Millions Threatened With Severe Weather After Deadly Sunday Storms
Forecasters on Monday warned millions of Americans to be prepared for another round of severe storms, including strong tornadoes, a day after storms killed 16 people in three states.
The storms Sunday in Oklahoma, Iowa and in Arkansas - where 14 of the 16 people died - were the opening act of a three-day weather spell expected to provide at least a slight risk of severe weather through Wednesday.
In the hardest-hit area, Faulkner County, Arkansas, Sunday's suspected tornado shattered homes, tossed tractor-trailers and killed 10 people, two of them children, authorities said. The most affected areas were in the towns of Vilonia and Mayflower.
"There were cars flipped everywhere, there were people screaming," James Bryant, a Mississippi State University meteorology student, told CNN's "New Day" on Monday. "It was a tough scene."
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Kendrick Johnson Family Holds Rally After Filing Complaint About Missing Organs
The parents of Kendrick Johnson, whose death this year created a mystery that has gripped a South Georgia town, held a rally at the state Capitol on Wednesday, a day after filing a complaint with the state about the handling of their son's body.
The "Who Killed K.J." rally had several scheduled speakers, according to a news release from the Johnson family, but the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Joseph Lowery - both of whom were slated to address the demonstrators, the family said - never spoke. That didn't stop more than 100 protesters from assembling at the Capitol before noon.
Johnson was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at his high school in Valdosta, Georgia, on January 11. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted an autopsy and ruled the death accidental, but his family questioned the ruling and had his body exhumed for a second autopsy.
At the second autopsy, it was discovered that his organs were missing and his body cavity was filled with newspapers, contrary to industry practice.
The family's complaint, filed Tuesday with the Georgia Board of Funeral Service, a division of the secretary of state's office, alleges that Harrington Funeral Home mishandled Johnson's body and specifically accuses director Antonio Harrington of helping obscure the teen's cause of death.
However, the funeral home's attorney, Roy Copeland, said in an October letter to CNN that coroner Bill Watson has already stated that "the accusations and innuendo regarding Mr. Harrington's involvement in the disposition of young Mr. Johnson's internal organs are baseless."
According to "The Principles and Practices of Embalming," a sentence of which was included in an October letter Copeland sent to CNN, when the organs have been removed in an autopsy, the person handling the body should dry the cavity, "dusting it with hardening compound or embalming powder and then filling it with dry, clean sawdust or cotton mixed with a small quantity of hardening compound or embalming powder."
Copeland conceded at a November interview that newspaper was not listed, but he added, "nor is it precluded as one type of foreign substance that may be introduced into a body for purposes of building it up for public display."
Gym Mat Death Shocker: Body Stuffed With Newspaper
The death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was awful enough for his parents. Then came the doubts about investigators' conclusion that it was an accident.
But the discovery that their son's body and skull had been stuffed with newspaper before burial added a horrific new dimension to their anguish and further fueled their skepticism of the official findings.
"We have been let down again," his father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. "When we buried Kendrick, we thought we were burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick."
Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a gym at Lowndes County High School in January. State medical examiners concluded that the three-sport athlete suffocated after getting stuck in a rolled-up gym mat while reaching for a sneaker.
CNN's Sunny Hostin joined "New Day" Friday to speak about the case. "I'll tell you something isn't right here, it doesn't make sense," she said.
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