True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: The Disturbing Murder of Johnia Berry | True Crime Stories - Holiday Homicide

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

A festive night ends in horror in this chilling case. In True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha unpacks the disturbing murder of Johnia Berry, a young woman whose life was cut short during the holidays. With detailed research and a compassionate, analytical lens, True Crime with Kimbyr explores the timeline, unanswered questions, and emotional weight surrounding this tragic crime. Who was responsible, and why did a night meant for celebration become a nightmare? This haunting story will stay with you long after the episode ends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go! U.S. residents, 18 plus only. Banana Ball Games available to all Disney Plus subscribers. Terms apply. Your fiancé just proposed and you're picking out your wedding dress preparing for your beautiful spring wedding. But during the Christmas holiday, tragedy strikes all of those dreams suspended in time becoming mere memories for all the people left behind. Today I'm going to be talking about a very heartbreaking case and I want to get serious fast. It's one of the status cases that I've researched in a very long time. I was in tears multiple times reading about everything that happened.

And I can't guarantee that I will keep my composure this entire video. And I can't guarantee you will either, especially if you're a girl like me, a girl that's dreamed of meeting her prince charming one day and having a beautiful wedding and kids and the charming home and successful career. It's a big dream. A dream that was coming true for one Tennessee woman, but a dream that ended in a nightmare. I have the absolute pleasure of introducing you to one of the loveliest ladies that I've learned about on this channel. Her name is Jonna Hope Barry.

And I love her name so much. It's spelled J-O-H-N-I-A. Johna Hope Barry was born in Bristol, Tennessee on August 26, 1983. Bristol is located in Sullivan County. the population is about 30,000 people. Wikipedia is where it's at sometimes, and I got this information about this area that I thought was so interesting.

The city's located near the state line between Tennessee and Virginia, and it's connected to its twin city of Bristol, Virginia. State Street serves as the border between these two cities. One thing that came up every time I was searching for Bristol, Tennessee, was the fact that it is known

as the birthplace of country music. Every article I read, said, believe it or not, even though you thought the birthplace of country was in Nashville, it's not. The first commercial recording was made in Bristol. And one of the first musical groups in Bristol to record country music was the Carter family in 1927. So we are going back. June Carter, the future wife of legendary musician Johnny Cash, was one of them. And I don't know if you're like me. I'm from South Florida. NASCAR is a big thing there. But whether you like it or not, Bristol has one of NASCAR's loudest tracks.

It's called the Bristol Motor Speedway. It's a very short track. It's less than a mile long, but it's famous because it has this extreme slope, and the stadium is Roman-inspired, so it gives it the appearance of a Coliseum. And that's why they call it the last great Coliseum. Johnna had two biological brothers, Tim and Kelly Burke, from her mother's previous marriage. But when she was seven years old, her mother, Joan, remarried to a man named Michael Barry. Joan ended up giving Jonna Michael's last name Barry, and she used it from that day forward.

As a young girl, Jonna went to Hulston View Elementary School and Vance Middle School. Jonna was a cheerleader for Bristol, Tennessee High School, which she was a proud graduate. After graduating high school in 2001, Jonna enrolled at Eastern Tennessee State University, which was about a half an hour away from Bristol in Johnson City. At Eastern Tennessee State University or ETSU, she studied psychology and criminology. There was no shortage of activities for Jonna to do while she attended ETSU. There are these beautiful historic gardens on top of Roan Mountain on the Appalachian Trail, and there were only 30 minutes from the college.

There was a lake nearby where you could go water skiing and boating, and then just one hour east is Mount Rogers National Recreation Center, an hour west is the Great Smoky Mountains. Johnson City hosts a variety of festivals throughout the year such as the Blue Plum Festival and the Rhyme and Roots Reunion. But one of her favorite things to do was dedicate her time to children. Johnna worked as a student assistant for three and a half years at the Child's Study Center. It's an early childhood learning program operated by ETSU. While Jana enjoyed her time at college, her parents' favorite part was when their daughter came home to visit.

