being cluded, I think, that this was actually a homicide. So, I don't know, I feel like so many things show that there was foul play. Some have even gone as far as doing psychic readings on YouTube to some in Kendrick's spirit and find out what really happened to him. My spirit guides have been driving me crazy to do this case and it also has been requested by a few of you as well. Okay spirit guides spirit please give us some insight on what happened to Kendrick Johnson the day that he was found in that gymnasium. So we have torture, harassment, bullying. Okay those are the ones that are standing out for me a lot in this card.

So what I am skiing in my third eye is I am seeing Kendrick being harassed and bullied. Okay, this was not a suicide from what I am getting from spirit. What I'm picking up was that there was an argument. Okay, there is foul play involved in this. Definitely, I'm definitely getting that. If only she had tried magical crystals, we would have the answer by now. I think it's, you know, with society as it is today, dealing with, you know, minorities, you know, white authority, I think this case plays into a lot of our fears that are going on in our world today when you see things like George Floyd

I mean, I think it throws us all into an upheaval. So I think this case is really indicative of our time maybe more so now than ever, which is crazy because we had come so you know You think we're coming so far and then find out maybe we're not as far as we think we've come and The anger around prejudice is so strong rightfully so that I feel like this case got wrapped up in that, which is really unfortunate, but it does deal with a black victim. And I think that is kind of what caused this whole case to come to the forefront the way it has. This is Ash Patina. We worked very closely with her on the creation of this episode.

She has spent several thousand hours researching this case in a way that no one has publicly done before. My show is Ash's to Ash TV and it's an investigative true crime show where we delve into crimes that have been unsolved. And we really kind of picked through all the evidence. We talked to witnesses who are actually on the scene, family members of the victim, and then also investigators on the scene.

And so we try to go to the direct source to get answers. We don't just kind of repeat stories that we heard in the news. We actually go in and investigate those stories to make sure law enforcement is doing their job, or to find out maybe who the killer was, if there was a killer. Ash's series about the Kendrick Johnson cases ongoing as of the production of this episode. She went into the investigation with an open mind, determined to gain access to every single piece of potential evidence, but it hasn't come without hurdles.

The problem with this case is that there have been so many details and developments over the last nine years. Some are available in articles and interviews. Some are left out. It's very difficult to find a comprehensive study of the primary evidentiary sources in this case. So that's what Ash set out to do. So I first heard about it in 2013 when it happened, and I remember when I heard about

it, I was more mystified by how somebody could have died inside of a gym mat. Like the whole concept of that was a lot for me to take in. And I always just really wanted to know myself what happened. And the case had blown up to such a level. At that time, I hadn't started doing investigative journalism yet. But I always knew that that was a case I always wanted to know about. So I always read or listened to anything I could about the case. The most recent reopening of the case was by current Sheriff Ashley Palk. He has been at the center of the controversy lately.

Though Sheriff Palk wasn't in office at the time of the original investigation, he was really just taking a several year break from his longstanding position. He had served as Sheriff before the Kendrick Johnson case, and he would serve again after. I'm actually a Paul come to the sheriff of Lions County, I'm a native of Lions County, been here all my life, 75 years. First of late to sheriff in 92 took office in January 93, served 16 years, got a slow down, was terrible to county commission for the next four. And I was not even in politics actually when the KJ situation happened until it's out in 13. He was pretty rough in the community.

And a lot of those things went around, you know, rumors and different things. And I love that. I love the people. And I've always had a good relationship with you, all the fascists, the community, African American Caucasian, whatever. These rumors talk talks about are numerous and dominate the media surrounding the case, even to this day. So Ash wanted to dissect them. Kendrick Johnson, a lot of people were saying he had been lured into the gym by a woman named Taylor. saying he had been lured into the gym by a woman named Taylor. The fact that there were two white children, teenagers,

brothers who may have killed Kendrick. That's what I heard a lot of. I had also heard things about how he was in the mat. I think the fact that he's upside down in a gym mat that's six feet tall really mystifies people how someone could get into that gym mat upside down. So that was a big thing. And there's a lot of misinformation out there

about the case stuff that's really easy to kind of check off the list of things that aren't true, that people say to me time and time again. And it's really hard to argue with them because it's not true, that's never been true. You look at the crime scene photos and you can tell right away, it's not true, but there's so much Miss disseminated information that it becomes almost overwhelming to tackle because there's so many things you hear that just are not accurate

