DNA unravels cold murder case of graduate student found brutally stabbed in her apartment
A Tennessee graduate student was brutally stabbed to death in her Knoxville apartment in 2004, in a harrowing case that remained unsolved for years.
Johnia Berry, a 21-year-old University of Tennessee graduate student, was found on December 6, 2004, with over 20 stab wounds to her neck, head, face, chest, back, and legs.
More than two decades later, the case has been thrust back into the spotlight by a compelling '20/20' special titled 'Blood on the Door,' which aired May 16 and reignited public interest in the chilling crime.
Berry had moved to the Tri-Cities area to pursue a master's degree, and was set to graduate with honors from East Tennessee State University, just six weeks before the fatal attack, WATE reported.
But in the early hours of December 6, everything changed.
Around 4 am, Berry was stabbed repeatedly in her sleep by an intruder.
Her roommate, Jason Aymami, was also attacked when he emerged from his bedroom but managed to escape and call 911 from a nearby convenience store.
Despite efforts to save her, Berry - found clinging to life in the apartment entryway - died before reaching the hospital.
The investigation that followed was lengthy and complicated.
Police were struck by the amount of blood at the scene - spattered across the doorknob, floor, and bedroom door. Investigators also recovered the murder weapon, a bent and broken steak knife, in the hallway outside Berry's room.
'What stood out to me the most about the weapon is how damaged it was,' Knox County Sheriff's Detective AmyLynn Delgado said on '20/20.'
'It was a small steak knife, but the handle was broken. The blade was bent... it was very violent, just given the force to break the handle.'
Because of the sheer number of stab wounds, investigators suspected a personal motive and focused first on those closest to Berry, including her fiancé and her roommate.
'We really focused mostly on her closest circle,' Delgado said.
Berry's fiancé was eventually cleared after cell phone records placed him in Michigan at the time of the murder.
Attention then turned to Aymami, who told police he had been watching TV when Berry went to bed and claimed to have seen the intruder face-to-face.
His description - of a man about 5'8", 150 pounds - led to a composite sketch and a billboard campaign by May 2005.
By the end of that year, with no solid leads, Governor Phil Bredesen doubled the reward for information to $60,000, WATE reported. Investigators had conducted over 300 interviews and tested 80 DNA samples, but still had no motive.
Then, in May 2006, tragedy struck the investigation itself as lead investigator Assistant Chief Keith Lyon was killed in a car crash while on duty. His death devastated Berry's family who said that they spoke with Lyon nearly every day.
'We called every day,' her mother, Joan Berry, told '20/20.' '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.'
For the next year, the family continued to plead for information.
Then, in April 2007, came the breakthrough when someone who recognized the composite sketch on a billboard contacted police.
That tip led police to Taylor Lee Olson, a man in his early 20s with a history of petty crimes.
Months later, on September 24, the Knox County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of Olson, 21, in connection with Berry's murder.
Olson initially denied involvement before admitting to entering Berry's apartment through an unlocked back door, saying he was looking for car keys during an attempted theft, according to officials.
Despite being 6'3' - much taller than the original suspect description - Berry's father, Michael Berry, told WATE there was still a resemblance and pointed out the sketch was 'given by someone that was getting stabbed at 4 o'clock in the morning.'
The arrest came after Olson voluntarily submitted DNA during an unrelated arrest in July. He became a person of interest shortly after, and was taken into custody at West Town Mall on September 21.
He was indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated burglary.
But, before his trial could begin in March 2008, Olson was found dead in his jail cell by apparent suicide.