They had since moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and every time John arrived home, she would throw open the door and yell, I'm home. And Joan Berry was so happy every single time. She heard her daughter's voice announcing that she was back for the weekend. As far as Joan was concerned, it was the most beautiful sound in the world. Someone else thought something about Jana was beautiful. Fellow university student Jason White. The two met in 2001 while taking classes in similar subject matter.

And they were inseparable. They were more than just dating. They were completely smith. with one another. Jason planned on going to law school. He and Jonna dated throughout their entire time attending ETSU, and by the time they were set to graduate, Jonna decided to follow in Jason's footsteps and go into a legal career. They both planned on attending Thomas Cooley Law School in Michigan, and Jonna was brilliant. She was graduating with two degrees from ETSU in the summer of 2004 after only three and a half years of school. She expected to walk the stage as Magna Cunlock

Lade and received her diploma in the winter on December 18th, 2004. The previous winter, Jason had proposed for the first time. Yes, he proposed more than one time. They were the type of couple that made other people cringe because they were that romantic. It wasn't uncommon for Jana to joke with Jason that some time had passed and he should propose again because it had been a couple months. The last time Jason got down on one knee was in August. The two of them went to the Mendota River, and on the way there, they had to cross a swinging bridge.

Well, to John's surprise, Jason got down on one knee yet again, ring in hand, her engagement ring, that she purposely left behind so she wouldn't lose it. They were inseparable, and they had a lot to look forward to. But most of all, they just wanted to spend time together in grad school. Upon graduating from ETSU, Jana became one of the youngest people to ever be accepted, into Thomas Cooley Law School. Wow, that's something to really be proud of. The couple moved to Michigan that summer in anticipation for the fall semester.

However, while in her first few months of classes, Jana realized it was not the right choice. At one point, she called her father to vent. And I know that exact same feeling. She told him that she could not see herself as a lawyer because they seemed like they spent their entire days reading documents. She wasn't wrong.

I shared the same viewpoint. And since Jana has always been passionate about children, she decided to pursue a career in something that she was genuinely passionate about. Because of her change of heart, Donna moved back to Tennessee, Knoxville to be exact, where she intended to pursue a master's degree in child psychology. She had been accepted for graduate studies at the University of Tennessee and she planned to enroll in the spring of 2005. This is also when she planned to get married in April of the very same semester. She wanted a beautiful spring wedding and she had already picked out her wedding dress. She already had it. She was ready to go.

Joan and Mike Berry had no doubt that Jana had made the right decision. They were happy that she was moving back home to Tennessee and despite her age only being 21, Donna was mature. She was level-headed and her parents trusted her. I can imagine why someone like Jason would be attracted to Jonah. Not only was she gorgeous, I mean gorgeous. She was also smart and generous and charismatic and she made friends easily. Every time I read something about Jana, it was positive.

How she was just so special. She was the type of person that people were automatically drawn to. But she was drawn to Jason White. Though they were long distance, they loved each other and they knew the time apart would be worth the wait. Not a day went by that the couple didn't speak to each other on the phone. They would even fall asleep talking to one another. because John are really like that.

Upon moving back to Tennessee in 2004 at 21 years old, she was living with another Jason, a close friend who she attended ETSU with. He was one of her friend, Stephanie Keane's boyfriend. His name was Jason a mommy. He was 23 years old, and he had offered up an extra bedroom in his apartment to her until she could get fully established back in Knoxville.

Yes, she was room with a guy, but they were merely friends. John even made sure that she was comfortable living with him before she fully committed to moving in. Her mom even came out to spend some time at the apartment and get to know Jason. The apartment that they shared was in a complex called Brendan Park in Knoxville, Tennessee.

I looked at it on a map like I always do, and it's a really happening area. Now, I'm not sure it looked exactly the same way back in 2004, but this is not a small town. The mall is only about a five-minute drive, and it's a built-up area. It has popular chains like Home Depot, FedEx, Costco, and Walmart, among other fun places like golf courses, movie theaters, and lots of places to eat.

