Attorneys for the family of a 17-year-old student found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at a southern Georgia high school called on authorities Thursday to release surveillance video that they say could show what happened . Kendrick Johnson , they allege , was slain in January -- counter to authorities ' conclusions that the three-sport athlete suffocated in the mat while reaching for a sneaker . `` There is one eyewitness that we know is available -- it is the video recordings made from surveillance cameras there in the gymnasium where the body was found , '' attorney Chevene B . King Jr. told reporters in Valdosta , Georgia . `` For some unknown reason , this tape has been withheld , '' he added . Gym mat death shocker : Body stuffed with newspaper . Attorney Benjamin Crump , who recently joined the case after representing the family of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin , said that Johnson was `` murdered , and we intend to get to the truth of what happened . '' Johnson was found dead at Lowndes County High School in Valdosta on January 11 , his body resting headfirst in the rolled wrestling mat . A Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy found that he died from positional asphyxia , and the Lowndes County Sheriff 's Office determined the death was accidental . But a second autopsy , which a private pathologist conducted at the request of Johnson 's parents in June , found that he died because of `` unexplained , apparent non-accidental , blunt force trauma . '' Teen 's death not accidental , family 's autopsy finds . The Lowndes County sheriff has declared the case closed , and the U.S. Justice Department said in September that it would n't open a civil rights investigation . But Michael Moore , the U.S. attorney for the district that includes Valdosta , is reviewing the case and weighing whether to open his own investigation . 'Getting to the facts ' King acknowledged Thursday that Moore 's office has surveillance material from the school and that he believes Moore is `` making every effort to establish what in fact the ... tapes may show . '' Still , King said , he does n't know whether Moore has all the relevant tapes , and he said his team should be permitted to see them -- which he said has n't yet happened . `` I 'm ( awaiting ) some word from ( Moore ) as to whether or not '' he 'll release the tapes to the team , King said . Moore released a statement saying that `` this is about getting to the facts and the truth , and we want the Johnson family and the community of Valdosta to have confidence in the process . '' `` I am cognizant of time , and we continue to move the process along , '' he said . King and Crump , watched by a few dozen supporters of Johnson 's family , made their comments on what would have been Johnson 's 18th birthday . Before the news conference , the supporters held signs calling for answers in the death , and chanted refrains like : `` No justice , no peace ! '' Johnson 's father , Kenneth Johnson , spoke briefly , asking authorities to give his son `` a good present today . '' `` Give us the videotape , '' Kenneth Johnson said . Internal organs removed . The attorneys ' plea also came after Johnson 's parents told CNN this week that their son 's body and skull had been stuffed with newspaper before burial . That discovery was made during the second autopsy in June . The private pathologist , Dr. William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions in Florida , told CNN that every internal organ from the pelvis to the skull was gone when he opened up the teen 's remains . `` We have been let down again , '' Kenneth Johnson told CNN . `` When we buried Kendrick , we thought we were burying Kendrick , not half of Kendrick . '' During an autopsy , internal organs are generally removed and examined before being returned for burial . GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang told CNN that after the first autopsy , `` the organs were placed in Johnson 's body , the body was closed , then the body was released to the funeral home . '' The funeral home would not comment to CNN . But in a letter to the Johnsons ' attorney , funeral home owner Antonio Harrington said his firm never received the teen 's organs . Harrington wrote that the organs `` were destroyed through natural process '' due to the position of Kendrick Johnson 's body when he died , and `` discarded by the prosector before the body was sent back to Valdosta . '' A prosector dissects the body for pathological examination . King said Thursday that his team would take a close look at what happened to the body between the first autopsy and the burial .
Record : ` ` For some unknown reason , this record has been deleted '' Kendrick Johnson , 17 , was found upside down in a rolled - up gym mat at high school . Second autopsy : Johnson 's death caused by ` ` apparent non - accidental '' trauma . Local law enforcement had said his death was accidental .