The first thing Ash mentions is Taylor Eakin Rumor circulated about Kendrick being involved with this white girl, Taylor, who was also romantically involved with one of the bell brothers, the two main suspects in the eyes of the Johnson family, and much of the public, who, by the way, are also white. So there was a gentleman who came forward with a statement saying that Taylor Eakin, Caucasian young woman, a child at the time, had lured him into the gym. And she was dating someone by the name of Brian Bell, who now I believe that they're married or they're just about to get married. And they, you know, people were basically saying that she

lured him into the gym and Brian Bell killed him possibly along with Brandon, his brother, and another kid named Ryan Hall. That's kind of been the prevailing theory on this case. The foundational aspect of this claim is somewhat debunked by Kendrick's own sister's statements. Remember earlier when Kenyatta mentioned that her brother never had a girlfriend or really Remember earlier when Kenyatta mentioned that her brother never had a girlfriend or really any interest in relationships. She even clarified that she would have known about it at the time because she often snooped through his phone. One of the most disturbing things about this case that deals with the Johnson's is I interviewed Kenyatta Kendrick Johnson's sister. And I mean she's very clear on the fact that there's no way that Taylor and Kendrick Johnson were dating. And also another person who we interviewed's name is Hannah. And Hannah

was best friends with Taylor at the time. And Hannah also says that there's no way that Kendrick Johnson and Taylor were dating. And I think when you start to actually talk to the witnesses and his family, it's very clear that there was no relationship going on between KJ and Taylor. And many people are really believe that they really didn't even know each other. So maybe they kind of could have pointed each other out, but they didn't even really talk.

They weren't friends. So how it got to the fact that they were in some sort of heightened, you know, secret relationship is really beyond me. And it's even more disturbing that Kenyatta, KJ's sister basically says that there was no relationship, but yet the Johnson family, mainly meaning Jackie Johnson continues to push this narrative along, even though it's very clear that that part of it is not true. Did I mention they were white? So Taylor Eakin having been a motive for the alleged murder of Kendrick

seems unlikely. This wasn't the only possible motive discussed through the grapevine now. Another commonly cited incident involved Kendrick on a school bus with one of the bell brothers when a fight broke out. The scuffle occurred about a year prior to the discovery of Kendrick's body in the gym. So the fight on the bus a year before was really started because Brian Bell was peeing into a gatorade bottle and Kendrick being a 17 year old boy pushed him and Brian Bell got urine on him and it caused the start of a bit of a tussle but it doesn't even sound

like they got knee blows in from the actual witnesses who were there. It got separated right away and the crazy thing about it is there, you know, two, three hours away from home at a basketball tournament and Brian's mom, Karen Bell is actually at the game. They allow Karen Bell to take Brian home. The problem though is Kendrick Johnson's mom was not at the game and there was no family at the game. And I have no judgment about that. I'm just making a fact that there was nobody at the game.

So they had to get Kendrick home and the rule at the school was if you got in a fight on the bus, you could not get back on the bus that day. That's a hard and fast rule. So they did the next best thing, which put him in a resource officer's car, and her name is Shirley Dems, and she's also African-American.

And the only reason I'm pointing that out is it's been made to be very nefarious, but Shirley let him ride in the front seat of the car. He played with the radio the whole time, and they were laughing and joking on the way home. to be very nefarious, but surely let him ride in the front seat of the car. He played with the radio the whole time and they were laughing and joking on the way home. And you even then hear from Kenyatta, KJ's sister, that when he got back to the school, he was in a jovial mood and he kind of brushed the whole thing off like it was no big deal. So now once again, we have someone who's very close to Kendrick Johnson saying that the

bus fight was probably not the big deal it's been made out to be. Yet we still have the family sticking to the fact that the bells were responsible for KJ's death. In the recently released documentary titled Finding Kendrick Johnson, which we'll talk a little bit more about later, images of Kendrick in the back of a police car handcuffed and distressed were shown to viewers to evoke, you know, a particular feeling, let's say. By now you're probably realizing that Ash doesn't believe the bell brothers could have been involved in Kendrick's

death. Despite numerous rumors about the Bell's father, a former FBI agent aiding in this county-wide cover-up, Ash is certain of each brother's rock-solid alibi. Surveillance footage at the school shows not only the gym that Kendrick's body was found in, but also numerous other hallways and rooms. One bell-brother was verified to be on a bus, on his way to a school sporting event

at the time Kendrick was seen on footage, walking into the gym, and never walking back out. Ash requested all the footage from the school to review herself. Rumors online have suggested that the footage looked doctored, that there may have been missing footage, and that all of this was part of the cover-up. When you desperately look for patterns, every now and then, you find one. So I'm still looking through the surveillance tape. We haven't gone through all of it yet.