Jana was already working two jobs. One, because, as I mentioned, she was saving so that she could move out on her own. She only planned to be adjacent for a couple more months until she could get her own place, but also because the holidays were coming up, and she wanted some extra spending money. She was primarily working at a teen center, a peninsula hospital, but as 2004 came to a close, she had just recently started working part-time at sales jewelry store in the mall. It's always a busy time during the holidays, and it's nice to have a little extra spending money for presents and for fun. The Westtown Mall is exactly what comes to mind when you think of a typical mall, a big food

court and stores like Dillard, Sears, and Belk. Jonna liked to socialize, and she liked to have fun with friends. She didn't have that many in the immediate area, but she did spend time with her coworkers. and on Sunday, December 5th, 2004, it was one of those evenings when work was ending and Jana wanted to hang out for a bit. It wasn't the best night to go out though, because it was cold and rainy. So our coworkers decided they'd rather call it a night. But they did walk out to their cars together after their shift, saying goodbye and drive safely. She ended work around six, so she probably got to her car between six and seven o'clock. Jonna got into her Chrysler

Sebring convertible and drove off to do some Christmas shopping. First stop, Walgreens. Jana called her mom while she was there, and she told her she was going to pick up a few more Christmas gifts, and then she was going to go home to wrap them since she was having a night in that night. And by 10 o'clock that night, Jana was doing just that, wrapping gifts for the children at ETSU. She was thoughtful and caring. She spent her hard-earned money making these kids smile. Her roommate, Jason and Mommy, came through the doors around the time that she was wrapping the gifts. They sat, they talk for a little bit and then Johna decided it was time to get ready for bed while she talked

to her fiance Jason White like she routinely did. Their call ended around 11 p.m. Only a few hours later during the early morning hours of December 6th, 2004, approximately 4 a.m., a man covered in blood, ran into a convenience store, and asked for a phone to call 911. Seeing this bloody person running into the store, the employee behind the counter quickly did as the man asked, He called 911 and told a dispatcher that a man had just come through the door, shirtless, and it looked like he had a lot of blood on him like he'd been in a fight. And then he handed him the phone. This man was Jason and Mommy, Jana's roommate.

He told 911 that he and his roommate, John Avery, were sleeping when someone broke into their apartment and attacked them. Someone with a knife. He said he felt someone stab him right in the chest, and then they hit him in the face, and he said that the first thing he did was get up and run. But he said that during the commotion, he heard Jonna screaming from her bedroom,

and it was really loud, but he said he didn't have time to help. He had to get out of there. So when he had a chance to escape, he fled the apartment, leaving Jonna behind. Police and paramedics did not know what to expect, but they were dispatched around 4.30 a.m. to 404, Hordora Road,

and the gas station where Jason had made that call. The EMTs got to Jason, and they immediately assessed his injuries. He had definitely been stabbed, but most of the wounds appeared to be pretty superficial. There was one to the chest, one to the arm, and one more significant injury to his right hand on his ring finger, which was very significant.

It was a slice through his finger that looked like it could either be from an offensive or a defensive wound. He was either wielding the knife or blocking it by putting his hands up. They couldn't tell. None of his injuries were life-threatening. All but the finger were considered surface wounds,

but he was rushed to University of Tennessee Medical Center to be treated. The Brendan Park Apartments, where Jason lived with Jana, is right off a road called 10-mile road. It's right here. Then you turn right into the apartment complex. It's also right next door to another complex called The Element, but I don't know if that was there in 2004. As you come down this driveway,

you go right up to the apartment complex that Jonah and Jason lived in. It was the first set of apartments right here on the right in Building 404. As you can see, there are a small flight of stairs outside the building that lead up to a glass door where you come inside, and then there's another flight of stairs you go up to to the second floor, as well as doors to the first floor apartments. Jana and Jason's apartment was located on the second floor to the right. The glass door out front is communal, and it does not have a lock.

