 CNN GET NATIONAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Your Email Address Submit Privacy Notice Advertisement 'I just hope that the truth comes out': Investigators reopen death of Georgia teen found in gym mat The death of a 00-year-old Georgia teen, found dead in a rolled-up gym mat, was ruled accidental. But now investigators say they're reopening the case. Share Copy Link Copy {copyShortcut} to copy Link copied! Updated: 00:00 PM CST Mar 00, 0000 By Victor Blackwell and Devon M. Sayers, CNN An investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teenager found dead in a rolled-up gym mat eight years ago, has been reopened, according to Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk. The body of Johnson, 00, was found upside-down in the mat in Lowndes County High School in January 0000. Local investigators ruled his death was an accident.Johnson's parents have said they think their son was killed. "It's been eight long years," Johnson's mother, Jacquelyn Johnson, told CNN on Tuesday. "I'm feeling hopeful."The initial investigation concluded that Johnson accidentally slipped into the center of the mat while reaching for a shoe and got stuck. An autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that the cause of Johnson's death was accidental positional asphyxia.But an autopsy conducted by a pathologist hired by Johnson's family determined that the cause of death was "unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt-force trauma" to the neck.Paulk, who at the time of Johnson's death was a retired former sheriff, said Tuesday he was "not sure when this situation happened" that it was an accident."If there's questions  -  and they're legitimate  -  I need to know the answers myself. The only way I'm going to know is to look at the evidence myself," Paulk said.After a two-and-a-half-year federal probe, "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," the Department of Justice said in a statement in 0000.Paulk came out of retirement in 0000 and in April 0000, he requested that information collected during the federal investigation be released to his department."It is vitally important that we have access to any information on the case of K.J. Johnson that any federal agency has not previously released," Paulk wrote in a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia.Federal investigators declined the request in July 0000.Paulk credited a November 0000 visit by the Johnsons with federal investigators for the eventual grant of the request."We're not asking for any favors. We're not asking for anybody to lie for us. We just want the truth to come out," Johnson's father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN.Paulk said his office received 00 boxes of written and electronic evidence from the federal investigation."The investigation included, among other things, interviewing nearly 000 people; reviewing tens of thousands of emails and text messages; reviewing surveillance videos from Lowndes High School; and analyzing other available information regarding the events of January 00-00, 0000," Justice Department officials said in their 0000 statement.Paulk said some of the original investigators will be used along with some new investigators for the reopened case. The first interview was conducted Monday, according to Paulk.