Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead in a rolled up gym mat on Jan. 11, 2013. His family says he was murdered. Officials say he suffocated accidentally while reaching for a sneaker.(Photo: Handout)

A federal prosecutor in Georgia said Thursday he will conduct a formal review in the case of a Valdosta teen found dead in January inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at a high school gym.

U.S. Attorney Michael Moore made the announcement one day after a judge, at the request of Kendrick Johnson's parents, ordered authorities to release all surveillance video reviewed by authorities in the case. Moore said that if he determines that a criminal investigation is merited, the FBI will conduct it.

"I am committed to do everything in my power to answer the questions that exist in this case, or as many as we can," Moore said at his Macon office.

Johnson, 17, has been the center of a public battle between his parents and authorities since Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded Johnson died in a freak accident. Investigators say the teen suffocated in Valdosta, Ga., while reaching for his sneaker.

"That is a ridiculous conclusion," family lawyer Benjamin Crump told CNN after Moore's announcement. Kendrick's family insists someone must have killed the teen, and the family has petitioned a Georgia judge to order a coroner's inquest into their son's death.

"We are trying to find out what happened and what took place at that school," Kenneth Johnson, the teen's father, told USA TODAY last week. "The school and the sheriff's department are covering something up and we need to find out who they are covering up for."

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation disagrees. The agency is standing by an autopsy report that found Kendrick died accidentally of "positional asphyxia," said Sherry Lang, its director of public affairs.

"We have complete confidence in the medical examiner," she said.

Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson say they don't understand how a young man who ran track and played basketball and football could suffocate in a mat.

More questions came this summer when Kendrick's body was exhumed for a second autopsy. The private pathologist found that his organs were missing and that newspaper had been used to fill his body. That same pathologist ruled that Kendrick died of non-accidental blunt force trauma.

"This is a real life murder mystery," said Crump, the attorney who helped focus national attention on the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. "If you are trying to get a shoe out of a rolled up mat, where do you get trauma in your head?"

Crump added that several other factors make Kendrick's death suspicious. Police officers likely contaminated the scene after finding the teen's body, Kendrick's clothes from the day he died are missing and the teen's finger nails were cut after death but now those clippings are gone, Crump said.

All this has convinced Kendrick's father of the worst.

"The only thing I can come up with is our son was murdered," Kenneth Johnson said.