january 11, 2013 in valdosta, georgia, united states. seventeen year old kendrick was last seen walking his school hallways, heading towards the gym. school surveillance videos show very little, as four relevant cameras glitched at the same time, resulting in an hour to two hours of footage being lost. fellow students discovered kendrick’s body in the late afternoon of january 11. kendrick had been rolled up inside of a gym mat, then vertically stacked with other mats. several students reported that kendrick was one of many students who would remove their shoes and throw them inside of the mats, forcing students to climb into the mats in order to retrieve their shoes. kendrick was not wearing shoes at the time of discovery - though a pair of shoes were thrown in on top of him. a state autopsy concluded that kendrick had been accidentally asphyxiated. though kendrick’s organs had been destroyed after the first autopsy, two independent autopsies were subsequently performed. both concluded that kendrick had died of blunt force trauma to the right side of his neck, one doctor going so far as to state that his injuries could not have been accidental. after extensive litigation, the department of justice ruled in 2016 that there is insufficient evidence to prove that kendrick was murdered. kendrick’s family is still fighting this ruling.
