A communications company has been ordered to release Internet records after an anonymous email was sent to investigators declaring that an ex-schoolmate had confessed to killing Georgia teen Kendrick Johnson, CNN reports.
According to the news network—which managed to obtain the e-mail and the subpoena—the email was from Jan. 27, with the sender claiming that another person told them about the confession, but not suggesting they had personally witnessed it. On Jan. 28, investigators reportedly interviewed two of the four students mentioned by name in the email, but both denied being involved in the boy's death.
Johnson's body was found rolled up in a mat in his high school gymnasium, Jan. 11, 2013. His death was originally ruled accidental by local authorities, saying that he got stuck while trying to get a shoe from the center of a gym mat, citing "positional asphyxia" as the cause of death, per a report by the state's medical examiner.
However, Johnson's parents have maintained that it is all a cover-up, saying they believe their son was murdered. They hired an independent pathologist who gave his own ruling—that their son's death was a homicide with "unexplained apparent nonaccidental blunt-force trauma" to the boy's neck, CNN notes.
The case was eventually closed on May 2, but law enforcement remains open to evidence that may help the case.
"Although our case has been closed, if evidence comes forward, specifically testimony, then we're open to hearing that and certainly we'll act accordingly," the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office Investigative Division Supervisor Lt. Stryde Jones told CNN.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Bradfield Shealy issued a subpoena to Mediacom Communications Corporation, a New York-based cable, phone and Internet provider, ordering the company to provide the grand jury with the information associated with the e-mail before Feb. 26.
The company reportedly has to obey the order. However, the firm told CNN that it had not received the subpoena, which was reported to have been faxed on Feb. 7.
Read more at CNN.
