20/20 - Blood on the Door
Episode Date: May 17, 2025A mother's unrelenting crusade to find justice after her 21-year-old daughter is fatally stabbed in the hallway outside her apartment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...ces
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Hey, it's Brad Milkey.
This week on the Crime Scene Weekly, we're talking about a mom who gained national attention
for faking her own kidnapping.
Sherry Papini is back in the spotlight, but now she's changing her story and trying to
change her custody arrangement with her kids.
Listen to the latest from the case on the Crime Scene Weekly. seen weekly. An all new 2020 starts right now.
He just kept stabbing and stabbing.
I remember trying to defend myself like this with my hands.
And that's where I got the cuts on my hands.
Jason was confronted by the assailant.
Someone came into their apartment,
had assaulted him and his roommate.
Because she was stabbed so many times,
you think, this is personal.
This is someone who wanted her dead.
When you go into her apartment, what does this seem like?
You could tell that there was a struggle in there.
She fought hard.
Jonna went door to door trying to get assistance.
At one point, I was praying that wasn't her.
They had made a mistake. Now revisiting the scene of a nightmare.
He pushed me back this way and I fell on the bed like this.
I took off and I ran as fast as I could this way.
Did it trouble you that he ran away from the scene to get help instead of
trying somehow to help her?
Scared. He wants to get away.
So he ran from here over this way to the convenience store.
I didn't have anything to do with this.
Why the fuck would I? Why would I take this test?
I'm Officer Diana Kidd. I work for the Knox County Sheriff's Department.
It was around 4 15 a.m. on the night of December 6th.
It was real windy that night.
We didn't have a lot of calls coming in.
We felt like we were wrapping up our night because it was only a couple more hours till we get off.
And then we get the dispatch call that says there's a young man that had ran to the Waggles.
290 with the victim just occurred at Waggles, 328 North Cedar Bluff.
Standby for updates.
It's early morning in December when the clerk inside this convenience store gets a startling visitor.
A young man who's bloody pleading for help. He's barefoot and appears to have been seriously injured.
He's heavily bloodied. He's been in the fight.
A gentleman had called in from the Wagles on Cedar Bluff
and stated that he had been attacked.
When he ran up to the Wagles, he had blood all over his clothing
as he entered into the gas station.
He had a stab wound to his face.
He had cuts on his hands.
He was stabbed in the chest.
So he did have obvious signs of trauma on his body.
Does he need an ambulance?
Yeah, that's what he said.
OK, can I talk to him, please?
Sure.
Sure, he wants to talk to you.
All right, what's your name?
Jason Amamy.
Jason?
A-M-A-M-I.
Now, what happened?
I just felt somebody stab me right in my chest.
Somebody stabbed you?
In my face. And that's the first thing I do is get up and run.
He'd heard some noise.
He came outside.
He came out into the hallway.
And he had seen someone in the hallway, which then came to him
and attacked him.
He eventually got away from the attacker.
And Jason had ran out the door.
He had on clothing that he was sleeping in,
which was just a pair of shorts.
He had left so abruptly that he didn't even
take time to get his glasses or his shoes
before leaving the apartment.
He just ran out as quickly as possible to flee and get help.
And while Jason Amame tells the clerk
that he was able to get away,
shockingly he says he wasn't alone in that apartment.
His roommate's still in there. Apparently somebody broke into his house.
Is his roommate okay?
He doesn't know.
Is he okay?
He was screaming very loud.
Now where's your address at?
Radora Road.
Radora?
R-H-O-D-O-R-A.
R-H-O?
Park Park.
SIRENS
MUSIC
When the call came out, we then went to the apartment complex
to check on the girl and kind of see what we could find there.
21 year old Johnna Barry is barely clinging to life. They found Johnna laying just inside an entrance way.
She was face down and had
multiple wounds to her body.
wounds to her body. MUSIC
You were one of the first responders here.
Yes ma'am.
What do you remember about Johnna Berry?
What kind of shape was she in?
She was not in good shape.
As soon as you opened the door she was laying in the corridor.
At the bottom of the steps her apartment was at the top of the steps.
And she was covered in blood.
MUSIC That it was her hair. She's got beautiful blonde hair. the top of the steps and she was covered in blood.
That it was her hair, she's got beautiful blonde hair and it stuck with me because at the time
I thought she might have red hair
because there was so much blood.
Just kind of moaning, making a few sounds
but was unable to talk due to her injuries.
She did have a very large wound on her neck.
She also had multiple stab wounds across her injuries. She did have a very large wound on her neck. She also had multiple stab wounds across her body.
Over 25 wounds to her body.
It was very obvious that Jonna had been in a fight
for her life and that it was a very violent struggle.
For me, it was one of the worst crime scenes
that I have been involved in
since being in law enforcement.
When you go into her apartment, what is the scene like?
When we go up the steps and go into the apartment looking for the suspect or anybody else that's
injured, the knife was in the floor and it had blood on it, hair on it, and it was bent.
There were six units in the apartment building.
There was blood on each of the doors within the six units, and we could tell from that,
Jonna was the person who went door to door trying to get assistance.
It's four o'clock in the morning. It's not the middle of the night per se.
One individual thought someone was breaking into his apartment. We called 911.
He looked out his peephole of his door. Do you see anybody outside? I look out to you and a peak hole. What's your name?
I don't know.
Give me a second, Mommy.
He didn't see anyone.
It's because Jonna was crumpled on the ground
below that peephole, absolutely heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, the call dropped and there was no other activity.
Once the residence was cleared and we noticed no one else injured in the apartment,
we go back down the stairs. I go back to her. So I leaned down and was talking to her, asking her
if she knew who done this. If she knew where they went. I was just asking her all kinds of questions, you know,
try to help us find out who done this and what had happened.
She would move around a bit but she couldn't answer me.
So by this time I just kind of held her hand and waited on EMS to arrive.
That night, two young people come face to face with an intruder. Jason manages to escape, but Jonna, who was too injured to speak, did not.
We were wondering what led to this horrific tragedy.
The attacker has vanished. The motive unknown.
Are our children safe? Are we safe? There, we had no idea who did this. Police launch a full-scale manhunt across the Knoxville community. Inside that foyer,
Johnna Berry is still alive, brutally wounded and struggling to hold on.
I just held her hand and waited on EMS to arrive.
I remember distinctly that it was raining
when I got to the scene.
Jonna dies in the ambulance,
her fight ending before she ever reaches the hospital.
What do you think that may have meant to her or to you to even just be there to comfort
her?
I hope it helped her and to me it would mean a lot if that was my child there.
It was 4 a.m. in the morning on December the 6th.
We got a phone call from Knoxville, UT hospital.
The gentleman on the other end of the phone, he asked to speak to Mike, which was very
unusual because nobody called my cell phone and asked to speak with my husband.
She handed me the phone and somebody on there said, are you Michael Barry?
And I said, yes.