The '20/20' special revisits Berry's grisly murder, the stalled investigation and the dogged determination of her family - especially her mother - to keep the case alive and find justice for a life taken far too soon.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The death row inmate's last meal that sparked such fury prisoners are no longer allowed to choose what they eat before execution
While many American prisoners awaiting the death penalty are able to choose their final meal before execution, inmates in Texas no longer have this privilege thanks to the actions of one man. White supremacist Lawrence Brewer was executed in 2011 after he was convicted of helping to kill a black man by dragging him behind a truck in what some call the most notorious race crime of the post-Civil Rights era. Brewer, 44 - who was convicted of capital murder along with two other men also found guilty of taking part in the kidnapping and slaying of James Byrd Jr. in 1998 - was given a lethal injection of drugs on September 21 and was pronounced dead shortly after. He had no final words, but he did put in a request for his last meal - two chicken steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, three fajitas, a pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge. Guards did their best to bring Brewer his favourite foods before his death. But as his dinner was plated up and presented to him on a table, Brewer refused to eat a single bite. His refusal to eat the multi-course meal angered Texas senator John Whitmire, prompting him to put an end to the tradition, saying 'it's long overdue.' 'Enough is enough', the senator declared, stating that the last meal request is an 'extremely inappropriate' privilege, 'one which the perpetrators did not provide to their victim.' 'Mr Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical', he added. Executive director of the Texas criminal justice department, Brad Livingston, agreed with Sen. Whitmire. He said: 'I believe Senator Whitmire's concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid. 'Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.' Brewer had been on death row for 12 years before his 2011 execution. Speaking to local media before receiving his lethal injection, he said death would be a 'good out' and that he was 'glad it's about to come to an end.' Asked if he had any last words, he replied: 'No. I have no final statement', as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Brewer was executed for his part in the 1998 killing of Byrd in Jasper, East Texas, after Brewer and two friends offered him a lift along a remote country road. Byrd, aged 49 at the time, was beaten unconscious and urinated upon before being bound to the vehicle by his ankles with a heavy logging chain and driven for three miles. Forensic evidence showed that he was alive for much of the ordeal but was killed when the vehicle hit a concrete drainage channel causing his head and arm to be ripped from his body. John William King, 36, was also convicted of capital murder and sent to death row. The third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term. After dumping his remains in an African-American cemetery his killers drove off to a barbeque. In an interview from death row, Brewer told KFDM that he participated in the assault on Byrd but had 'nothing to do with the killing as far as dragging him or driving the truck or anything'. Before receiving his lethal injection, Brewer's family was allowed to see him one last time. He was then taken from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to an isolation cell in Huntsville where the sentence was carried out. Byrd's brutal killing led to the 'Federal October 22, 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act', commonly known as the 'Matthew Shepard Act'. Then-President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009. The horrific death put Jasper, a typical East Texas town with a Dairy Queen, Walmart and a handful of fast-food places some 60 miles from the nearest interstate highway, under a national spotlight. 'Everywhere you went, anywhere in the country, once people found out you were from Jasper, Texas, they wanted to ask you about it,' said Mike Lout, mayor and the town radio station owner. 'Everybody first was shocked and appalled and not proud of it. They talked about it so much in the days past it, I think most people wanted to put it out of their minds.' 'It's heartbreaking,' said Billy Rowles, who was sheriff at the time of Mr Byrd's murder. 'A lot of effort and hard work and soul-searching went into trying to live down the stereotype. It's so easy to get back into that mode.' His huge last meal had echoes of that enjoyed by Robert Harris in 1992, who killed two teenage boys. He had a chicken bucket, two large pizzas, a Pepsi six-pack, jelly beans and Camel cigarettes. The subject of last meals before execution has thrown up some interesting results over the last few decades, with infamous killer James Smith being refused a request of dirt in 1990 and instead eating yoghurt. While not a mandatory requirement for prisoners on death row in countries where the death penalty still exists, the request is often granted in the US, with the final meals written into public records of executions. Despite Texas' decision to no longer allow prisoners to choose their last meals, other states continue to give inmates the option to. Some states, however, have a final meal price limit, while others require the meal to be served within a specific time. It is not uncommon for prisoners to order nostalgic meals that offer them a last flavour of happiness before they face the most extreme punishment possible for their heinous crimes. While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre death row meal orders. Back in 2011, prisoner Cleve Foster's requested two fried chickens, French fries and a 19-litre bucket of peaches. In 2000, Odell Barnes Jr. from Texas, who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Helen Bass, requested 'justice, equality and world peace.' In 2002, Robert Anthony Buell, from Ohio, was executed by lethal injection for the 1982 murder of 11-year-old Krista Lea Harrison. For his final meal, he requested a single, black, un-pitted olive.
