47: The Life, Death & Legacy of Johnia Berry

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In December of 2004, a beautiful young graduate student was brutally stabbed in her apartment. Her roommate was also attacked. He ran to a convenience store and called 911. Johnia Berry crawled, bleeding from her own apartment, and knocked on the five neighbor’s doors around her. No one answered. Paramedics got there while she was still alive but she died at the hospital. Unknown DNA was found at the crime scene. But there was no match in the database. There wouldn’t be a match made for almost three years. During that time, her parents lobbied for the Johnia Berry Act. It was signed into law in 2007 and it requires anyone arrested for a felony in Tennessee to be automatically swabbed for DNA.

This is just one Johnia’s legacies.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/47-the-life-death-legacy-of-johnia-berr

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Southern Fried True Crom covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and
0:05.7	there may also be some explicit language used.
0:09.1	Listener discretion is advised.
0:20.3	It's 4 a.m. and you're sleeping soundly.
0:23.3	You have a roommate you share an apartment with, and you feel secure.
0:27.8	But you're awoken by a noise and realize someone's in your room.
0:32.0	You scream, but he's got a knife, and start stabbing you.
0:37.1	Though you fight, you're stabbed viciously, over and over in your face, chest, arms,
0:42.7	and hands.
0:44.7	Finally, you're a silent fleas, running out the back door, and you, leading out your
0:50.6	life's blood, crawl out the front door, and start desperately knocking on your neighbor's
0:55.4	doors for help.
0:57.4	You know one answers.
0:59.6	You're fading.
1:01.4	You collapse at the bottom of the stairwell as you feel your life slipping away.
1:07.0	I just described a nightmare.
1:09.2	One most of us have had.
1:11.8	But this really is how a young woman was murdered.
1:16.5	John Aberry was a student at UT Knoxville in December 2004, and she fought for her life,
1:23.1	and then fought to get help, dying inches from the exit to her building.
1:28.8	But her death would not be in vain.
1:31.6	The John Aberry Act of 2007 means anyone arrested for a felony in Tennessee is automatically
	...

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