We did get it all though, and it all seems to be there, which is a really great start. So if, I mean, right now is what my hypothesis is, is that the media really kind of tells you what you want to hear. What's going to get you to listen? So they say it in really weird ways, or CNN has even juxtaposed, you know, certain pieces of the surveillance tape together

to kind of give an image that's not an actually accurate image. So I mean, is kind of what we've been finding though, is the surveillance tape was a motion detected. It didn't work great. There are times where it's just on and off kind of for no reason. And maybe that's for the fact that it's in a big gym. But then there's also no class, the hour and a half in that gym before KJ goes missing. Now everybody always says that that's,

you know, that's that missing footage is the footage that we need. But the wild thing about that is Kendrick Johnson seen throughout the school alive at that time, including in the lunch room. And then you see him actually cross the gym at around 1.26 pm. So what is it matter if there's missing footage from before he went missing? That's the thing I don't really understand. The only quote unquote missing footage after he walks across

that gym is a six minute segment. But if we want to believe that Kendrick Johnson was murdered, that means in six minutes, somebody had to unroll a 42-foot mat, murder him, stick him in the mat, roll him up, put the mat back up on its head. Now you're probably dealing with like a 250-pound mat. You have to get that all the way back into the corner of the gym and then put about six to seven mats in front of it. And you have to do that in six minutes before the cameras turn back on. That's the thing about these mats. Students had previously reported that they had seen Kendrick

tip the mat up from the bottom to retrieve his shoes when they had fallen inside. This particular mat was further back into the corner surrounded by other mats of the same size. And why, you might ask, would his shoes be up high enough to be at risk of falling into the mats? Well, there's a reasonable explanation for that too.

So there's a ton of witness statements in the police report, friends of Kendrick Johnson, who said that yes, they shared shoes with Kendrick Johnson, who said that yes, they shared shoes with Kendrick Johnson, yes, that they all put their shoes in the mat, that was a common occurrence. At this high school, lockers had to be rented for cash. What a shit school, by the way. In order to avoid these fees,

students commonly hid their shoes and other items around the gym in various places. It sounds like a totally stupid thing to do, but is it possible that Kendrick tried to retrieve his fallen shoes by entering the mat from the top? I have a lot of feelings because I think the main thing I had to focus on for a minute is whether or not the bell brothers were involved in Kendrick Johnson's death. And I feel like unequivocally without exception, they had no involvement in his death. I think if you look at the evidence,

there is no way that either of those two were involved. So now we're talking about possible murder by somebody else or we're talking about an accident. But this is one thing I think is really important for people to remember. I just want to read this quote really quick. I read this while reading a book called Dead Mountain, which is about the devote love pass hikers who went missing in the year old mountains decades ago. And he says in that book, it's a quote from Sherlock Holmes, when you have

eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. The fictitious character of Sherlock Holmes probably set it much more poetically, but William of Occam probably set it first. I'll spare you the Latin, but what he said essentially was plurality must never be posited without necessity, which has been rephrased over and over again in popular culture, and referenced again and again on this program. It is futile to do with more what can be done with fewer, or the simplest answer is usually the correct answer. A law of parsimony, otherwise known as Occam's razor. One final glaring argument made for the case of homicide is the width of Kendrick's

shoulders, versus the diameter of the mat's opening at the top. Could he have fit inside the hole to reach down and become stuck? According to tabloids and Kendrick's family, the answer is no. Kendrick's reported shoulder width came to 19 inches. The mat's opening was reportedly 14 inches. inches. The mat's opening was reportedly 14 inches. That doesn't make sense, does it? This is another piece of the widely spread misinformation puzzle. Kendrick's true shoulder width was actually 16 inches across. Basically is what we found out is during the second third autopsy, which was done by Dr. Anderson, who believes that Kendrick Johnson was murdered. So we have somebody who's, I guess, quote unquote, on the side of the Johnson family,

you know, that believes murder. He is the one that told us it was 16 inches. And not only did he tell us it was 16 inches, he showed us an autopsy photo where he has a ruler across his shoulders that clearly shows 16 inches. So I don't know how people got 19 inches. It's written everywhere. I know I saw one time 17 inches, but nobody's ever said 16 inches.

But if you look at the ruler across KJ shoulders and you talk to Dr. Anderson who believes this was a murder, he is saying that his shoulders are 16 inches. Now Dr. Anderson also says you can't fit into a 14 inch mat if you have 16 inch shoulders, but he does say they are 16 inches. Now, Dr. Anderson also says you can't fit into a 14-inch mat if you have 16-inch shoulders, but he does say they are 16 and it's very clear if you look at the image that they are 16 inches. And so that's something that's been misreported on in the media probably thousands of times. This corrected misinformation doesn't necessarily prove that Kendrick could have fit inside the opening of the mat, but it does

make it slightly more plausible. Ashener team took it even a step further. She tracked down the exact same mat the one Kendrick was found inside of and bought it. Check out the YouTube video where she's getting it delivered. Ashener team at the time of this recording are still conducting their experiments, but they've already come to some shocking realizations. You know, I just got the mat in yesterday, and from what we've already been discovering, it's really kind of pushed this whole case into a whole new dimension for me of, you know, what

is possible here. And one thing I'm not trying to prove whether or not Kendrick reached into the mat, how he was thinking that day is what I'm trying to prove is if it's possible to reach into that mat and fall to the bottom. That's all I'm trying to prove here. I'm not trying to prove his mindset. I'm not trying to prove why someone would ever do that because it does sound wildly insane. I'm trying to just prove if it's possible that somebody could have gone into that mat. With so much controversy, still surrounding the Kendrick Johnson case, Ash set out on a mission to establish some real possibilities of what could have happened to him. This meant that she had to purchase a mat of exactly the same material and dimensions as the one Kendrick was found inside of.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard Kendrick Johnson didn't roll himself in that mat, or Kendrick Johnson didn't fall into the mat. Like, nobody is saying that he just tripped and fell into the mat. Nobody's saying he's rolled up into the mat. Like, I hate arguing those points. People say that to me all the time, and I'm like, who said that? Like, Lowns County never said he rolled himself up in the mat.