BBC News
43 minutes ago
- BBC News
Crime falls in Grimsby town centre, council says
Crime in Grimsby town centre has dropped over the last year, North East Lincolnshire Council has authority said alcohol related anti-social behaviour has declined by 51%, compared with 2023/ were also drops in the number of bike thefts and violent Paul Berry, who has run a comics and collectables shop on Victoria Street South for 28 years, said police and the council "still need to do more". "It's still very noticeable, the anti-social behaviour and stuff," he said."I mean the town as a whole has got quiet, so maybe that's why the numbers have dropped."The footfall is like way down on what it used to be."The council claimed the fall was down to Safer Street initiatives in partnership with Humberside Police and other have been a number of Days of Action where penalty notices are handed out for cycling and alcohol offences and homeless sleepers are offered support, the council said. Insp Claire Jacobs said: ''The operation has played a significant role in making Grimsby Town Centre a safer and more welcoming space. "Through proactive policing, strong partnerships, and dedicated community engagement, we've seen a significant reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour."Our approach is not just about enforcement but also about education and support, ensuring that everyone feels safe and valued in this town. "We will continue working closely with local partners to further build on this success and keep strengthening our community." According to the council, anti-social behaviour incidents in the town centre fell from 224 in 2023/24 to 192 incidents in 2024/ were 115 incidents of violence leading to injury in 2023/24 and 88 instances over the last year. There were 16 bike thefts in 2024/25 compared with 30 in the previous to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
How a polo-loving businessman was a secret global drug lord
On the surface, Muhammed Asif Hafeez was an upstanding individual.A global businessman and ambassador of a prestigious London polo club, he rubbed shoulders with the British elite, including members of the Royal also regularly passed on detailed information to the authorities in the UK and Middle East that, in some cases, led to the interception of huge shipments of drugs. He was motivated, he said, simply by what he saw as his "moral obligation to curb and highlight criminal activities".At least, that is what he would have had people reality, Hafeez was himself what US officials described as "one of the world's most prolific drug traffickers".From his residence in the UK, he was the puppet-master of a vast drugs empire, supplying many tonnes of heroin, methamphetamine and hashish from bases in Pakistan and India that were distributed across the world. The gangs he informed on were his rivals - and his motivation was to rid the market of his status in the underworld earned him the moniker "the Sultan".But this criminal power and prestige would not last forever. After a complex joint operation between the British and American authorities, Hafeez, 66, was extradited from the UK in 2023. He pleaded guilty last November. On Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in a New York prison for conspiring to import drugs - including enough heroin for "millions of doses" - into the US. Having been in custody since 2017, Hafeez's sentence will end in BBC has closely followed Hafeez's case. We have pieced together information from court documents, corporate listings and interviews with people who knew wanted to find out how he managed to stay under the radar for so long - and how he eventually got caught. Hafeez was born in September 1958 to a middle-class family in Lahore, Pakistan. One of six children, his upbringing was comfortable. People in Lahore who knew the family told the BBC that his father had owned a factory near the city. Hafeez also later told a US court that he had trained as a commercial the early 1990s to about the mid-2010s, he ran an outwardly legitimate umbrella company called Sarwani International Corporation, with subsidiary businesses in Pakistan, the UAE and the to its website - which has since been shut down - it sold technical equipment to militaries, governments and police forces throughout the world, including equipment for drug the other businesses under the Sarwani umbrella were a textiles company registered in various countries, an Italian restaurant in Lahore that was a franchise of a well-known Knightsbridge brand, and a company named Tipmoor, based near Windsor to the west of London, which specialised in "polo and equestrian services".These businesses not only afforded him a luxury lifestyle, but secured him access to the UK's most exclusive circles. He was listed as an international ambassador for the prestigious Ham Polo Club for at least three years, from 2009 to 2011. He and his wife Shahina were also photographed chatting to Prince William, and embracing Prince Harry, at the club in Polo Club told the BBC that Hafeez had never been a member of the club, that the club no longer has "ambassadors", and that the current board "has no ties to him". It added that the event at which Hafeez and his wife were photographed meeting the princes "was run by a third party".Sarwani's different global arms were dissolved at various stages in the 2010s, according to their listings on Companies House and equivalent global registries. 