Do you have a daughter, John?
And I said, yes.
Just to let you know, your daughter was murdered.
I heard him say, John has been murdered.
John has been murdered.
At one point, I was praying. It wasn't her.
They had made a mistake.
Yeah.
My youngest son lives here.
So I called him and I said, hysterically,
it's Johnna.
Something's happened. You need to get to UT. This had to be a nightmare for everybody. And I said, hysterically, it's Jonna.
Something's happened, you need to get to UT.
This had to be a nightmare for everybody.
It was.
It rained all the way.
It was like the angels was just crying.
This is something that you never forget.
It's just something that you never forget. After nearly four hours on the road, Jonna's parents finally make it to the hospital.
When we got there, my youngest son was in the parking lot.
He said, it's true, Mom, it's Jonna.
Did you have any idea what happened at that moment?
No. Yeah.
The boys identified her body, which was very upsetting to me.
She was in bad shape.
Yes. I wish that I could spare them the heartache
and the memory that they'll have forever.
Jonna smiles at the camera girl.
Jonna grew up in a tight-knit family in Bristol, Tennessee.
Take me back, tell me what kind of a little child she was.
Jonna was a very happy child. She was very ambitious. She did dance and cheerleading.
Two older brothers. She had two older brothers. They were very protective of her.
You had a beauty salon and I imagine she was running around. Yes, she would get
manicure. I polished her little nails. She always wanted makeup on and her hair done. She was she was my best friend. She was your best friend. She was.
After high school, Jonna heads off to East Tennessee State University where
she gets a degree in child psychology. What was it that she aspired to? What
were her aspirations? She wanted to devote her life to children. She wanted to help them in any
way she could. As Jonna grows older, her dreams for her future grow bigger and
she meets her fiance, Jason White. Jonna got engaged when she was 20. Kind of
young. It was young but she knew what she wanted wanted and she worked hard to get it.
Johnna loves children, and that passion leads her to Knoxville,
where she begins working toward a master's degree in child psychology.
Most here consider this a safe slice of America, next to the Tennessee River.
About 35 miles away, you'll find Dollywood, nestled in the great Smoky Mountains.
She's going to school, she's moving, about to get a new degree. That's a lot.
But she was so ambitious. She was constantly on the move.
How does she go about finding a place to live?
She was in the process of looking for an apartment,
but we hadn't found the exact thing.
So she stayed with a friend from college.
She ran into the bedroom.
That friend was Johnna's roommate, Jason Amame.
I'd known Jason for a couple of years prior
when she was in college.
He was somebody you were familiar with.
Yeah, we knew him and he was a good friend.
It was just a temporary thing.
Were you at all questioning or concerned
about Jason Amame?
Jason was stabbed also, but Johnna's brothers
and her dad wondered why Jason didn't help her.
And police have their own questions.
They sit down for the first of several interviews with Emmamy.
He was able to explain to us that he woke up
in the middle of the night because he heard a scream.
Jason knew that Jonna did have nightmares,
so at first he assumed that she could have just
been having a nightmare.
But as he got up, he noticed that there was a male figure
backing out of Jonna's bedroom.
Jason was confronted by the assailant.
He was stabbed about six to eight times.
At that point, Jason didn't hear any more screams for Jonna.
He wasn't sure if she had escaped the apartment or not.
He just ran out as quickly as possible.
You have an initial reaction to any attack,
and that's gonna be fight, flight, freeze.
To unravel the mystery of Johnna Berry's murder,
police zero in on a critical piece of evidence
found at the scene.
When officers go inside the apartment,
they see so much blood.
It's everywhere.
Then they see a bloody shoe print, a single shoe print soaked in
blood. Could this be the clue that unmasks the killer?
I love you guys. Who would want to hurt somebody that was so pure?
Christmas was Johnna's favorite time of year, her family says. And just hours before
the murder, she and her mom were on the phone talking about picking up gifts for the holidays.
I said, I did some Christmas shopping today and she said, Oh, I did too. We talked a little more
and we said, good night and I love you and I'll talk to you tomorrow. The night she died, she had been wrapping
Christmas gifts for children.
Johnna had them separated, you know, in little piles,
they said, with the kids' names on them.
It just seemed so tragic right before Christmas.
Fear gripped the city of Knoxville,
a young woman savagely stabbed in her own home
and her killer on the loose.
21 year old Johnna Berry and her roommate
were stabbed in their Brendan Park apartment.
It really left the community feeling unsettled.
I'm a news anchor here at WATE in Knoxville
and I have covered the Johnna Berry case
since the very beginning.
This seemed to be a crime out of nowhere.
There were so many questions and people were wondering
what on earth is going on.
To this day, John is mom Joan can't shake the image.
Her daughter, bleeding, terrified, pounding on doors
and nobody answering.
When you heard that she frantically ran asking for help
and nobody answered their doors,
what did you make of that?
It angered me at first.
You know, I can understand someone not opening the door
at four o'clock in the morning.
You know, I can understand that. People don't want to get involved. Why couldn't you be more like Johnna and want
to help people? She would have helped anybody. Some of the folks in the
apartment complex possibly could not have heard the knock on the door due to
it being in the middle of the night and the bedroom being located so far away
from the front door. Some people we learned were not at home. Detective's begin a full scale investigation.
And there's one thing that is impossible to ignore.
The sheer amount of blood in Johnna's apartment.
How bloody was this crime scene?
There was blood in not only in Johnna's bedroom,
Jason's bedroom, blood in the living room,
blood on the back door, blood on the back door,
blood out the back of the apartment going down the stairs.
Blood is on the doorknob, blood is on the floor, blood is on the door.
Looked like there had been some type of fight in Johnna's bedroom.
This had been a struggle.
Yes, you could tell that there was a struggle in there.
You could tell that she fought hard.
Numerous samples of blood were taken from the crime scene.
The blood samples were sent to the TBI for analysis.
This is the exit that the perpetrator took the night of the crime.
We can see that this door is ajar.
There's no evidence of a forcible break-in.
Detectives wanted to find out how the person got into the apartment
without no forced entry being there.
Was the door left unlocked? Did they have a key? Were they let in?
There was some speculation that Jonna had been on the phone with her fiance and perhaps
in the excitement of wrapping the gifts and just having these other distractions that
she forgot to lock the door.
Could it have been a friend of theirs that was in the apartment?
Was it somebody that had gotten upset with Jason or Jonna?
So there's a lot of different theories that were being thought about of what could have
happened.
Investigators also discover curious items in the apartment,
like a hat and a CD case they believe belonged to the killer.
The Atlanta Braves hat, the CD case,
all of those things were leading us to believe
that someone else possibly had entered the apartment
since these things did not belong
to either one of the occupants of the apartment.
The murder weapon was discovered in the hallway
directly outside of Jonna's bedroom.
The knife was in the floor, and it had blood on it,
hair on it, and it was bent.
