In Valdosta, GA, Jackie Kendrick, a mother of three, begins to grow worried when her son Kendrick doesn't get off the bus. After hours of searching for him, which includes going back to the school, she finally makes a report to the police.
The next day, as she's back at the school demanding answers, a body is found rolled into a gym mat. Although she's the only parent with a report of a missing child, she is not allowed to identify the body. The incident is immediately ruled an accident, even before his body is removed from campus and begins a string of bizarre incidents that lead many to suspect a cover-up.
How could someone get stuck, head-first, in a gym mat? How could no one hear him scream... if he did? How, after multiple autopsies confirming blunt force trauma, the investigation is closed?
Jackie and Kenneth Kendrick were loving parents to three children, with KJ being their youngest who attended Lowndes High School
The city of Valdosta is one with a history rooted in racism. Is this what played a role in the case being ruled an "accident"?
On January 10, 2013, KJ doesn't get of the bus and after hours of searching, Jackie calls the police.
As she's waiting at the school for someone to provide information about where KJ was, a rumor on campus that a body had been found in the old gym reaches her.
Although she's on campus, the police do not allow her to come and identify the body and Lieutenant Styrde Jones gives a statement to the media who have gathered outside the school that a body had been found and it appeared to be an accident. Additionally, Sheriff Chris Pine gives an interview.
Police claim he got stuck reaching for a pair of shoes at the bottom of a rolled up mat, but why not just knock it over and grab the shoes? Also, the size and width of the mats don't fit with the size of KJ.
WARNING: Potentially upsetting images
Parents believe his death was the result of a fight between him and the Bell brothers. Their father was an FBI agent. Even though they claim that they never even saw KJ that day, surveillance footage tells a different story.
KJ's body was exhumed two times for a total of 3 autopsies- two performed by a forensic expert hired by the Kendrick family. After a thorough examination, he found that KJ died of blunt force trauma, not positional asphyxiation.
Over the course of the next decade, the case is re-opened and then closed again by Sheriff Ashley Paulk... ruled as an accident
