Up next,
two people are att*cked.
Only one survives.
This was a very violent crime.
The fact that he ran
out of the apartment, left her there,
it just looked suspicious.
They just had no idea
who did it.
I think everybody was a suspect.
Until a partial
bloody fingerprint
finally helps identify
the k*ller.
We knew that it did
come from the suspect,
and that was a really key
piece of evidence.
After graduating
from college in 2004,
Johnia Berry set her sights
on being a lawyer.
She was the youngest girl
ever accepted into law school
in Michigan.
She thought she wanted
to go into law.
But after a few weeks,
Johnia decided that being
a lawyer wasn't for her.
The academically gifted
decided to be
a child psychologist.
She loved any child.
She babysat, and kept kids,
and her life revolved
around children.
Though this was
an easy decision professionally,
it was a tough one personally.
Johnia left her fiance
in Michigan,
and moved back to Tennessee.
Johnia and her fiancé talked
every night on the phone.
He was in Michigan,
a law student.
Both had such big plans.
And they talked every night
until Johnia would fall asleep,
which was kind of sweet.
Once she decided to move,
Johnia reached out
to an old friend
from her undergraduate days,
Jason Aymami.
He had an extra bedroom,
and he invited her
to share the rent with him
until she could find
her own apartment.
Jason's girlfriend was also
friends with Johnia,
so they all knew each other
from college.
Shortly before dawn
on a December morning,
Johnia's roommate, Jason,
said he awoke to find
a Kn*fe-wielding man
in their apartment.
He confronted the man,
who stabbed him repeatedly.
Jason, spattered with blood,
ran out the front door,
and into a convenience store
down the street,
where he yelled for the clerk
to call 911.
First responders arrive
to find Johnia Berry
facedown near the front door
of her apartment building,
covered in blood.
She was semi-conscious.
She couldn't respond to
any of their questions,
but she'd obviously been
stabbed multiple times.
She had s*ab wounds
just about all over
every part of her body...
head, face, neck,
some on her back.
She had some defensive wounds.
Johnia d*ed shortly after
arriving at the emergency room.
She'd been stabbed
more than 20 times.
There was no sign
of sexual as*ault.
Her roommate, Jason,
suffered nine mostly superficial
s*ab wounds.
And one wound on his right hand
raised all sorts of questions
for investigators.
The cut on Jason Aymami's hand
was extremely suspicious
because it's a type of cut
that is very common
with Kn*fe slippage.
During an att*ck,
if you're sweaty or bloody,
that slipperiness
allows the hand
to slip from the handle part
of the Kn*fe onto the blade.
The wound to Jason's hand
was far from the only thing
that was suspicious.
There was no sign
of forced entry.
The m*rder w*apon was a kitchen
Kn*fe from inside the apartment.
And that many wounds often
indicates a prior relationship
between the victim
and the k*ller.
Jason being in
the same apartment with her,
his wounds not being as severe
as Johnia's,
led us to believe that
he had something
to do with this in some way.
She didn't have
any enemies. None.
I guess, at that time,
I thought,
"Could he have done this?"
There were three
blood trails at the scene
of Johnia Berry's m*rder...
one out the back door
and two out the front.
There was blood on doors
of other apartments,
and investigators realized
she had gone to every apartment,
after having been stabbed
or at least pushing on the door,
trying to get help
as best she could.
And no one answered.
Johnia's family, in shock
when informed of her m*rder,
told police they had no idea
who would want her dead.
You don't know what to do.
You have no clue
what you're supposed to do.
There's nothing you're supposed
to do in a situation like that.
It was just a tragic,
unbelievable thing.
And I don't think I had
myself together at that time.
Johnia's fiancé was
confirmed to be in Michigan
at the time of the m*rder,
and was never a suspect.
All attention now turned to
Johnia's roommate, Jason Aymami.
I came home from the
gym, and the door was locked.
I remember having to put my key
in, and unlock the door.
He walked detectives
through the crime scene.
I came back here to go
to bed after coming from the bathroom,
put my alarm clock to 5:30.
He told them that he went
to bed at midnight,
and woke up hours later,
when he heard Johnia screaming.
He said that Johnia has
a history of sleepwalking,
sometimes even maybe
having nightmares.
He thought that was
what was going on.
Jason, whose bedroom
was right next to Johnia's,
said he got up to check on her.
Jason said, when he opened
his bedroom door,
he was confronted by a male
that was walking out of,
or backing out,
of Johnia's bedroom.
He pushed me back this way,
and I fell on the bed,
like this.
Hard shove?
Yeah, it was a fairly
hard shove.
I remember hitting my head
right here.
He said the male
started stabbing him.
He kind of balled up in a fetal
position to protect himself,
try and protect himself
from the stabbing.
He said he ended up
kicking the individual
kind of in the groin area,
kicked him back off of him.
I took off, and I ran as
fast as I could this way.
The question now
was whether Jason's story
would match up with
the other evidence at the scene.