Going through this door, you gain access to the doors of the apartment, apartments inside, and there are six altogether. When the responding officers arrived at the apartment, they discovered a crime scene unlike any that they had ever encountered. Before they could even make their way upstairs into Jana's apartment, they discover something at the bottom of the flight of stairs right inside the common door. Horrifically, it's the bloody body of Jana Berry. She's face down, she's still alive.

She's still alive, but barely. Jana was struggling to breathe and she was fighting for her life. And they can tell that she suffered a number of injuries. They asked her if the assailant was still inside her apartment and she said nothing. Poor Jana was too weak and unable to speak. However, as a couple of the officers watched her, they thought they saw her faintly nodding, yes. So they wanted to enter her unit with caution.

They wanted to make sure that there were no other victim. and they had to confirm that the suspect wasn't in the building because he might still be hiding inside and he could be a danger to personnel unseen. Unaware of what they're walking into, the officers drew their weapons and they entered the dark apartment. In case the suspect was still inside, the officers actually used hand signals

to communicate silently to one another as they walked in. When the officers reached Jana's room, they noticed that there had been a struggle. There were red stains all over the place, which looked like blood. One of the responding officers said that the crime scene at Brendan Park Apartments was the most horrific thing that she had ever seen. She said she will never forget how bloody that bedroom was. It was traumatizing.

Once they were able to turn on the lights, they realized the bedroom wasn't the only room that was bloody. There was almost a trail throughout the entire apartment. walls, floors, furniture. It all had droplets or smears of blood. While the apartment was being searched, aunties were talking to Jonna and holding her hand until she was fully transported

to the back of the ambulance. They didn't want her to be alone. They didn't want her to think she was alone. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. 200 miles away in Atlanta, John's parents, Mike and Joan, were woken up early that morning. on December 6 at 5 a.m. by a phone call on Jones' cell phone.

When she answered, the person on the other end asked for her husband, Michael. So she was half awake handing the phone to him. It was someone calling from the University of Tennessee Trauma Center, and they were informing him that his daughter, Jana, had been a victim of a crime, and they needed to get there as soon as possible to identify her, and she may not survive her injuries. Joan can hear this.

And she is in total disbelief of what she is hearing. She fell to her knees and cried and prayed because she didn't want to believe this was happening. It was also a four-hour drive to get from where they were to the hospital that John was in. Astonished by what she had just heard and not wanting to believe that it was true. Joan called her two sons, Tim and Kelly, because they were closer to Knoxville. And she told them, please get to the hospital as fast as you possibly can because she needed to know if it was really their sister. Joan described that drive as the longest ride of her life. She prayed the entire time. She just kept repeating, God, please don't let it be

Jana. And it rained the entire way there as if the sky was opening up and crying with her. On that drive to Knoxville, Jana's parents hoped that they had misheard the person who told them that their daughter may not survive. When Jana's brothers arrived at the hospital, they were told they had to wait. And it seemed like hours before they were finally told that they could look at a picture of a woman who had been stabbed. They were praying it wasn't her. But as soon as the doctor flashed the first photograph of a woman's face, they knew. They knew it was her. Their little sister. Poor Jana. It was real. When Jana's parents arrived, they were still holding out hope. But as soon as they saw Joan's son Kelly run to their car hysterically crying,

right outside the hospital in Knoxville, Mike and Joan knew. They knew they heard right, and the news got worse. John was gone. She did not survive her injuries. The boys had to break the awful news to their mother. Kelly just uttered, It's John and mom.

And it was the most horrific day of their lives. They weren't even able to comprehend the magnitude of their loss at this point. And while they were left to grieve, detectives were working on Jana's case. After the ambulance had rushed her to the hospital, investigators cordoned off her apartment, and they started to search for evidence. And the first thing investigators noticed was that it didn't seem like there were any forcible entry points at the apartment. Either this person was let in, or they had a key, or one of the doors was left unlocked. The first person they want to speak to is Jana's roommate.

