GA - Kendrick Johnson, 17, Suspicious Death, Jan. 10/11, 2013, #1

[vlpate]

BBM. I didn't know this. Would you provide the source? To paraphrase Montjoy, it's not that I don't believe you but I would like to read it for myself.

I appreciate the info you've brought to the forum. The letter from Leigh Touchton has caused me to disregard any results from the second autopsy, although I do intend when I have time to research what she says about Anderson's professional record.

He says it during the CNN/Anderson Cooper report from Sept., I believe.... maybe October. I'll see if I can find it using my phone lol

 

[vlpate]

BBM for focus.

First BBM: IMO that's the $64,000 question. What exactly IS meant by other students being in the gym at the time, which the school officials confirmed? Are they referring to the student seen entering the gym before KJ, or students seen on as-yet unreleased video?

I interpret it as the latter, but there's no real way to know until they release all the video.

Second BBM: In my scenario, he was stunned, in which case he wouldn't have been able to fight against being pushed into the mat. It's just conjecture though.

The students that came in ten minutes after him played a game of basketball, IIRC...he was dead in the mat in the gym. Technically they were in the gym at the same time he was.

 

[vlpate]

BBM. OK, how did he manage to stuff himself into the mat then?

Purposefully.

 

[Yoda]

He says it during the CNN/Anderson Cooper report from Sept., I believe.... maybe October. I'll see if I can find it using my phone lol

^^^^^
http://valdostatoday.com/2013/05/ex...gh-evidence-for-doj-in-kendrick-johnson-case/

 

[IzzyBlanche]

The newspaper was something no one mentioned until October. The 2nd autopsy, which is when the newspaper was allegedly discovered, was done in June and the attorney had the results in July.

I find it odd no one has mentioned the newspaper since the story broke in the news. Even Anderson Cooper, 2nd autopsy in hand, didn't mention newspaper or missing organs. The story jump started the case, it's purpose was served, IMO

Snipped for focus.

I agree with you, on closer inspection there is something hinky about this newspaper story.

Here's why it doesn't make sense from a chronological perspective.

Going back to the issue of KJ's organs being missing:

GBI says (thanks to al66pine) that the organs were placed in the body, the body was closed, and then it was delivered to the funeral home.

The funeral home says they never received the organs. If it is common practice to put the organs in a bag and place them in the body before closing it up, the funeral home would not have known that the organs weren't there until they opened up the body for preparation.

That would have been the logical point at which the newspaper would have been discovered and reported, had the body been stuffed with it by authorities for nefarious reasons.

Unless one believes that the body was secretly tampered with, stuffed with newspaper, at some point after the funeral home determined the organs were missing yet before burial.

Which I find extremely unlikely.

No, I am thinking a funeral home is in CYA mode after its shoddy body preparation practices have been inadvertently revealed by the exhumation.

 

[Yoda]

This is a letter from the coroner explaining that the organs were not sent to the funeral home.
http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Purposefully.

OK. But it seems to me that if KJ could have purposefully wedged himself into the mat, other students could have equally purposefully wedged him into the mat.

I don't see the two possibilities as mutually exclusive, unless the timeframe allowed for full rigor, which it doesn't.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

This is a letter from the coroner explaining that the organs were not sent to the funeral home.
http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

Thanks for that link!

Curiouser and curiouser. This directly contradicts the statement from Sherry Lang of GBI that the organs were placed in a bag and then into the body:



GBI Spokeswoman Sherry Lang denied the Bureau didn’t return the organs, saying, “The organs were placed in Johnson’s body, the body was closed, then the body was released to the funeral home.” The funeral home did not comment on the story.

http://newsone.com/2737109/kendrick-johnson-newspapers/

 

[vlpate]

This is a letter from the coroner explaining that the organs were not sent to the funeral home.
http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

Thanks Yoda, I just saw it looking for something else. I guess GBI is lying? Wonder why King didn't inquire about the newspaper.

 

[vlpate]

^^^^^
http://valdostatoday.com/2013/05/ex...gh-evidence-for-doj-in-kendrick-johnson-case/

Argh!! I wish I'd known you found it! I did finally get to see Dr. Anderson speak. I don't watch CNN or any of them when it comes to these cases - too much genuflecting to the ratings side and too little real research of the facts.

Thanks for finding this...now I have an extra one

 

[IzzyBlanche]

I can only speak for me .... I do not know that. I do know they checked all the students coming and going. This was not the main gym so I don't believe the task of doing so would have been insurmountable. JMO

BBM. Sorry, again haven't read that. Where did you see this? Thank you.

I hope I am not coming across as picking on you, but I am trying to form an opinion based on as many sources as possible, however conflicting they may be, and you have brought up things that I have not heard before that I want to take into consideration.

 

[vlpate]

This is a letter from the coroner explaining that the organs were not sent to the funeral home.
http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

Wait, this isn't the same letter I just saw on the CNN video. Who is Watson writing to here?

Start at about 3:20

 

[vlpate]

BBM. Sorry, again haven't read that. Where did you see this? Thank you.

I hope I am not coming across as picking on you, but I am trying to form an opinion based on as many sources as possible, however conflicting they may be, and you have brought up things that I have not heard before that I want to take into consideration.

I found it researching the case for my blog which I can't source here. Hours upon hours of research.

[Valdosta Daily Times] All of the students who were seen on camera in the gym Thursday and Friday were interviewed at the school that day, while hundreds of students were interviewed over the days that followed, according to Prine, who said interviews were conducted in homes with parents present. But after roughly four months investigating, with the autopsy in hand to show that the death was accidental, authorities could reach no other determination of death than a freak accident that was born from a “perfect storm.”