A partial bloody fingerprint
was recovered
from the blade
of the m*rder w*apon.
They weren't able
to successfully
remove that fingerprint.
What they were able to do
was to take high-resolution
photographs of the fingerprint.
But even with
this high-quality photograph,
the print was too partial
and too blood-smeared
to be entered into
the IAFIS database.
In Jason's bedroom,
investigators found
a partial shoe print in blood.
A small piece of cardboard
that had been left there
where he had purchased
some dress shirts...
we knew that it possibly
came from the suspect.
Detectives sent
the shoe print to the FBI,
which maintains the largest shoe
print database in the world,
nicknamed "Sole Searcher."
Some 30,000 images are on file.
Unlike IAFIS,
the fingerprint data,
or IBIS, a ballistics database,
Sole Searcher looks for shapes
rather than attempting
a direct comparison.
The footwear database here,
we are not looking to identify
a particular shoe.
We are trying to compare
and determine
the general brand or make
of that shoe.
It works by comparing
different characteristics
on the sole of the shoe.
Some of those shapes
might be circle.
Some of them might be squares
or rectangles,
layered rectangles,
zig-zags, wave patterns.
You can specify where on
that impression, if you know.
If you have a heel,
you can specify
that that particular circle
is on the heel.
When the print from
Johnia's crime scene was entered,
the database returned 32
potential matches.
So, I was able to quickly scan
through, and determine that
there was only one possibility,
and that was
the Faded Glory Gannon.
The shoe was sold exclusively
by Walmart,
which narrowed things down,
but still meant
a lot of possibilities.
As detectives attempted
to run them down,
and as blood at the scene
was being analyzed for DNA,
investigators asked Jason Aymami
to take a polygraph test,
and he agreed.
It didn't go well.
Jason became really irate
with the polygrapher.
Was Jason lying?
Or was he
what he claimed to be...
another victim of the crime?
With so much blood at the scene,
detectives hoped the DNA
would reveal the answer.
DNA testing on blood
at Johnia Berry's crime scene
revealed profiles
from three people...
Johnia, her roommate,
Jason Aymami...
who said he was wounded
at the scene...
and a third profile
from an unknown male.
It was found on the Kn*fe.
It was found on the doorknob
leading out the back door
of the apartment,
and the droplets of blood
led down the back stairwell.
The finding of blood
from an unknown male
meant Jason had been
telling the truth all along.
Another unknown man
had shed blood in the apartment.
So how had Jason failed
the polygraph?
It turned out the person
administering the test
not only ignored a series
of standard protocols,
he misread the results.
The results
were looked at again.
It was revealed that he did,
indeed, pass that test.
It wasn't really
the polygrapher's place
to confront the person
that was taking the test.
That's supposed to be left up to
the detective
that's working the case.
Jason immediately went from
chief suspect to chief witness.
His description of the k*ller
was run through a computer.
The information was refined
by a technician
until Jason signed off
on this image.
He described the person as 5'8",
stocky, 180 pounds, White male,
but more specifically,
he was able to indicate
that he had teardrop
or pecan-shaped eyes
that the composite
really highlighted.
We aired it almost every night,
in the hopes of trying to find
who did this to Johnia.
This is who
sheriff's investigators
are trying to identify.
He's in his 20s,
about 5'8" tall, 150 lbs.
And that led to a lot of tips.
As those tips were tracked down,
detectives, hopeful the DNA
would expose the k*ller,
were dealt a setback...
the CODIS database
did not reveal
the identity
of the unknown male.
The CODIS database
doesn't contain juveniles,
and it doesn't contain people
who haven't been
convicted of crimes.
So, we knew that we were dealing
with somebody
who was a rather novice,
in terms of committing crimes.
Finally, one of
the tips appeared to be solid.
The potential suspect
was a 19-year-old
named Michael Purciful.
Purciful lived about 2 miles
away from the crime scene,
and he was active
in some criminal activity...
burglaries, and things
of that nature.
When detectives went to
pick him up, he was barefoot.
He asked a detective
to get his shoes.
That detective
retrieved the shoes.
She punched me in the arm,
and her eyes were kind of
the size of saucers.
We both couldn't believe it,
because those shoes were
an actual pair
of Faded Glory Gannon shoes.
The tread on the bottom
appeared to be the same
as what was left behind
at the crime scene
on the cardboard
in Jason Aymami's bedroom.
It looked like
investigators had found their man...
a theory only confirmed
after Purciful was in custody.
And he indicated that he,
in fact, had been present
when Johnia Berry was k*lled,
that he had gone over
to Johnia's house
with another person,
that that person
had gone in the back,
and had committed the stabbing.
But parts of
Purciful's story didn't add up.
He claimed he forced himself
into Johnia's apartment
with a crowbar,
which was clearly not true.
His shoes, while the same
make and style
as the shoe print at the scene,
were not an exact match.