After all, he was there, and they already had a few things that they thought were suspicious about his version of what happened that night. For one thing, why did he walk 14 minutes to a gas station to get help? I wanted to understand this for myself, so I pulled up a map to see the path that Jason potentially took. We cannot know for sure which stores were they. at the time but I do notice that this area is pretty residential in nature. They're living in an apartment complex and there's another one right next door. There's a post office but this is four o'clock in the morning that's going to be closed. The library isn't going to be open and after going down 10 mile road he would have had the choice to go either left or right and he chose to go left because

there really isn't anything to the right as far as businesses are concerned especially businesses that would be open at this point and he probably knew that that gas station was open 24-7. That was most likely the closest place that he knew he could have gotten help. I don't see anything else that would have been open. There's a coffee shop, a dollar general, and again, we don't even know if those places were there at the time. But I thought, couldn't he have stopped and tried to get a neighbor to let him use their phone? Which in my mind would have been way more convenient considering he lives in a pretty large apartment complex. If you look at the overhead view right here, there are a number of buildings, whether it's in their own apartment complex or the neighboring one.

And even around that, there's a neighborhood on 10-mile road. It seems like there would have been a lot of residents in that area. So I was confused, as I'm sure the police were too, about why he would travel that far to use a phone. They were also curious about the wound on his hand. Could there have been a struggle between him and Jonna? could he be the one responsible? That's their first question, but they have many more. Jason was released pretty quickly from the hospital,

and he presented himself voluntarily to the Knoxville Sheriff's Department. He wanted to give an official statement. Jason and Jana's relationship was the subject of the investigator's interest. He told police that he met Johnna in college, and he was letting her stay with him when she returned to Knoxville six weeks ago. He explained he has a girlfriend named Stephanie Keene, and her and Jana are friends. Nevertheless, the investigators pressed him

about whether they were more than friends. And Jason swore that him and Jana never had a romantic relationship. And then he didn't even have any romantic feelings toward her. Still, the police continued to question Jason repeatedly about his story. Jason said he returned home from work around 10.30 p.m. And Jana was still awake, wrapping presents for Christmas, right inside their door in this area right here. in the apartment. You can still see some unwrapped toys on the floor in this crime scene photo.

Jana made her way to bed soon after Jason got home from work. And after he entered his bedroom, he fell asleep. Jason said he remained in that sound sleep until he was woken up by Jana screaming in the middle of the night. When Jason rolled over, he looked at the clock and he noticed it was 4 a.m. And at first, he thought that Jana was having a nightmare, but still, he went to find out what was going on. And when he opened his bedroom door, he saw a silhouette of someone he didn't recognize, a stranger. Someone was in their apartment. It was a man, and he was coming out of John's room. The intruder noticed Jason and without hesitation. Jason said the man ran toward him, grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back into his bedroom and onto his bed, and then a struggle

ensued. According to Jason's version of events, Jason said he could see that the man had a knife and he started to stab him, which was the cause of all of his wounds. And at some point, he was able to push the assailant off of him. That's when he rushed by the assailant and out of his bedroom door. Then he proceeded out of the front door, down that first long flight of stairs, out of that glass door that everybody shared, down the other tiny staircase and all the way toward that gas station. to call for help. When the investigators asked him whether or not he saw Jonna, he said he never did. He could only hear her screaming and he knew he had to get out of the apartment to save his life. He had no idea according to him what was going on in her bedroom. And we know what happened

the rest of the time because when he got to that convenience store, we know the clerk called 911 and that is how authorities were able to get to the scene. However, investigators are piecing to together Jana's final moments. Investigators asked Jason, which door did you escape the apartment through? He said that as he was running, he remembered unlocking the front door. So they asked him, how do you think the intruder

got access to your apartment? And he said it was probably through the back door. Because Jason couldn't remember if he locked it after throwing out the garbage. However, Johnna was meticulous about locking their doors, especially before she went to sleep a night. She would routinely walk around checking that all the doors were locked. But he couldn't tell you whether that door was locked that night.