The hair that was found on the knife
appeared to be from Jonna.
We knew right away that the knife came from inside the home.
It was part of a matching set that was from the kitchen.
What stood out to me the most about the weapon
is how damaged it was.
The handle was broken.
The blade was bent.
I could only assume that it had hit bone,
that it was used multiple times, that it was very violent,
just given the force to break the handle.
While the murder weapon reveals a violent struggle, there's a single piece of evidence left on the blade which might point to the hand that held it. There was a partial fingerprint
that was found on the knife. There was an unknown DNA that was found on the knife. Now that's got
to be important because now that's going to be something that's going to lead you to somebody. Oh yes, very important. If we
can match a fingerprint or a partial fingerprint to someone that would help.
Our guys photographed it, sent that off to the lab to see if they would be able
to get the fingerprint off of there and see if it was in any kind of system or
database that they had. But police aren't finished yet.
In Jason's room, they discover a piece of cardboard
and on it, a damning piece of evidence.
There was a very pronounced shoe print.
And what stood out about the shoe print the most
is that it was in blood.
Detectives also take note of the shocking number of times
that Jonna was stabbed.
Jonna's autopsy revealed that she suffered over 20 stab wounds, some of them to her neck,
head and face, as well as her chest, back and legs.
She had close to 26 stab wounds.
The nature of the crime, it was a very intimate personal crime.
It kind of led to maybe thinking it was somebody that knew her,
that had gotten mad at her, maybe a crime of passion.
So we were looking at people who were close to her.
Because she was stabbed so many times,
you think this is personal.
This is someone who wanted her dead.
This had to be someone who knew her.
And that's when detectives begin looking closely
at the two Jasons in Jonna's life.
Could one of them know more than he's letting on?
Everything that we learned about Jonna as a person was just that she was an absolute sweetheart.
There was nothing that we learned about her that would give us any indication that she
had any enemies or was anyone to hurt her.
Investigators are busy tracking down anybody in town who might have had a connection to Jonna.
Despite being in Knoxville for only six short weeks, she was known to quite a few people.
Jonna worked at a local hospital and the individuals she was working with were of troubled youth
and we weren't sure would it be possible that one of the patients heard her speaking about her personal life or knew where she lived.
that one of the patients heard her speaking about her personal life or knew where she lived.
Jonna also worked part-time at a jewelry store in the Westtown mall, and detectives learned that she had some concerns about a suspicious car.
When she left the mall one night, there was a car circling the parking lot.
She thought maybe somebody that she had spoken to in the store where she worked maybe was following her.
We looked at surveillance video,
never did come up with anything from the mall.
As far as the hospital goes, that was sort of a dead end.
It never produced any kind of information either.
Johnna had no enemies.
Nobody ever expressed being angry with her or she never had any
trouble with anybody.
We had no earthly idea of who could have done this.
We really focused mostly on her closest circle.
The first people that we wanted to clear from Johnna's murder were Jason, the roommate,
and Jason, her fiance at the time. The violent nature of the attack, the
numerosity of the wounds, all hinted towards some sort of personal
relationship that she may have had with somebody.
Joan Berry says her daughter met Jason White at a party when they were both
students at East Tennessee State University and the romance
moved quickly. We're very fond of Jason. She got engaged at Christmas and she couldn't wait to show
me her ring. She wanted more than anything to be his wife and be a mom and raise a child with him
and have them grow old together.
She was so excited to marry him.
After graduation, Jason moves to Michigan
to get his law degree, while Jonna moves to Knoxville
to continue her studies.
He was in Michigan, and every night she
would go to sleep with them talking.
And then when she would go to sleep is when he would hang up.
In speaking with Jason White, he had explained to us
that he talked to Jonna that night.
Detectives learned through his cell phone records
that his cell phone appeared to be in Michigan the entire time.
No, there was no suspicions in my mind.
I had never crossed my mind that Jason White ever did that.
Very quickly within the investigation,
Jason White was cleared as a suspect.
Police are also interested in talking to the other Jason
in Johnna's life, her roommate, Jason Amame.
So how are you doing?
I am doing really good.
Police interview Jason the day after he gets out of the hospital, where he was treated
for wounds to his chest, face, and hands.
Once Johnna's fiance was ruled out, all eyes went to her roommate.
And one of the first questions investigators asked him was, do you have a romantic interest
in Johnna?
As far as your relationship with John.
How long have you known her.
Probably over 5 years.
Did you guys ever date.
Now.
Also in Oxford she places. I said I'd be happy to let you
live with me and it would be a problem.
She's got her fiance.
This is another guy.
What did you make of the arrangement for her to move in with a guy as a roommate?
I was fine with that.
I've known Jason for a couple years.
He was a boyfriend of one of her good friends, too.
And even her fiance, Jason White, he didn't have a problem with it.
He tells Detective Delgado that on the night of the attack,
he was watching TV when Jonna decides to go to bed.
She probably went to sleep about 10.30.
I probably went to sleep 12, 12.30.
What do you remember after that?
I just remember waking up, hearing screams.
I looked at my alarm clock.
I was there and I, seeing a four,
so probably at 4 a.m. sometime.
Jason says it's not the first time he's been awakened
by Jonna screaming at night.
She sleeps very light.
She told me when she first moved in,
she said, you know, if I wake up and I'm scared or something,
you know, just come in and check on me and make sure I'm okay.
At first, he assumed that she could have just been
having a nightmare, but as he got up
and he was leaving his room to enter her bedroom,
he noticed that there was a male figure.
Next thing I remember is I'm on my bed,
and he's on top of me.
I just remember fighting with him, he punched me in my face.
I kept telling him, I was like, what do you want?
He just kept telling me, shut up, shut up.
And then I felt a sharp pain right here.
And that's when I knew he had a knife.
He grabbed the knife to try to get it away
from the individual.
He kicked the individual in the growing area.
The individual went back against the bedroom wall.
He saw an opening that he would be
able to get out of the bedroom.
At that point, he didn't hear any more screams from Jonna.
He wasn't sure if she had escaped the apartment or not.
But at that point, he just ran out of the apartment as quickly as possible.
He ran out of the apartment.
Did you take anything with you?
I didn't even think about it.
What were you wearing?
I was wearing blue workout shorts,
which I wore to the gym, and a pair of boxers.
Okay.
And that's all I was wearing.
I just ran straight out the door and right across the street,
and I was banging on some of the doors at the other complex.
Investigators zero in on an important point in Jason's story.
He came face to face with his attacker,
Johnna's killer.
He felt confident that he would be able to identify the person, provide a sketch
of what this individual looked like.
provide a sketch of what this individual looked like. This is Tom. Tom, this is Jason.
Hey, how's it going?
Tom's going to help you with the composite.
Using Jason's detailed description of that attacker,
police are able to generate a photo-realistic computer composite of their suspect.
So he's able to give you some details about what this intruder looked like.