Lowns County also said he didn't just trip and fall into the mat, or jump into the mat. Like, they're saying he was reaching for a shoe. So first of all, like, let's get the language right, you know, and that's what frustrates me. The main question that remains is Could someone of Kendrick's size feasibly fit into the opening of the mat and be able to squeeze themselves down into it?

As a final investment into the case Ash purchased a mat for the purpose of experimentation. It exactly matched the one Kendrick was found inside of. One question that came to mind when we interviewed Ash was one I'm sure you're all wondering. If this wrestling mat was made of somewhat malleable material, wouldn't it give way as the body began to push down inside of it? The match opening would no longer be in the shape of a circle, but would instead extend

to fit the shape of the person stuck inside, right? See, that's what's crazy, and I thought the same thing. But that match will not move. It's a 42-foot match mat with blue giant blue bands around it Which you can see in the crime scene photos very clearly the bands were always around it the whole time The mat was up when it was brought down the bands stay on it. It is an unmovable Force so it is almost like a plastic tube. There is no Malability to it you do not sink into the sides of the foam is actually

a very thick foam. So it's not like what you're picturing like a really soft foam like you would, you know, maybe pack in a box or something. It's actually a very firm foam and there is not really hardly any give to it at all. So maybe if you really wanted to push something into it, you could maybe get it to dip in another eighth of an inch, but you're not gonna get far with it. And the fact that there's the blue band around it and that mat is 42 feet long. Once it's rolled up, it almost acts as a straight plastic tube.

It's very wild and that was a very surprising detail to me. You know, either you have to believe that Kendrick Johnson was killed in a six minute window and put into that mat, or you have to believe that Kendrick Johnson was killed in a six minute window and put into that mat, or you have to believe that he reached into the mat and fell. Here's the crazy thing that we realized yesterday. When we tried to roll, I was with one other person, and we tried to roll each other up in the mat. No matter how many times we tried, and the person who was in the mat would just lay limp, like a dead body, so we would just lay limp there,

and we tried and tried again to roll that mat to get it to be 14 and 3 1 1 1 1 and we couldn't do it with a limp body in it. So if you're rushing because you've just killed someone or accidentally killed someone and you're trying to roll them up in that mat I don't believe you would have gotten the whole that tight and these are some of the things we have to look at to see how probable it was that that a murder took place and so those are some of the big experiments that we'll be doing. Just got a knock at the door and it looks like the the mat is here. So he's pulling around right now

and we're gonna unload it. Wow, holy shit, that's it. One thing I'm noticing right off the bat is we've got the carpet finished like we see on KJs, mat that he was found in. Plus we have the two layers of foam, which was what they talked about in detail. So you can see there's two layers.

So I think that pretty much says that that mat was one in three eight inches thick because that's how thick this mat is. We're gonna test that, but it's a good sign that we're on the right track. My name is Jack Corrigan. I'm 16 years old and I'm going into 11th grade to junior year in high school.

I'm Joe by Magin. I'm a 17 years old. I'm a senior now, who I'm going into 11th grade to junior year in high school. I'm Joe Bama-Gene. I'm a 17 years old. I'm a senior now. Well, I'm going into senior year. And so I had asked them if they had two teenagers who had 16 and shoulder width. So we'll have to verify those measurements. OK, and then just kind of bring your hands by your side.

There you go. Perfect. Yeah, so I think we're probably looking at 16 and a half or 17 on him. So we got a little bigger than the shoulder width. So I battle to say a lot on this experiment if he tries to go through that and is able to. Yeah, so what are your initial reactions when you look down there? I feel like I was a little bigger than the whole. So I'd be able to muscle my way out. If I needed 20 to zip needed to tip it over one way or another. I felt pretty confident in the fact that my individual strength versus the mat would help me

kind of get out. So I felt confident in that. I mean, I'm heading down. There's no question. I'm heading right down there. Oh, you think you would. Oh, yeah. Okay. And do you think you'd be able to just reach and grab the shoe, or do you think that you would? I mean, my feet would probably be sticking out, but I'm going down there and I'm getting my shoe. Okay, so you think you'd be able to effectively get down there and pull yours, get yourself back up?