And he wasn't around to see her check the doors before she headed to bed. When investigators searched the back door of the apartment, they found blood. And this discovery led them to believe that the intruder had left the apartment through the back door. In comparison to Jana's fatal injuries, Jason's wounds were relatively superficial and that concern investigators. One of Jason's only more severe injuries was a deep incision on his ring finger, which I had mentioned. And they thought it may have been caused by either grabbing the knife from the attacker or he could have accidentally cut himself while he was stabbing Jonna. Not only that, they were even starting to think his wounds could

have been self-inflicted. Investigators review Jason Sign 1-1 call because they wanted to know are there any inconsistencies between what he said on the phone and what he's telling them now? While Jason told the dispatcher that he heard John a screaming when he ran out of the house, in his interview, Jason said he wasn't sure when he heard her screaming. Because remember, he said that's what woke him up. He was very hesitant because they asked him to take a polygraph. But he says he does want to clear his name. So he agrees to take it.

But then the polygrapher tells him that he felt. And Jason just keeps denying killing Jonna. He stated that he actually feared for his own life because the murder was still out there. He felt like they were accusing him of killing his friend. And he became even more upset. The polygrapher even had to tell him to calm down. But he kept telling Jason that he failed. And that's when he wouldn't calm down.

Instead, he got louder. He was yelling right out this man saying, why would I voluntarily take this test if I had something to hide? He just kept saying he felt like they think he did this. And the polygrapher said, well, it sure looks like you did. And that riled Jason up more. The argument went back and forth with Jason becoming very heated. And the polygrapher kept saying, there's no reason for you to get mad.

But for Jason, there was. He was being accused of murder. And it's not something to take lightly. Well, then a second polygrapher reviewed Jason's lie detector test results. And they determined that the first examiner had made some mistakes. And that Jason had actually passed. Kind of sketchy. But then again, these things are not.

of science and that's why they're not admissible in a court of law. Jason was also all they had at this point. So they took this opportunity to ask him to sit down with a sketch artist to draw his description of the suspect. Jason said the man had short brown or blonde hair in his square chin. He was younger, possibly in his 20s, stocky and kind of had droopy eyes that were shaped like pecans. He was under 200 pounds, maybe around 180. So authorities released the image to the news, and waited for tips to come in. Meanwhile, back at the crime scene in Jason's bedroom, investigators find a piece of cardboard on the floor

with a partial shoe print on it, so they go ahead and preserve that as evidence. Now, here's the part of the story that angered me and saddened me. Outside Jana's apartment door, there were signs that she had tried to get help from her neighbors, which is just heartbreaking to me. And it was heartbreaking for investigators to see. some of which had children of their own.

This poor girl used the last bit of her strength to knock on every single door. Five doors. The door right next to hers was only a few feet away, if that. And it had distinctive bloody knuckle prints on it. Not one of her neighbors came to her rescue. She made her way down the stairs and continued to drag her steps.

to each and every door, becoming too weak to move and then finally collapsing in the doorway. She might have survived if just one person that heard her knock on their door answered. Why didn't they? I understand it's 4 a.m. I understand this is a scary situation, but all it takes is one call. That's it. Just one call for one person to help this poor girl. This is not a new phenomenon. There's a famous case I studied in both law school and when I was getting my psychology degree, the Kitty Genovese case out of New York.

It happened back in 1964 at 3.15 in the morning. I'll never forget this story. 28-year-old bartender Kitty Genovese was followed home by a man. He forced her to have intercourse and stabbed her outside of her own apartment building where she lived. Despite her crying and screaming for help,

nobody came. That investigation started research into the bystander effect, or the Genevieve. syndrome. And this is a real thing. People do stand by and do virtually nothing. And there are reasons for this. There are. Usually it's fear. But investigators in Jana's case are shocked that in 2004, not one of her neighbors did anything, but could they have possibly slept through it? Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business, from designing a website to market, to market,

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