Yes, because he was face-to-face with that person,
so he's really the only living survivor that can give us a description of the individual.
Despite Jason's cooperation, investigators say they still have lingering questions about
Johnna's roommate. There was no forced entry and I think that that led investigators to probably
focus a little bit more on Jason Amame.
Also, you know, we had to look at the murder weapon came from within the
apartment, within their own knife set. So, you know, Jason had access to that.
Could he have gotten the knife and used it to commit this crime? Could he have
cut his own finger? It'd be pretty hard to stab yourself in the face close to
your eye,
but we couldn't rule that out. Is Jason a victim or a suspect?
Investigators take him back to the scene of the crime. Will his story hold up?
He just kept stabbing and stabbing. That's at the point to where I noticed he finally had a knife.
The walkthrough was really important for us.
Look for inconsistencies regarding what he was telling us about the scene,
what happened that night.
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["The Last Supper"]
John and I talked about her wedding plans. We looked at several venues.
We did purchase the wedding gown, and I'm grateful that Johnna got to experience that
in her life.
Just days ago, Joan Berry was helping her daughter plan a dream wedding.
But after Jonna's violent murder, her mom is now planning her daughter's funeral.
When we got to the cemetery, it was raining, and Jonna was buried in her engagement ring.
She still had some blood around her cuticles and her fingernails.
So I cleaned her nails
and that was the last thing I could do for her.
She had so many plans for her life
and she was gonna live life on her own terms
and that was taken from her,
brutally and violently taken from her.
Her brother was supposed to play the piano at her wedding.
Right.
And now he's playing at her funeral.
How does a family switch gears like that?
You don't have no choice.
We had no choice.
But there's an unexpected guest at the funeral.
Just 48 hours after he was released from the hospital, We had no choice. But there's an unexpected guest at the funeral.
Just 48 hours after he was released from the hospital,
Jonna's roommate, Jason Amame, attends the funeral.
And so do detectives.
There was a lot of chatter about the fact
that Jason had run from the scene
and leaving Jonna there essentially to die.
People thought he had to have some kind of role in this
because of his actions or inaction.
Did it trouble you that he ran away from the scene to get help
instead of trying somehow to help her?
It did for a while, but you know,
after you have time to process things and really think about it,
you know, I thought he was just trying to get out too,
you know, because he was attacked.
Detectives want an exact picture of what happened
inside Jonna and Jason's apartment.
With his detailed play-by-play,
Jason takes them as close as possible
to being in that room when the attack happened.
Date is December 9 9, 2004.
Time is 1559.
We had him look around to see if anything was missing, if anything had been stolen or
disrupted.
There was an Atlanta Braves baseball cap that was found in Johnna's bed that was not there
before, was not owned by Johnna,
was not owned by Jason Amame.
The partial shoe print on the cardboard, the Atlanta Braves hat, those things were leading
us to believe that someone else possibly had entered the apartment.
In the sheriff's office video of the walkthrough, you can see that Jason's wounds from the
attack are still fresh and visible.
Still, he's able to calmly describe the evening's events
in great detail.
I came home from the gym and the door was locked.
John was sitting right here.
The walkthrough was really important for us
to watch his body language, listen to him,
look for inconsistencies regarding what he was telling us
about the scene, what happened that night.
He tells police the same story he did
in his interview the day of the murder.
Jonna went to sleep first, he went to bed around 12.30,
and then was awakened around 4 a.m.
I heard a scream, but I didn't say a word.
My door was totally closed, my room.
I woke up just from my sleep here and I remember walking this way. He says he opened his bedroom
door which was closed. He was confronted by someone. He he is right there. And I'm still looking down.
And I remember doing this and having him face me
and grab me like this.
And then he pushed me back this way.
And I fell on the bed like this.
At first, he was confused.
He wasn't sure if he was being punched or being stabbed.
He just kept stabbing and stabbing.
And that's at the point to where I noticed
he finally had a knife.
I remember trying to defend myself like this with my hands.
And that's where I got the cuts on my hands.
Jason described pushing them back
towards the wall of the bedroom.
That information was corroborated by blood smear
on the drywall.
Jason says he no longer heard Jonna screaming
and didn't know if she had escaped the apartment or not.
I took off and I ran as fast as I could this way.
He said that when he left the apartment,
he had to unlock the front door to get out.
And as I ran through here and got the door open,
I just ran, I didn't even stop in here.
I ran down through here and down the stairs.
So, Johnna's roommate goes running from this apartment complex.
What route did he take?
Johnna's apartment is located over this way,
so he ran out of the apartment complex.
He saw a figure off in the distance.
He thought it was the person that was still chasing him or looking for him.
He came this way and looked closer at it. He saw a figure off in the distance. He thought it was kind of like somebody going up.
And it's walking like this.
After knocking on doors at a neighboring apartment complex
but not getting any help, Jason takes off down the road.
I think the biggest information that we got from the walkthrough
was he felt like he was being pursued.
And you kind of started to understand how and why he made it all the way to the 24-hour
convenience store before he could summon help. I remember going just right next to these bushes here.
I remember scaling right about this point right here.
And when I got to the door here, I looked inside and noticed the clerk.
I got to hear the folks in there, folks in the jail tell me.
After that minute-by-minute account that was consistent with his earlier statements,
detectives are now less convinced that Jason could be the killer.
But is he telling the full truth?
When Jason was confronted by the polygrapher, he became very upset.
Turn your chair around. Let's talk.
Yeah.
Your scores were substantial, right? And new physical evidence leads to more questions than answers.
There was Jonna's DNA, Jason Amame's DNA, and there was an unknown DNA that was collected.
They realize there's a third party that was in that room.
And a twist so wild, not even seasoned investigators could see it coming.
I felt very confident.
This has to be our guide.
Why would anybody want to cop to a crime they didn't commit.
["The Last Supper"]
A family still looking to track down a murderer tonight, nearly three years after their daughter
and UT co-ed is killed in her apartment.
What is that like for you as a family
to have your daughter murdered and no one arrested for it?
That was the only thing on my mind from morning to night.
That's all I could think about.
When it comes to this mother wanting to find answers,
she would stop at nothing.
We need to know who did this to Donna.
We need answers.
We would follow up with the tips that we would get.
Ruling out suspects.
All I'm trying to tell you is the truth.
And I'm not telling you.
Jason, you haven't told it to me.
And I've told you the 100% truth.
And seeing what's left.
There was an unknown DNA that was collected
from several locations inside and outside
of the apartment.
Now that's got to be important because now that's going to be something that's going
to lead you to somebody.
You get the case of Jonna Berry and you're running samples.
Give me an idea of how that works.
There's no other person, literally no other person in the world but you that could have
left that sample.
You know what happened to this girl.
Here in Knoxville we don't have a murder every day.
Here in Knoxville, we don't have a murder every day. When something like this happened to Johnna Berry, it kind of shook up the neighborhood.