Definitely. Okay, what would be your plan for getting yourself back up? I'm gonna have to bet that either someone's pulling me up, or my shoe, like my kind of leg strength is kind of just Kind of giving my momentum back up If you did for some reason you went down there and you did get stuck do you think you'd be able to tip that mad over? Yeah, okay, so you think you'd be able to like once you were in there you'd be able to rock it and Yeah, be upside down, but I and I tried like knock it over and probably

This one and do you think if didn't get caught and you couldn't tip it over, do you think by looking at that mad, do you think anyone would be able to hear you? I think this is going to be some sound coming back up this way. OK. So other than that, probably not. But I would say someone could probably hear me.

They're close enough. OK. So you basically being the age you are, you would think there'd be no problem going in there. Yeah. So let me explain how we're close enough. Okay, so you basically being the age you are, you would think there'd be no problem going in there. So let me explain how we're doing this. And then you can tell me if you're willing to participate in it, okay? So this time we'll have you crawl in,

but you'll probably stop about right here with your head. So if you do decide to go through it, though, you're gonna crawl through to about here, to where your head gets, we're gonna tip the mat up for about 10 to 15 seconds. And then is what we want you to do is yell as loud as you can and try to tip it over with your hands. Or anyway, try to get out anyway.

It doesn't matter whatever you want to try to do. Okay, all right, are you willing to try this? Yeah. So whenever you're ready. And we'll ask you before we tip it up, your permission. All right, how do you feel if we tip it up? That's fine. So I'm gonna walk behind the mat and tilt it up now,

is that okay? Okay, perfect. Here we go, we're gonna tip it up. Okay, go ahead and yell and try to tip it over. Okay, yell to see if we can hear you. Okay, you ready to come down? Okay, bring it down. That was wild. Are you okay?

No, I'm fine. All right. Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. Okay. Is it there? No, I'm good.

Okay, all right. I'm just making sure. You didn't seem that stressed and now you've seen a little stressed. Is that accurate and it's so how'd that feel? Well, I kind of just started falling out and like and I was kind of like pressing into the floor. I just like, I didn't know what to do. Like, I almost had no strength anywhere. I really couldn't just because I felt like a T-rex almost,

I couldn't even get my arms forward. They were all kind of just like squished up on my side. So I didn't feel like you'd do that. I couldn't tip it over, I couldn't do anything. In the short time you were in there, it looks like you even got a little sweaty. Did you feel hot in there? Yeah, it was really compressed.

It was tight, it was hot, yeah. Well, so what's interesting is you were pretty confident in the beginning that you thought you'd be able to be in there and be able to get back out. Do you still think that you would be able to? Where I was at it, no, I was just stuck. Yeah. I was just stuck.

That's the best way to put it. Yeah, I mean, that felt like the longest 10 to 15 seconds of my life. Yeah, I was bad. Is there anything else that you wanted to say about your experience in there that women out of Astoe? I don't want to be putting that situation again and I don't want anyone else to be. It's interesting because you came so far around. At first, you seemed much more confident and now it seems like that's all gone away.

No, never again. Interesting. And I think really when you look at people being able to squeeze through there with relative ease who have wider shoulders than Kendrick Johnson, we have to really start looking at that this is 100% possible that he reached into the mat and slipped in. Now, I'm not saying it's probable. I'm not saying that somebody would do that of their own free will, but we did just see

Jack a teenager in here who is 16 years old who said that he would have done it. And I think that that's really telling because I 100% believed that nobody would say that in this experiment. So I was really surprised that we had a teenager that did say that. And I'd be really curious to see what other

teenagers who don't know about this case would think if they could get in and out of that mat. Ash took all of her gathered information and decided to contact the Johnson family to see if they'd be interested in going through all of it with her. Ash had previously contacted Jackie Johnson to see if she wanted to participate in her series. But the Johnsons were under contract with the director of the Finding Kendrick Johnson documentary.

And she was extremely interested in having me come in and do this case. And she said, this is my son's life. This isn't about money to me. She was very, very forceful in a passionate way. And it got me like really excited about working on this case because I was like, wow, this woman wants an investigator to come in here and really look at this. I never do any case without the family's blessing. And so I had their blessing 100%. So that's why I started down the road I did. And at first when I started this,

I feel that I was very accepted. and I went to every single event almost the Johnson's had in regards to Kendrick for an entire year. When she offered to share her findings with them, Ash's episodes were already available publicly on YouTube and the family was aware of the direction the series was beginning to take. You know, I genuinely had believed that they wanted to hear what I had to say about the investigation, but I knew that Jackie wasn't allowed to talk to me via the contract between her and Jason Polock. So I was trying to be really respectful of that. So when I emailed her to meet, again, we hadn't been talking on a normal basis.

