The murder of a University of Tennessee graduate student, Johnia Berry, had remained unsolved for years, especially after the death of the lead investigator in a car accident, leaving many believing it might never be resolved.
However, advances in DNA technology provided investigators with a vital lead years later, due to the extensive blood evidence at the crime scene.
On December 6, 2004, 21-year-old Johnia Berry was brutally attacked, sustaining over 20 stab wounds across her face, head, neck, back, chest, and legs. The attack was so vicious that the steak knife used was left bent and broken.
The attack occurred around 4 a.m. Her roommate, Jason Aymami, was awakened by the commotion and, after being stabbed as well, managed to escape and call 911 from a nearby convenience store.
Emergency responders arrived to find Berry barely clinging to life in the entryway of her apartment. Sadly, she succumbed to her injuries en route to the hospital, just before she was to graduate with a master’s degree from East Tennessee State University.
ABC’s “20/20” recently revisited the case in a special episode titled “Blood on the Door” that aired on May 16.
Knox County Sheriff’s Detective AmyLynn Delgado spoke to the “20/20” crew: “What stood out to me the most about the weapon is how damaged it was… The blade was bent… it was very violent, just given the force to break the handle.”
Given the ferocity of the crime, investigators initially suspected that Berry’s killer was someone she knew well, and they focused on those closest to her, including her fiancé.
“We really focused mostly on her closest circle,” Delgado said. However, Berry’s fiancé had a solid alibi, corroborated by phone records showing he was 700 miles away in Michigan at the time.
The only description of the assailant came from Aymami, who described him as approximately 5’8″ tall and weighing 150 pounds.
A forensic artist created a sketch based on this description, which was widely circulated on billboards in May 2005 as part of a campaign to capture the suspect, with the reward eventually increasing to $60,000.
Despite conducting over 300 interviews and obtaining approximately 80 DNA samples, investigators still lacked a motive and a clear suspect.
In May 2006, the case suffered another setback when the lead investigator, Assistant Chief Keith Lyon, died in a car accident while on duty.
Berry’s mother, Joan, expressed on “20/20”: “We called every day… There was that feeling that detectives and the sheriff’s office weren’t doing enough, when in reality they were working this every day. There just weren’t any answers.”
A breakthrough came in April 2007, three years after Berry’s murder, when a tip-off suggested that Taylor Lee Olson matched the sketch. Olson, then 21, had a history of minor criminal offenses.
However, Olson’s physical appearance differed from Aymami’s description, as he was a towering 6’3″, and his DNA was not on file.
In July 2007, Olson was arrested on unrelated charges and voluntarily provided a DNA sample.
This enabled detectives to confirm his presence at the crime scene, leading to his arrest on September 21 at West Town Mall.
Initially, Olson denied involvement but eventually confessed to breaking into Berry’s apartment through an unlocked back door while attempting to steal car keys, resulting in a botched robbery. He faced multiple charges, including the attempted murder of Aymami, aggravated burglary, and first-degree murder of Berry.
Olson’s trial never took place, as he died by suicide while in police custody in March 2008.