Brendan Park Apartments calls itself a peaceful retreat here in West Knoxville.
But one early December morning, that peace was shattered.
21-year-old Johnna Berry had been brutally stabbed
in her own apartment.
In a million years, I would never have thought
that this would have happened to my daughter.
my daughter.
21 year old Johnna Berry and her roommate were stabbed in their Brendan Park apartment on December 6th. The roommate who survived was able to call
police, but Johnna didn't make it and her killer is still on the loose.
Based on the description that Jason gave us, we had a composite sketch made.
This is who sheriff's investigators are trying to identify. He's in his 20s Based on the description that Jason gave us, we had a composite sketch made.
This is who sheriff's investigators are trying to identify.
He's in his 20s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, 150 pounds.
The thing about the composite, it has some really distinguishing features.
Kind of almond-shaped eyes, widow's peak, kind of a blunted nose, but a white male.
If you think you have information
that could help the case, you're asked
to call the Sheriff's office.
Leads were coming in, but leading nowhere.
Meanwhile, Jonna's mom turns her grief into frustration.
The weeks go by, no arrest.
What is that like for you as a family to have your daughter murdered and no one arrested
for it?
We called every day.
We would call the detectives.
There was that feeling that detectives in the sheriff's office weren't doing enough,
when in reality they were working this every day.
There just weren't any answers.
Johnna Berry's family is still upset over a lack of closure.
I can tell you that the two detectives assigned to the case
were running nonstop, chasing down leads,
going through tip lines.
All of those things were happening,
but the end result wasn't there.
It was very hard for me not to have an answer
for Johnna's parents.
And speaking with them on a daily basis,
letting them know there's nothing new,
there's no more leads.
I became so worried that it would become a cold case
and we would never get answers.
I kept it in the media, I did everything that I could.
You turned your grief into action.
I did, I did.
Yesterday, they were at the track in Bristol today,
a church in downtown Knoxville.
She called me every time she was doing something different.
Hey, we're going to put flyers at the cleaners, can you come?
Hey, we're going to put flyers at the cleaners. Can you come?
MUSIC
Joan used her own money to put billboards all over town,
including a heavily traveled stretch of I-40.
We had several billboards with Jonah's pictures
with a picture of the composite on them and $70,000 reward.
MUSIC on them and $70,000 reward. A local grocery store chain had information about seeking help
to solve the unsolved murder on their delivery trucks.
We handed out flyers.
A family and volunteers put flyers on cars in the
neighborhoods around through there.
I don't think I could ever be as strong as Joan.
She wouldn't stop.
She digs in and she just goes.
That was the only thing on my mind every day,
from morning to night.
That's all I could think about was who would kill Donna.
While the investigation has made little progress
in naming a suspect,
things are moving ahead on the forensics front.
Inside Jonna's apartment,
there was a very pronounced shoe print and blood.
We ended up sending off the cardboard
that the tread pattern was on. and we got information back from that
that this tread appeared to be this type shoe Faded Glory, most of sold at Walmart.
The shoe print ID is the most promising evidence so far, leading detectives to
their strongest suspect. We got a tip a few streets over from the apartment complex
that an individual had been involved
in some crimes, some thefts, and that led us to an individual
named Michael Percival.
He lived in a trailer park, probably
within a few miles of the apartment complex.
When we went into the trailer to talk to him, the carpet cleaner was sitting there next
to the living room.
A carpet cleaner isn't necessarily suspicious in and of itself, but what if somebody was
using it to clean up blood tracked in on the bottom of their shoe?
Detectives ask Percival if they can look at his shoes.
Detective Delgado retrieved the shoes from Michael Percival
and she noticed the tread on those being similar
to the tread that were found in the apartment,
Jason Amamy's room.
She kind of elbowed me and showed me the tread
and we were both kind of like,
holy cow, this could really be the shoes.
I saw Captain Hall, and he said, we've got him.
He still had the shoes, Kevin.
He still had the shoes.
Everything looked like it was lining up for us.
Michael Percival was the individual responsible
for Johnna's death.
But does the shoe fit? We can't believe what he's saying. You know, it doesn't make any sense.
And there are more questions for Jason Amame as his patience wears thin.
I'm trying to get married here. I don't get a lot of feelings from that. I feel like a monster.
This is the next phase in my therapeutic work.
Nicole Kidman returns for the Hulu Original 9 Perfect Strangers Season 2.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
This is safe.
We take you back to a core trauma.
Breathe in. breathe out.
She is manipulating us.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Why are you resisting?
Is it too late to get a refund?
The all new season of 9 Perfect Strangers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu and Disney+.
New episodes May 21st.
The cultural phenomenon, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is back with an all new season now streaming on Hulu.
Where is everyone at?
Mom Talk has gotten to a really hostile point.
Demi is willing to kick Jessie out of the group.
I feel like I'm walking into a lion's den.
It's going to get messy, for sure.
Mom Talk is turning on each other left and right.
The police are here.
I can't see this going any other way but a pure bloodbath.
This is so toxic.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives now streaming on Hulu.
Detectives Hall and Delgado have just gotten a big lead
in John O'Berry's murder case.
They're led to a 19-year-old named Michael Percival.
His shoes appear to match that bloody shoe print
left behind at the crime scene.
I felt very confident.
This has to be her guide.
Both of us were kind of big-eyed.
It was just like we've got it solved.
We couldn't believe that he kept the shoes.
Investigators bring Percival in for an interview.
And in a shocking admission, the teenager says he witnessed the murder.
When Michael first admitted to being at Johnna's house,
he explained that this was part of a drug deal gone wrong.
He said that he went there with a drug dealer to collect money
from Johnna and Jason for drugs that they had purchased.
He said that he entered
the apartment and this individual that he came with was stabbing John and Jason inside the apartment.
But as detectives keep questioning him, they say his story just isn't adding up.
There was nothing to indicate at all that Jason or Johnna were involved in drugs,
so it was very inconsistent with what we knew
about the victims.
Jonna was never involved in drugs.
She was very straight-laced.
Investigators take a closer look at Percival shoes
that they believe might have been at the crime scene.
We sent those off for analysis
and the analysis came back.
It was not an exact match.
Those were not the shoes. This was another dead end. Michael
Percival was ultimately cleared. Why would anybody want to cop
to a crime they didn't commit? We learned through the
investigation that Michael Percival liked attention. Now
back at square one, investigators are reexamining
the case.
There's this one person detectives keep coming back to, and it's Jonna's roommate, Jason Amame.
While evidence such as the CDs, a baseball cap, and that bloody shoe print suggest a third person might have been in the apartment,
detectives still have questions for Jason.
We wanted to 100% make sure that Jason wasn't involved
in this in any way.
Even if there was another person involved,
that he didn't let them in.
So police ask him to take a polygraph test.
He agrees and the test is videotaped.
Are you ready to take the test?
Sure.
All right.