You know, I had seen her at some of the events. I had talked to her at the events, but we didn't call each other on the phone and have long conversations because she wasn't allowed to do that. And I respected that. So really, I thought when I got the investigative material, I really wanted to showcase her what we were finding to hear what they thought and to see if they thought

any of the information I had was incorrect. And instead, I got a very nasty email back. We already knew you would get paid to lie on my son. We all know y'all work together. You're most definitely with the rest of the liars. Dispicable human being may God allow the same pain for your family. I told them to watch you because I already saw your fake ass, so no, don't ever call me or contact my family again. And of course, Harrington would say that he

helped allegedly got rid of my son, organs, but this you know another lie in fake news, lady. Y'all deserve each other. Sell your lies to your mami or whoever listen. You are not stopping nothing. Shame on you, devil lady. you used my family and got paid off his stories. Then when you got what you wanted, a payoff on my dead son, you switched sides. I could have talked with you, but for this reason my husband and I chose not to and I'm so glad we did. And I don't need your stance because there will be justice and you will be another racist clown in the book. Y'all prove me right every time. Can't trust y'all period. I don't want to say I was surprised because I had watched what had happened to a bunch of other people who I realized that I was now

becoming those other people to the Johnson. Johnson family and that I think was really kind of a turning point and the reaction was very very jarring and completely unwarranted. In that letter also, they throw the Harrington funeral home under the bus also because I had been asked to call the Harrington funeral home to find out what happened to Kendrick Johnson's organs. And the Harrington funeral home said the medical examiner never got them the organs and that happened on multiple occasions where the funeral home never them the organs. And that happened on multiple occasions where the funeral home never received the organs.

And she throws them under the bus in a very harsh way. Now, I think this is one thing we have to remember, the Harrington funeral home did that funeral for free. KJ's grandfather worked for the Harrington funeral home years ago, and they cared so much about what happened to Kendrick Johnson, that they did that funeral for free. And what is really upsetting about this is that they cared deeply for the Johnson's. They wanted to do what was right for the Johnson's, for their community. And when they did that, instead of being thanked and so grateful for all the action that they had done,

they're now also labeled racists along with me. So now you have a group of black individuals who, to me, seem to very deeply care about the community who are now in the same boat as me. So I think that's one thing we need to look at. This isn't where the shocking revelations ended, either. With a little more research ash came upon yet another controversy, a headline that made a bold and specific claim. Jackie Johnson scammed by a white woman.

When I first heard about Dana, there was a rally going on in Washington for Kendrick Johnson, which I actually had planned on attending. Unfortunately, I got COVID, but I had seen some posts by this woman named Dana Banks about the actual protest, and something kind of seemed off about the posts. I don't know why. And so I kind of reported on that lightly. I was concerned about the rally itself that was going on because of some of the post she had made. Because Ash investigates and releases episodes in real time,

she was suspicious of this woman's motives. This rally and lead-up occurred before Ash offered to sit down with the Johnson family and received that nasty email. Hi, family. How's everyone doing on this beautiful, beautiful weekend? Guess what? Rally Days coming. Literally 13 days away.

Friday, April, the 8th is Rally Day. Yay for Rally Day. Praise God. I'm so honored. So, so honored to be a part of something bigger, bigger, bigger than this world. Ash had hoped to attend the rally herself to see the event firsthand, but she got COVID and had to keep up via photos and video posted on Facebook. And I saw these posts from Jackie Johnson that said that they were scammed. Please know, I don't have to lie. Dana is a scammer. And she used

Kendrick name for clout. Not one thing she promised she did. And yes, I will be filing a police report. She even gave me a fake confirmation number where she had paid for the hotel rooms off her card. And they immediately took $800 plus dollars. All lies. And then after the messed up rally turned her phone completely off, shaking my head. The sad part is she had us come to Washington, standing, sitting in a muddy areas, talking on a blowhorn.

It was totally a mess. So Jolly was off on a few things, but Majorly was the absolute truth. And then I saw news articles that started to come up that said Jackie Johnson was scammed by a white woman. And that's when I started to kind of think, wow, I didn't really like the verbiage on that. This woman Dana actually reached out to Ash herself, offering up her side of the story. She said to me that what is being said about me isn't true. No one is willing to listen to me or look at what I have, and I said, I will.

I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but what my hope was is to advocate and to honor Kendrick in the way that he should be honored, because again, it seems like there's so much is lost. So to give an opinion, it's just going to be my opinion on top of all the other opinions. If I felt it was an accident or if it was a murder, it doesn't change my position or the reason that I wanted to help. The more Ash talked with Dana and

reviewed her receipts and screenshots, the more she began to realize Dana was probably telling the truth. All of a sudden, it started to make me question the Johnson's and what their motives were with some of the things that they were doing because I feel that Dana Banks was misrepresented. She had been treated very poorly. And then there's also a black woman that she works with. And the only reason I'm pointing that out is because it has become very apparent and important to this case that writes Dana privately. And basically says she had spoken to Jackie Johnson and Jackie Johnson used racist slurs against Dana. And this woman was very offended by what Jackie had been saying.

