Kendrick Johnson was a sports-loving, ball-playing high school student in Valdosta, Georgia until January 11, 2013, when he was found dead in his school’s gymnasium.

Thing is, he wasn’t just found dead. He was found dead in a rolled up wresting mat. The mat was vertical. Police—and eventually the state’s attorney—said he went headfirst into the mat to get a sneaker at the bottom, and that he died from positional asphyxia when he couldn’t get out.

Now, positional asphyxia is a legitimate cause of death. Essential, you asphyxiate (either by suffocation or lack of oxygen) due to the position of your body—a position in which you can’t get yourself out. Given the slender opening in the gym mat, this is certainly plausible, even though Kendrick was exceptionally physically fit. But…

There are some strange pieces to this case. First, no one heard him? The police took videotape from the school and could see him entering the gym, but they haven’t released video that shows anything else. Not a big deal, perhaps, except…

Another student had an issue with Kendrick and had threatened him several times over a girlfriend. Allegedly they were in an altercation on a school bus prior to Kendrick’s death. Listen, I’m a high school teacher. These issues don’t mean that someone will kill someone else, however…

That student’s father is a retired FBI agent. I would be suspicious too, if I were Kendrick’s parents, that there may be some kind of cover up occurring because, let’s face it, who has ever heard of someone dying in a rolled up gym mat? And potentially missing videotape? Furthermore, a second autopsy showed non-accidental blunt force trauma to the back of the neck. And, allegedly the FBI agent’s son told at least two people that he hit Kendrick on the back of the neck with a 45 pound weight.

The state’s attorney has said that anyone who objectively looks at the case details can only come to one conclusion: this was an accidental death. But you have to wonder…

For a brilliantly done docuseries on Kendrick Johnson, watch Ashes to Ash’s vlogcast! They do an excellent job digging in to places and topics that authorities seem to avoid, not just in this case but in the others they’ve explored as well, like the case of Robert Bee that I wrote about here. For the sake of his family, I hope that the case of Kendrick Johnson can be closed in a way that provides closure.