'Something fishy going on' A former Sarwani employee based in the UAE told the BBC he suspected there had been "something fishy going on" when he worked for the business, because even big projects were "only paid for in cash". The employee - who has asked not to be identified, for fear of reprisals - said he eventually left the business because he felt uncomfortable with this."There were no [bank] transactions, no records, no existence," he told the would also periodically write letters to the authorities in the UAE and UK informing on rival cartels, under the guise of being a concerned member of the public. The BBC has seen these, as well as letters he received in response from the British Embassy in Dubai and the UK Home Office, thanking him and expressing their appreciation for him getting in Home Office told the BBC it does not comment on individual Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Government of Dubai were contacted by the BBC for comment but did not respond. Members of Hafeez's family shared these letters with the BBC in 2018, while he was embroiled in a lengthy legal fight against extradition to the US. They also submitted them to courts in the UK and, later, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as evidence that he had been an informant and needed protection. All the courts disagreed and ruled that this was a ploy by Hafeez to rid the market of the ECHR said, was "someone who had brought to the attention of the authorities the criminal conduct of others who he knew to be actual or potential rivals to his substantial criminal enterprise". While Hafeez was writing these letters, a meeting took place in 2014 that - despite him not being there - would lead to his of Hafeez's close associates met a potential buyer from Colombia in a flat in Mombasa, Kenya. They burned a small amount of heroin in order to demonstrate how pure it was, and said they could supply him with any quantity of "100%... white crystal".The supplier of this high-quality heroin, they had told the buyer, was a man from Pakistan known as "the Sultan" - that is, they would soon learn was that the "buyer" from Colombia was actually working undercover for the US's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The entire meeting was part of an elaborate sting operation, and had been covertly filmed - footage that has been obtained by the BBC. US court documents reveal the deal was co-ordinated by Baktash and Ibrahim Akasha, two brothers who led a violent cartel in Kenya. Their father was himself a feared kingpin who had been killed in Amsterdam's Red Light District in deal also involved Vijaygiri "Vicky" Goswami, an Indian national who managed the Akashas' October 2014, with the Akashas, Goswami and Hafeez still unaware of who the buyers really were, 99kg of heroin and 2kg of crystal meth were delivered to the fake Colombian traffickers. The Akashas promised to provide hundreds of kilograms more of each drug.A month later, the Akasha brothers and Goswami were arrested in Mombasa. They were released on bail shortly afterwards, and spent over two years fighting extradition to the the background, American law enforcers were working with counterparts in the UK to piece together their case against Hafeez, partly using evidence gathered from devices they had seized when they arrested Goswami and the Akasha brothers. On those, they had found multiple references to Hafeez as a major supplier, and were able to find enough evidence to identify him as "the Sultan".Facing charges in the US didn't stop one of the men, Goswami, from continuing his illegal enterprise. In 2015, while on bail in Kenya, he hatched a plan with Hafeez to transport several tonnes of a drug called ephedrine from a chemical factory in Solapur, India, to a powerful medication that is legal in limited quantities, is used to make methamphetamine. The two men - Goswami and Hafeez - planned to set up a meth factory in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, US court documents show. But their scheme was abandoned in 2016, when police raided the Solapur plant and seized 18 tonnes of Akasha brothers and Goswami finally boarded a flight to the US to face trial in January 2017. Hafeez was arrested eight months later in London, at his flat in the affluent St John's Wood neighbourhood. He was detained at high security Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, and it was from there that he spent six years fighting extradition to the US.A big development happened in 2019 in the US. Goswami pleaded guilty, and told a New York court he had agreed to co-operate with prosecutors. The Akasha brothers also pleaded Akasha was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His brother Ibrahim was sentenced to 23 who is yet to be sentenced, would have testified against Hafeez in the US had the case gone to Belmarsh, Hafeez was running out of tried to stop extradition to the US - but failed to convince magistrates, the High Court in London and the ECHR that he had, in fact, been an informant to the authorities who was "at risk of ill-treatment from his fellow prisoners" as a result. He also claimed the conditions in a US prison would be "inhuman and degrading" for him because of his health conditions, including type 2 diabetes and lost all of these arguments at every stage and was extradited in May case did not go to trial. In November last year, Hafeez pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine and hashish and to import them into the US. Pre-sentencing, prosecutors described the "extremely fortunate circumstances" of Hafeez's life, which "throw into harsh relief his decision to scheme... and to profit from the distribution of dangerous substances that destroy lives and whole communities"."Unlike many traffickers whose drug activities are borne, at least in part, from desperation, poverty, and a lack of educational opportunities," they said, "the defendant has lived a life replete with privilege and choice."