 

[IzzyBlanche]

^^^^^
http://valdostatoday.com/2013/05/ex...gh-evidence-for-doj-in-kendrick-johnson-case/

Thank you so much!

I notice that he is not taking back his original statements, however, nor saying they are inaccurate.

Very interesting.

 

[vlpate]

I am sorry. I am obviously confused.

I thought your question was, because the shoe supposedly found at the bottom of the mat in the pool of blood

1. showed no bloodstains in the picture

and

2. was described in the incident report as being blood-saturated

could the image shown on the CNN video have been altered to remove the bloodstains and make the shoe look pristine?

Also in response to the part BBM above, how could the (blood)-saturated shoe have no blood on it?

There was a pair of shoes. One bloody, one not. The one JK was going after was the one found in the blood. Another shoe, found near the stacks, was not bloody. I'm sure they took pictures of both. I could easily photoshop the clean shoe onto the bloody shoe and thus manufacturing the clean-shoe-at-the-bottom-of-the-mat-mystery. I'm not sure what their point would be.

It's late and I am confusing myself :scared: but I know deep down what I mean. I wish I could explain it better, but it's really not important. The bottom line is, that shoe can't be the one the crime scene investigator said was saturated with blood, and the clean shoe wasn't on the blood...so....

 

[al66pine]

Short version:
Funeral home owner's atty said (virtually, per quote below in red) - funeral home owner or employee put newspapers in the remains.


Long Version:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/missing-organs-fuel-outcry-over-ga-teen-s-death/article_8eea3cd5-5da3-541f-8f02-f3002cdf2f33.html
"...Funeral home owner's attorney Roy Copeland. He said Johnson's organs were missing when the body arrived at Harrington. He also said standard embalming practice is to fill empty space in body cavities with material such as sawdust or cotton.
'Is newspaper necessarily more indicting that sawdust or cotton?' Copeland said." BBM

"...Vernie Fountain, who runs an embalming school in Springfield, Mo. When organs are missing, such as in cases involving organ donors, space inside the body cavity often is filled with an absorbent, preservative powder, Fountain said. Sometimes cotton is used with powder.
"I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. "There may not be any law that prohibits it. I don't know. But it's just not something that's within what I would consider acceptable standards." BBM

Presumably the newspaper in the body cavity was found by the doc. conducting autopsy #2. Did he preserve it? Did he note it in autopsy #2 report? Which newspaper? What date?

(That might reveal more definitively who put the newspaper in the remains, though IMO the person responsible seems to have been identified by his atty's stmt).

JM2 cents and I may be wrong.

 

[vlpate]

Short version:
Funeral home owner's atty said (virtually, per quote below in red) - funeral home owner or employee put newspapers in the remains.


Long Version:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/missing-organs-fuel-outcry-over-ga-teen-s-death/article_8eea3cd5-5da3-541f-8f02-f3002cdf2f33.html
"...Funeral home owner's attorney Roy Copeland. He said Johnson's organs were missing when the body arrived at Harrington. He also said standard embalming practice is to fill empty space in body cavities with material such as sawdust or cotton.
'Is newspaper necessarily more indicting that sawdust or cotton?' Copeland said." BBM

"...Vernie Fountain, who runs an embalming school in Springfield, Mo. When organs are missing, such as in cases involving organ donors, space inside the body cavity often is filled with an absorbent, preservative powder, Fountain said. Sometimes cotton is used with powder.
"I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who told me they've used old newspapers," Fountain said. "There may not be any law that prohibits it. I don't know. But it's just not something that's within what I would consider acceptable standards." BBM

Presumably the newspaper in the body cavity was found by the doc. conducting autopsy #2. Did he preserve it? Did he note it in autopsy #2 report? Which newspaper? What date?

(That might reveal more definitively who put the newspaper in the remains, though IMO the person responsible seems to have been identified by his atty's stmt).

JM2 cents and I may be wrong.

There was a black Friday ad, which is Thanksgiving around these parts. Victor Blackwell said this on CNN I can see a cheap funeral home director using newspaper b/c it's free.

 

[al66pine]

http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

This links to Co. Coroner's undated letter to whom it may concern,
which states there was no wrongdoing by funeral home or GBIMedEx, re disposal of organs, which were disposed of, due to decomposition and any accusations are unfounded and the accuser should retract them
(paraphrasing).

Who would have asked him to write this letter?
Who would the accuser(s) be?
Who was it actually directed to?

Is the letter an indirect way for him to retract any potentially libelous stmts he himself may have made re funeral home owner or MedEx?

 

[vlpate]

http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

This links to Co. Coroner's undated letter to whom it may concern,
which states there was no wrongdoing by funeral home or GBIMedEx, re disposal of organs, which were disposed of, due to decomposition and any accusations are unfounded and the accuser should retract them
(paraphrasing).

Who would have asked him to write this letter?
Who would the accuser(s) be?
Who was it actually directed to?

Is the letter an indirect way for him to retract any potentially libelous stmts he himself may have made re funeral home owner or MedEx?

He does seem like a loose cannon. I've researched him a little and this appears to be his first high-profile case - it will be a good learning experience for him.

I'd like the answers to those Q's myself. Who put the newspaper in (adding one more)

 

[gxm]

Not even the coroner's statement that the investigation was compromised? Interesting.

No. I do not think it was compromised because, either way, the coroner would have had to wait four hours while LE processed the scene. The coroner could have been on the scene waiting or waiting elsewhere, he still would not have had access to the body until five hours after it was initially discovered.