[5] Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against 38 individuals, stating that his death was a murder and that the respondents were participants in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide, which they claimed involved two sons of an FBI agent.

Georgia Judge Richard Porter ordered the Johnsons and their attorney to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the defendants, accusing them of fabricating evidence to support their claims.

[7][8][9][10] On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, found headfirst in the center of a vertical rolled-up wrestling mat.

"[11] Lt. Stryde Jones, who headed up the investigation for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, stated: "We never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident.

Unsatisfied with the result of the investigation, they hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida, on June 15, 2013.

Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, and suggested the death was not accidental.

When the judge in that case delayed a decision, pending the outcome of the U.S. Attorney's review, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorize the inquiry instead.

[12] The funeral home owner stated that it is standard practice to fill a void in this fashion, and that cotton or sawdust may also be employed for this purpose.

[12] A subsequent investigation by the Georgia Secretary of State's office found that the funeral home did not follow "best practice" and that other material was "more acceptable than newspaper."

[19] In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance tape from 35 cameras that covered the gym area were released to CNN following a court request.

The suit alleged that Johnson "was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life" on January 10, 2013.

Respondents include three of Johnson's classmates (two or three respondents are unnamed) and local, state, and federal officials: the school superintendent of Lowndes County, the Valdosta-Lowndes crime lab, the police chief of Valdosta, many sheriff's deputies, the city of Valdosta, the state medical examiner, the GBI and five of its agents, and one FBI agent.

The lawsuit alleged that the FBI agent ordered his two sons and a classmate to attack Johnson, that his death was a murder, and that the respondents engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide.

[26] All local Superior Court judges recused themselves from presiding over the case, preventing the lawsuit from being filed and heard in Lowndes County, citing their close proximity to the accused.

[30] After the Justice Department's motion was denied, Johnson's parents dismissed their own wrongful death lawsuit, saying that they hoped to refile it after the conclusion of the federal investigation.

[33] On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death, stating, "After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime.