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Sheriff Reopens Probe Into Georgia Teen’s Mystery ‘Gym Mat’ Death

One autopsy determined 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson’s death was accidental. Another determined it was intentional. A county sheriff is determined to find out the truth.

An investigation has been reopened into the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a Georgia teen found dead in 2013 inside a rolled-up gym mat at a local high school, CNN reports. An initial investigation declared Johnson had accidentally slipped while reaching for a shoe, and got stuck inside the mat, and an autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ruled Johnson’s death came from accidental “positional asphyxia.” But a pathologist hired by Johnson’s family said the cause of death was “unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt-force trauma” to the boy’s neck. “We’re not asking for any favors,” Johnson’s father told CNN. “We’re not asking for anybody to lie for us. We just want the truth to come out.”