If you would, let me take off my sweatshirt. videotaped.
One of the main reasons that we asked Jason to take a polygraph is just simply to see like how cooperative he would be with it.
No. Did you have prior knowledge that the person who stabbed Johnny O would be at your apartment
that night?
No.
But then things take a sudden turn in the interview room when the polygrapher begins
to interrogate Jason.
Jason, I want you to listen to me.
Yes.
You know, I think you're a smart boy, but you did a par on that test.
Did I really?
You really did.
Turn these tears around and let's talk.
Yeah. You're a smart boy, but you did a farro on that teddy.
Did I really?
You really did.
Turn these here and let's talk.
Yeah.
Why do you think you fell on the teddy?
I was 100% sure.
The polygrapher basically started interviewing
Jason Amame and accusing him of being the killer. perhaps over something that you said or something that happened there. And you just laughed it out. Never.
All I'm trying to determine is the truth.
And I'm not going to tell you that you haven't told it to me.
What am I lying about? I have told you the 100% truth.
It was the first time we really saw Jason react emotionally in the sense you could tell
he was very angered and offended by the question.
Are you saying I did it?
I'm saying it certainly looks like it.
It was confrontational.
The polygrapher was not just asking questions, but was essentially involved in a heated interrogation.
One hundred percent. I didn't have anything to do with this. I don't care what that box says. I voluntarily took this. If I had something to hide it, why would I take this test? Why would I do this? Calm down. I'm getting out of here. I don't even know how to do this. I feel like a suspect now. Calm down. Calm down.
He's very, very upset.
It took a little bit to get him calmed down.
Police are reviewing Jason's test results when they discover there's an error.
The polygraphist said that he failed the test.
When we had two other polygraphers look at the results, they basically said that he passed
the test.
Besides passing the polygraph, detectives also aren't able to link that bloody shoe print
or partial fingerprint on the knife to Jason.
So he's ultimately clear.
Jason was originally from Colorado and shortly after he relocated back to Colorado.
Michael and I traveled to Colorado and visited with him.
He answered our questions and had time for us.
I'm sure this has affected Jason's life too.
Jason has not only suffered the trauma of the attack, but he's also facing public scrutiny
and innuendo.
Jason was a good kid who got caught up in this and the circumstances of it and made a decision of flight that was involuntary and took a lot of heat and a lot of flack for that and has.
Weeks after the murder, a new bombshell development when lab results come back from blood at the crime scene.
come back from blood at the crime scene. There was Jonna's DNA, Jason Amame's DNA,
and there was an unknown DNA inside and outside
of the apartment.
Could this DNA belong to the killer?
Detectives are racing to find out.
That was the key to getting the person that did this.
Wow.
They're going to be able to find who murdered her.
I see memories of Jonna everywhere in the house, right?
Yes. These are Jonna's in the house, right? Yes.
These are Jonna's little baby shoes.
They rest here?
That's where they stay here all the time.
Even though years have gone by since their daughter's murder,
this is my pride and joy.
I love this.
In nearly every corner of every room, mementos of Jonna.
This is Jonna's room. We call it Jonna's room.
Jonna's room.
And I still have her wedding gown.
You still have it.
I still have her wedding gown.
All these years later.
After 20 years.
This is it.
This is it.
That's beautiful.
This is the dress.
Her wedding gown. All the beading This is the dress, the wedding gown.
All the beading.
Look at the train.
She looked beautiful in it.
Yes.
20 years old.
She had picked out a wedding band for Jason, and we bought it.
So John's dad wears the wedding band.
He wears it every day.
Well, I still got it.
She worked so hard and did so many things.
That was a small gesture.
I'm glad that she got to experience being engaged
and planning a wedding.
Weeks after Jonna's murder,
investigators still don't have a suspect,
but then a break in the case.
DNA results have just come in.
There were three DNA samples found at the scene,
Jonna's, Jason, and an unknown male perpetrator.
The unknown sample, it was found in Jonna's bedroom.
It was also found in the living room,
and it was found on the back door
and outside on the back deck.
And we know that they exited out the rear of the apartment
because the unknown DNA is not only on the back door,
but it leads down the back stairwell.
We found no unknown
DNA on the front door leading out the front door. Detectives also make a key discovery
on the murder weapon. There was an unknown DNA that was found on the knife. The race
is now on to find out who the DNA belongs to. We thought they're gonna be able to find who murdered her.
But after running that unknown DNA
through a law enforcement database,
investigators get some disappointing news.
The DNA comes back to us.
There's no one in the system that that comes back to.
They don't know who it belongs to.
It seemed unusual to us that a person
would commit a crime with such violence if they
didn't have some sort of other violent history.
They ran the DNA and no match.
No match.
While meeting with investigators, Joan learned something else that shocks her.
Tennessee doesn't take DNA if you're arrested for a violent crime, only if you're convicted.
I was absolutely shocked, and I even said, wow, well, that needs to be changed.
And that's exactly what Joan does.
For more than two years, hoping it might lead to her daughter's killer, she pushes for a
new DNA law.
I would go to the Capitol and introduce myself and ask them if they would support the DNA law. I would go to the Capitol and introduce myself
and ask them if they would support the DNA law.
We're talking about any violent crime
such as murder, rape, even robbery.
Those people arrested would have to submit their DNA.
Joan is a fighter and she rose up like a phoenix.
Johnna Berry was her name and her parents,
Joan is sitting in the back of the chamber
here with me today, have been on a crusade. Well a victory today for family and friends of murdered
UT student Johnna Berry. I think this is a very important bill for every citizen in the state of
Tennessee. You pushed and pushed and you got this law passed in Tennessee. You changed the law.
Yes, we did.
Johnna's law.
It's called the Johnna Berry Act.
But ironically, even after changing the law, Joan discovers there's still no match
with that unknown DNA in her daughter's case.
How did you find the strength to keep pushing?
This was the most important thing in the world to me, to find out who murdered Johnna.
When it comes to this mother wanting to find answers, she would stop at nothing.
To keep her daughter, Johnna's, name out in the public, Joan goes on national talk shows.
Joan, what has it been like all these years?
There's no words to explain what we've gone through.
She even goes on the Montel Williams show seeking a psychic's help.
Really need to know, we need to know who did this to Donna.
We need answers.
Heartbroken warrior.
That's who Joan is.
That was my prayer always to have an answer. And I believed in my heart that God would
answer my prayers.
Even if it took a while?
Mm-hmm. And one day he said, what are you worried about? It's going to be okay.
As the investigation into Jonna's murder went on, it really expanded. Thousands of tips came in.
We would follow up with the tips that we would get. Every person that we came in contact with,
we asked them to voluntarily commit to a DNA sample.
We looked into any person that we possibly could, but it was just dead end after dead end.
Then about two and a half years after John O'Berry's death.
So in this lab we actually have dual purpose.
A forensic scientist makes a key discovery.
I said oh wow this might be something.