The FBI concluded that that
shoe had a different wear pattern
than the shoes that had left
the bloody shoe print
in Jason Aymami's bedroom.
And, in a development
beyond dispute,
his DNA did not match DNA
from the unidentified male.
Purciful had duped investigators,
who lost precious time
investigating his story.
We kind of learned that
Michael was an attention-seeker,
that he was trying
to put himself in the middle
of this for attention,
to be involved in this crime
in some way.
That was very upsetting,
to know that someone would say
that they committed
a horrible crime like this,
and not have done it.
Even worse, the investigation
was now back to square one,
and was growing colder
by the day.
Johnia's family
put up a $70,000 reward.
Anything to keep it
in the public's eye
was the only way we figured
that our daughter's m*rder*r
would ever be caught.
Whatever opportunity we had,
we would do it.
We had billboards.
Anything that we could do.
The case looked like
it might go unsolved,
but then, some two years
after Johnia's m*rder,
a suspect
with an incredible resemblance
to the composite sketch
finally emerged.
Johnia's Berry's
family seized every opportunity
to keep her case alive.
This computer-generated
composite sketch
was a regular sight
in Knoxville.
In June of 2007,
an anonymous tipster told police
they should check out
Taylor Olson
had a juvenile record.
He was known for
breaking into cars.
Nothing major,
but enough to have police
and sheriff's officers
know who he was.
Taylor Olson was not
somebody that we would say,
by looking at his rap sheet,
that he was conclusively
the k*ller.
By this time,
two years had passed,
and it was unlikely
that whoever k*lled Johnia
still had the shoes
that left the bloody shoe print
at the scene.
Taylor Olson didn't.
But he did own a pair
when Johnia was k*lled.
Taylor's mother
and ex-girlfriend
identified those shoes.
They said, "Hey,
he doesn't have them anymore,
but he once wore them."
In fact, he wore them
at the time of Johnia's m*rder.
Detectives got
Taylor Olson's DNA,
and soon afterward, got
a stunning call from the lab...
the DNA of the unidentified man
who left a trail of blood
in Johnia's apartment
had finally been identified.
When we got the phone call
that we had gotten a match
on the unknown DNA sample,
it was a shock.
It was unbelievable.
We couldn't believe it.
We had finally gotten somebody
that was responsible
for the m*rder.
In September of 2007,
Taylor Olson was arrested
for Johnia's m*rder.
His hand showed a couple
of linear scars of the type
made by a Kn*fe.
He still denied any involvement.
He still says, "There's no way.
I wasn't there.
My DNA's not there.
Y'all made a mistake."
Eventually, Olson admitted
he was in the area that night,
looking for open apartments
to steal keys to a car.
He said Johnia's back door
was unlocked.
He entered, and eventually
made his way to her bedroom.
According to Olson, Johnia
att*cked him with a Kn*fe,
and he simply defended himself.
Prosecutors didn't buy
the story.
They believe Olson found
the apartment's back door open,
and picked up a Kn*fe as he
searched for something to steal.
He went into Johnia's bedroom.
Startled, she woke up,
and confronted him.
Olson apparently panicked,
and frantically stabbed her
over and over.
His hand slipped on
the bloody Kn*fe, cutting him.
He began shedding blood.
He left Johnia's room,
and was met by Jason Aymami,
who he also att*cked, creating
even more blood evidence.
He left a bloody shoe print
on the piece of cardboard
on Jason's floor.
His DNA was on the m*rder w*apon
and in the blood trail
he created
as he escaped out the back door.
His prints were ultimately
matched back to
the partial print
on the bloody Kn*fe.
Taylor Olson didn't know Johnia.
Investigators have
no explanation
for the level of v*olence
with which he att*cked her.
After his arrest, even he seemed
at a loss for an explanation.
Did you mean to k*ll her?
- No.
- Was it an accident?
It was an accident.
But you stabbed her 26 times.
How can you say
it was an accident?
He could have left.
He didn't have to just keep on
and on stabbing her.
He didn't have to do that.
No, it wasn't no accident.
In March of 2008, as
the day of his trial approached,
Taylor Olson was found dead
in his jail cell.
So, he hung himself
in the Knox County jail.
It's called a coward's
admission of guilt.
I'm thankful that I had
Johnia for 21 years.
I'd rather have had her
for 21 years
than to never have
had her at all,
so I'm very grateful for that.
But at the same time,
I'm also mad that
she was taken away.
The Berry family
created a support group
called "Hope for Victims."
They also work
to change state laws
to allow for collection of DNA
from anyone arrested
for a violent crime.
Law enforcement
can only do so much.
They can only work with
the tools that they have,
and they need better tools
to work with.
That one little hit
on the DNA from the blood,
that solved the whole case.
It takes all the question out.
The forensic evidence
was critical
to the resolution of this case.
There would be no case
if Taylor Olson hadn't bled,
and he'd gotten away.
If he hadn't have been injured
during the att*ck,
this case would have
never been solved.