And that's when I think you need to really start looking at why are all these people around the Johnson's racist? But I think the defining moment for me was when my husband and I were cleaning up after the rally, picking up the chairs and the trash and what have you. And then Jackie just left. She didn't say goodbye. Kenneth didn't say goodbye. And I mean, I wasn't expecting to thank you. I mean, I prayed with Jackie.

There were beautiful moments with her, you know, to wear. It wasn't about being black or white. It was about getting justice for Kendrick. A lot of different things were put into this rally that have been lost. And I pretty much knew when Jackie didn't say goodbye that for whatever reason. She wasn't happy. And I honestly, I turned my phone off until the next afternoon That's no secret I

Think anyone in in my situation would feel the same way. I mean there was there was no unfinished business There was really nothing for me to to answer the phone about We only have about an hour here to go through the numerous details of this story. But if you want an extended explanation of each piece, please go check out ashes to ash tv on youtube or directly on their website. Season three covers the Kendrick Johnson case and dives into each and every claim made by the Johnson family and media over the past decade.

In addition to more details relating to Dana's involvement with the rally, something Jackie Johnson still alleges was a scam. Now we were almost done with this story, but as in with any case, with a lot of moving parts, there's always something changing. So we called up Ash to find out what's been going on. Hello Ash, how you doing? Good, how you doing, Mike? I am wonderful.

Had a wonderful holiday season and ready to get down to some true crime. So apparently a lot's been going on here with this Kendrick Johnson case since we started covering this just a few months ago. So what's going on here with this Kendrick Johnson case since we started covering this just a few months ago. So what's going on? Yeah, I feel like something new breaks almost every week on this case. I think two of the most interesting things that we've kind of uncovered is there were two people who kind of came out with confessions talking about how the Bell family was involved in the murder of Kendrick

Johnson, and we were able to debunk both of those people who came forward and prove that what they were saying was false. And yeah. Who were these people? Like, where they come from? Yeah, so the first one, Ryan Anthony, Domek Hernandez claimed that he was at a party with the Bell family, but it's really strange because his confession came out also right after the Johnson's lost the lawsuit against the Bell family, which was going to award the Bell

family with almost $300,000. They were winning this because they were claiming that the Johnson's had no substantial evidence to have sued them in the first place. And that was pretty evident. And because of that, the Bells ended up winning that lawsuit. So, so conveniently, the Ryan Anthony Domek Hernandez statement came out, which is the one that he was at a party with the Bells, and said he overheard Brandon Bell talking about the murder of Kendrick Johnson. And the wild thing about that is after doing substantial research, we were trying to connect Ryan Anthony, Joe McNann, to the Bell family to try to find out how he knew the Bell family. And during that, my investigator actually found out he was friends of the Johnson's. We even found a video of him singing in a car

with someone who was related to Solomon Arrington and Solomon is Kendrick Johnson's best friend. And I even called Solo, is what they call him Solo. I even called him and he confirmed that it was a relative of his, his grandma. So we were able to connect that for statement to the johnson family which was pretty upsetting because i was really hopeful that the johnson's weren't potentially perpetrating confusions coming forward uh... in regards to the bells it's refreshing to hear someone who's actually an investigative journalist actually doing the work

It's something that's so You know far from reality these days that it's it is refreshing. Yeah, it is interesting I hear people all the time saying I've investigated this case and I Plightly say how have you investigated it and their level of investigation is looking things up online I'm not saying that's a bad thing You should try to do some research, but until you're actually talking to the people who were there and actually looking at the evidence

that was found the day that this incident happened, it's, you know, you're just listening to people online, you're gonna get a story that's not accurate or filled with false information. I will have you know, I'm in several investigative Facebook groups and that makes me a detective. fault list i will have you know i'm in several investigative facebook groups and that makes me a detective so uh...

it's a new bar to become a detective you just have to be in the face book true crime group and you have to be very caddy very very caddy absolutely yes so what else i heard there's also some sort of lawsuit. Yeah, so the film Finding Kendrick Johnson, which is a despicable piece of journalism, basically now is getting sued by the Bell family. Both Jason Polock, the director and his production company, Boom Content, are being sued. And I think what's really interesting about that is Jason had many opportunities to

see that the information he was bringing forth was false. Not only that, Ebony Magazine was also sued by the Bell family and law. So it's really surprising that Jason Spell came forward with the information the way he did. He didn't showcase the Bell side, whatsoever. He used content from them without their permission. And I mean, really a lot of the stuff that they say in that documentary is false. And you can prove it quite easily by just going back to the initial police reports, going back to witness statements, and looking back at some of these past cases to see why the bells were able to win these lawsuits about Flander to find out what was going on and why

they were able to win these lawsuits about flander to find out what was going on and why they were able to win those lawsuits. And Jason failed to do any, you know, bit of journalism, I think ethical journalism at all. And just willingly through the bells under the bus, you know, including parts of his film making it look very detrimental to the bells when the stuff he's talking about is actually just not based in reality whatsoever I mean you can't go around calling people murderers without any evidence whatsoever. It's just there's still some things that are libel right in this in this world. Gosh you hope so. I'm not sure if there is but I do think in this one case the bells are going to win because there is so much libel in slander that goes on throughout that film through literally the entire last half of it. It's just keeping on top of heeping on top and heeping on top of life that if you actually