Our chief of detectives called and said that we all needed to get together.
They needed to talk to us.
And he's like get here as soon as you can.
A family still looking to track down a murderer tonight nearly three years after their daughter and UT co-ed is killed in her apartment.
The main thing that you're going on is DNA evidence. Yes, we have the unknown
DNA. It was really our only connection to the person that was connected to this
crime. We thought, will we ever have this case solved? Then the case makes a turn.
Someone called in a tip after looking at the composite sketch and they said, that looks like someone I know.
And that someone is Taylor Olson.
Looks very similar.
Yes.
Taylor Lee Olson is 22 years old.
He lived about 15 minutes from the crime scene
and he was known to have committed some petty crimes,
also harassment, theft.
He also had an outstanding warrant for his arrest
out of another jurisdiction.
We arrested him, asked him about the crime.
Does he present in any way at all to you
that he might have a connection to this?
He said that he didn't know anything about the crime.
He voluntarily gave us his DNA.
Given that Taylor Olson only had smaller, petty crimes,
he didn't really fit the profile of who we were looking for.
We just thought, hey, you know, this is just another person
that looks like the composite sketch.
Olson's DNA is then sent to a lab
to compare it to the unknown DNA found at the crime scene.
It comes back.
It is a match to the blood of that unknown person
found at the crime scene.
So in this lab, we actually have dual-
Jennifer Millsaps, the forensic scientist at the lab,
made the match.
I looked at it a couple times.
I wasn't too sure.
I wanted to make sure that it actually was a match
and I hadn't confused something.
So we actually ran it twice to verify it.
That must've been a big moment.
Oh yeah, it was huge.
Amazing.
Probably one of the happiest moments of my life.
We were all very excited, high-fiving each other,
celebrating.
Gave Brad a big hug or something
because we just, we couldn't believe it finally happened.
You get a phone call.
There's a match.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
So I said, I want to put you on the speakerphone
because I wanted Mike to hear too
because I didn't trust what I was hearing.
It was the blessing that God had answered my prayer.
So when we come back to town, we learn that Taylor Olson has a couple more outstanding
warrants for his arrest, a burglary and a theft.
At that time, detectives don't have a warrant to arrest him for murder.
So we go into mode of looking for him and trying to locate him on those arrest warrants.
He was found, ironically, in the mall
where Johnna worked in the parking lot of the mall.
He was inside the trunk of a car.
He was trying to hide from the officers.
So we took him into custody.
Let me see.
You had your suspect.
We had a suspect.
We wanted to give him an opportunity
to explain why his DNA or his blood
was found there in the crime scene.
What's up, Tyler?
How you doing, man?
I'm good.
It was very important to us that he didn't have any upfront
knowledge that we were going to talk
to him about Jonna or the DNA.
Do you know why you're here?
Where you going? What for? to him about Jonna or the DNA. Do you know why you're here?
What for?
Had you ever heard about the Jonna Berry homicide case before?
So you'd never seen Jonna Berry before? Detectives decide to. No, I never met her.
Detectives decide to confront Olson with the DNA evidence.
After I sent your sample off to the TBI lab, they got us a report back. It's a match for your DNA being in John Barry's
apartment.
Is this a joke?
No.
I really don't know.
Trust me, it's not a joke.
No. I really don't know anything about it.
No.
Trust me, it's not a joke.
Is there any reason that you can explain your blood being
in John O'Berry's apartment?
My blood was in John O'Berry's apartment.
Right.
You're serious?
Yeah.
He was very adamant that he was not there.
He denied any involvement.
You think he killed someone?
I'm just talking about the evidence,
is what I'm talking about.
I've never killed anyone.
We knew he was there, of course,
because of the blood, his DNA being there.
So we're here to give you an opportunity.
Okay.
To, you know, tell us what happened, his DNA being there. So we're here to give you an opportunity. Okay.
To, you know, tell us what happened, why you were there,
do and why your blood was there.
I have never been there.
I don't even kill her.
I haven't killed no one.
I've never killed anybody.
Never.
There was no doubt in my mind at that point
that this was the person that we'd been looking for.
We have your blood there.
So I'm pretty much f**ked up.
I'm giving you the opportunity to explain.
I don't have an explanation. Finally, you know, we were just like, hey, he's just going to keep going and going with his story
and nothing's ever going to change.
It almost seemed like he thought that he was going to get away with it.
Olson is questioned three days in a row.
And on the final day, investigators
are about to make a breakthrough.
I've been sitting out here in the hallway listening
to this **** what you're talking about,
and I'm just about sick of it.
Why did you do this to this girl?
And finally, he said, OK, I was there.
I can't believe this happened.
You got the knife away from that person?
Went kind of crazy?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh.
Oh.
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You want both free? Yeah.
OK.
This is your opportunity to tell,
because this is your last chance.
Your last chance to get your voice out there.
You tell your side of it.
We already know her side.
On his third day of taped interrogation,
Taylor Olson continues to deny any knowledge
of John O'Berry's murder.
Why don't you tell me what happened when you were inside?
I don't know.
He would just say, I don't have an explanation.
Don't have an explanation.
So finally, you know, we just said, like, enough's enough.
I've been sitting out here in the hallway
listening to this b---- you're talking about.
And I'm just about sick of it.
You know what happened to this girl? Look at this about sick of it. You know what happened to this girl?
Look at this. You were there.
You know what happened to her?
We know you were there.
The evidence shows you were there.
Why did you do this to this girl?
Huh?
Why'd you do that?
And that's when you really saw Taylor change.
Like once he saw the crime scene photo,
this is what happened, this is what you did.
Like, you need to talk about this.
Finally, with evidence of the crime
staring him right in the face,
Taylor Olson began sharing his own account
of the night of the murder.
I just didn't understand what happened.
I just...
Did you have blood on you?
Were you cut? I don thought I got too drunk. Did you have blood on you?
Were you cut?
I don't remember if I was cut.
Eventually, more details begin trickling in.
As Olson says, he was out that night
with a friend named Noah Cox.
Man, Noah went out and took a CD player out of a car.
And we kind of got lost from each other.
Someone came out when we were breaking into cars and yelled at us, ran off.
I don't know where the hell he was.
Now, wandering around on his own, Olson says he suddenly found himself outside
Jonna's apartment.
He says he goes up back steps of Jna and Jason Hamamie's apartment.
I was looking for some keys and then someone said who are you or what are you doing or something?
And I was like you know chill out and then I just heard like a yell and then I just felt the pain.
He goes in Johnna's bedroom.
Johnna wakes up.
He says they get into a confrontation
and that she has a knife, stabs him on the arm,
fought with her over the knife.
She did fight back hard.
She fought for her life. That's why the stabbing kept going on and on.
You got the knife away from that person and just went kind of crazy.
I guess they were sleeping with it.
I just freaked out.
As for Jason Amame, Olson says he had no idea that another person was in the apartment.
I didn't even remember anything about the guy until
the news said it was two people.
I didn't realize everyone got hurt like that.
Did you just go in there and things just went wrong?
I really don't know her, man.
I've never met her.
There's no reason for him to select that apartment
other than the fact that it was the first apartment
he came to that had an open door.
And Jonna, according to her mom,
was a stickler for locking the door every night.
Nobody knows why the door was unlocked on that night.
After nearly three years of unanswered questions
with investigators looking at people in Jonna's life
and complete strangers alike,
Olson's confession is startling.
And to wind up having a random person, a break in, nobody who's really connected to her,
that's not common, is it?
No, not really.
It wasn't.
It was a surprise to us and I think everybody else was kind of surprised too.
Now that Knox County detectives know Taylor Olson's full story, he prepares to tell his
mom and sister the truth.
Would you rather talk to your mom on the telephone or would you rather talk to her in person?
I'd like to see her.
She really is being a mom.
You kind of have to feel for her, what's going on, what has my son done?
What happened, Tay?
Did you break up, Taylor?
I love you.
That was an accident.
Are you sure?
Taylor, Taylor I need to know.
It's okay, I want to know the truth, okay?
Dude, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you.
Okay.
You'd rather have the truth, okay?
I have to.
I have to offer you one?
When did you tell him the truth?
How did that come about?
I got my bloods on the knife
and my bloods like in the back door.
Then why did they let you go?
Did they get the DNA back?
Okay, and it matches?
Taylor, listen, I'm gonna help you.
I want to make sure that this is for real
and that you did it.
No, I don't know.
And at that point, you feel their brokenness
over this horrific crime.
Taylor, I want you to know something.
I want you to start praying because there is a God.
Do you hear me?
And he loves you and will forgive if this is true.
I'm so sorry, Mom.
Taylor.
After coming clean to his family,
Olsen now faces the press.
Did you mean to kill her?
No.
Why'd you do it?
Was it an accident?
It was an accident.
But you stabbed her 26 times.
And his look was one of complete surprise, shock, baffled.
I told reporters it was an accident.
How is that an accident?
Accidents happen one time, not 20 plus.
No, that angered me that it was an accident. Well after 33 months of
wondering and waiting, Johnna Berry's parents finally came face to face with
the man charged with killing their daughter. 22-year-old Taylor Olson, he's
facing seven counts including first-degree murder. But just as Taylor
Olson is about to go on trial, he does something that utterly rocks everyone involved in the case.
You finally are getting to court
and then you get shocking news.
Our top story tonight, this man, 22 year old Taylor Lee Olsen of Knoxville is behind bars.
Now today's announcement providing some relief to Johnna's family who have spent years and
countless hours searching for her killer.
What was that like for you to see him and to come face to face with him in court?
You look at that person and it's like,
I know you're not supposed to hate anybody,
but I hated him.
Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom
for today's hearing, but inside,
22-year-old Taylor Lee Olson did not enter a plea
when he was arraigned.
Olson faces a seven-count indictment,
including three counts of felony murder
and one count of first degree murder.
They're planning for a trial.
And then we get word Taylor Lee Olson is dead.
He hanged himself in his jail cell.
I got a call the Monday after Easter
that he had been found in his jail cell,
that he had fashioned a ligature with sheets.
You finally are getting to court,
and then you get shocking news.
He's taken his life.
When I got the news, I became very upset.
I even cried.
What were the tears for?
Just tears of relief because we don't have to fight the system.
But Joan Berry wants confirmation with her own eyes that her daughter's killer is really gone.
I called the DA's office and I said, I know you probably think I'm just a crazy old woman, but I want
to see him dead, just the way I had to look at my daughter dead.
Joan and Mike wanted that.
We met in the conference room in the district attorney's office and showed them photographs
of Taylor Olson's autopsy.
To some people it might sound cruel,
but I think it gave me some closure.
I think that the Berries needed to see
the photos of Taylor Olson
because they were deprived of the right of trial.
Though there's no trial, the case isn't exactly over
because in writings left behind in his jail cell,
Taylor Olson tries to argue his innocence from beyond the grave.
I read a bunch of letters that I didn't do it and hung himself. That's a coward's
admission of guilt.
Olson writes a long note called The Story where he tries to shift blame by bringing back a familiar name.
Taylor Olson said he didn't do it and that Noah Cox, his friend, is the one who committed the crime.
Noah Cox was the individual that Taylor said he was with when they were breaking into vehicles
and were separated. In an audio recording with investigators Noah Cox denies breaking
into cars with Olson that night and he's adamant that he was never in John
Avery's apartment. Mr Cox were you present in the apartment when John Avery
was murdered? No sir. The whole story just really doesn't make sense. We had
talked to Noah Cox. He had submitted to a DNA sample. His DNA didn't come back as a match to the unknown sample.
There was no evidence showing that Noah Cox
was ever in that apartment.
There's no other blood samples, fingerprints,
nothing to indicate that anyone but Taylor was there.
Taylor Olson's partial fingerprint
was ultimately found on the murder weapon.
Was there any part of you that felt any sadness for the
outside for his family to families lives have been
ruined.
Painfully
I'll never see my daughter again now they'll never see
their son again.
again now they'll never see their son again.
Through their pain, Joan and Mike Berry stay busy, focusing on the laws they've changed and all the victims they've helped.
Now here we are at the TBI where there is big change. There is change.
There's now a memorial to Jonna at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations in Knoxville DNA Lab.
Long after we're gone, she'll be, she'll still be helping others.
To be able to have made that kind of change in a state law,
that must be gratifying even in the midst of your heartbreak.
It is very gratifying, but it's also sad that this had to happen to my daughter.
And when Joan and Mike aren't tirelessly
fighting for victims rights, every son of the vote on the bill, every son of the
vote has every son of the voted.
Do you do remember that one? August 26 or 21st birthday. They take time to savor
the bright, wonderful memories
their daughter left behind, including
a note written to each of them on her high school graduation
day.
I still have the letter, so I'd like to read it to you.
And it says, dear mom, I want to thank you for being my mom.
You have always been the one I could turn to.
No matter what, the only true friend that I've ever had. I only hope that someday that I'll be a mom as good as you are. I hope that I have made you proud and I hope
I will continue to make you proud in the future. I love you your daughter
She loved life, you know, I can still see her in her little red convertible with the top down and
Her ponytail blowing in the wind.
Johnna's smiling at the camera girl.
Johnna's dead, but she's not dead in my heart.
Plant flowers in her memory.
Sometimes I'm outside, I think butterflies remind me.
So she's still with you.
She is.
Such emotional words from a mother David after her daughter's murder. Joan Berry
actually started a support group to help families and victims of violent crime.
And Deborah as you know she also continues to advocate for DNA arrest
laws. Today 34 states require that DNA is collected after arrest.
That's our program for tonight. I'm David Muir.
And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.
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