investigate it can be easily disproved. And you know, he calls himself a journalist and it's just it's a slap in the face to people who are actually doing the work. The latest on this case is that once again, it has been closed. Kendrick's death labeled undetermined. As the Johnson family stood firm to their beliefs, those around them have dropped off like flies over the last nine years. First, the NAACP and Al Sharpton, of course, followed by many others. Yes, Al Sharpton did leave the cause, Ben Crump, their lawyer, also left the cause.

Here's what's interesting. The black individuals who have left this case don't really speak up much about it. And I think the reason for that is if you do speak up, you're called a racist. And I think the last thing someone like Al Sharpton wants to do is lose any of his constituents. You know, he's built a great base for himself. He cares very much about black rights and equality. Al Sharpton cares deeply about something, all right, but I'm not sure it's black people. The Johnson's latest media partnership, the finding Kendrick Johnson documentary seems to exemplify someone

playing it safe. Jason Pollock, the director, shares 50% of his profits from the documentary with the family and conveniently leaves out a mountain of evidence, including much of what we've discussed here. Yeah, the finding Kendrick Johnson documentary is really heinous piece of journalism and that's the nicest thing I can call it. They have a lot of great things about civil rights and the FBI and some of the things the FBI was doing that is not correct at all and is not acceptable. But then what actually came to what happened to Kendrick Johnson

and that's when the journalism fell off a cliff basically. There are so much misinformation in that documentary. In the documentary itself, they show the surveillance tape clip, which clearly shows that Brian Bell is nowhere near KJ when he's last seen on camera. And instead of even acknowledging that they had that clip up, they instead focus on the fact that somehow Brian's guilty. And now they say they don't know what happened to KJ, but they're playing awful horrifying music over the Bell family.

They snuck someone into the gym to film Rick Bell. And you know, it's doing stuff like that. Sneaky stuff is ridiculous. And when you edit it together that way, it's very scary. So I can only imagine anyone watching that who doesn't understand this case would be very scared or think there's something really hanky going down in Lowns County when really that is not what's happening. It's just really poor journalism what's going on there and Jason Pollock should be ashamed

of himself. It seems like anyone who speaks out about this case is at risk for backlash, despite the concrete decisions being made on this case, time, and time again. Good thing I don't give a fuck. Remember that $100 million lawsuit the Johnson's filed that named 38 people, including some of Kendrick Johnson's classmates. After the family voluntarily dropped the lawsuit in 2017, a judge ordered them to pay out a $292,000 damage award for bringing on a frivolous lawsuit. The lawyer representing the Lowns County Sheriff's Office said,

For four and a half years, the Johnson's and their lawyer have been falsely accusing the Bell family of having been involved in the tragic accidental death of Kendrick Johnson. And they have been falsely accusing educators, law enforcement officers, and others of engaging in a non-existent cover-up. Judge Porter has now put those false accusations to rest and determined that the Johnson's and their lawyers' accusations were substantially frivolous, groundless, and vexatious. And for their misconduct, the court has ordered the Johnson's and their lawyer to pay the attorney's fees and expenses of those whom they have falsely accused. All of those who have been falsely accused have been vindicated.

Truth prevails, justice has been done. It's so heartbreaking to see not only a child's life wiped from the earth in such a horrendous and unusual way. But then to see that his family just cannot find peace and is looking for a monster behind every turn in every shadow. It seems that the Johnson's have dug themselves some kind of hole they just can't climb out of, whether it be emotional or now financial. It's easy to get caught up looking for what you already expect to be waiting for you.

In the Johnson's case, they expected misconduct, conspiracy, and racism in the wake of Kendrick's death, but they found it in a way they didn't expect. They found it within themselves. Now, they have no interest in looking at the evidence and hearing what anyone has to say if it doesn't align with their current belief system. No anyone else like that, maybe? Sure. The Johnson's seem dedicated to pointing a finger at the bell family, cops, prosecutors,

the entire country, forever. Regardless of what truly happened to him, does anyone really believe that this is what Kendrick would have wanted his legacy to be? When you constantly look for patterns in the world around you, even of horrible things, such as racism, you'll always find what you're looking for. That's going to do it for this one.

Thank you for joining us. If you enjoy the show, remember there's only one way to keep it on the air and that is to support it. Go to swordenscale.com slash plus. You can do so. Stay safe. Hey my sister S Christina from California. I just wanted to say you just made my day with that college special. At first when I opened it I was like, you know, I really think I really want to link you to it, but man that was hilarious. I started off with a pretty bad morning, so I'm sure that thank you to you and you're doing your great space ace.

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