Blue Browning

Well, I asked Joan if the brothers would be willing because I think that was so important that moment when they go to the hospital. So I did ask Joan, but she had declined on their behalf because it's such an emotional toll on them. And respectfully, we honored that. But it's another example of how this is so difficult sometimes being the surviving siblings.

And she was successful, but she still did not have an answer as to what happened to her daughter, who killed her daughter. But finally, as we saw in the show...

Oh, yes. She had told us, you know, even off camera about the grandchildren in her lives. They call her Nana and how close they've become and how her grandchildren in the beginning, they were very cautious and worried that they would make Joan cry by saying Jonna's name. But Joan told us, you know, Jonna's not dead in her heart. Mm-hmm.

Joan says she likes talking about Jonna and making sure she's not forgotten. And obviously we saw that in the home. We saw that in the DNA lab, that Jonna's name is present today.

He even told us people were wondering, who is this? He's asked that question, and he says, this is my daughter, proudly says, this is my daughter.

Of course this one will be there for me. I mean, I'm so touched by Joan. Everybody that met Joan was touched. I think there was one moment when you were interviewing her, and I heard a noise, and I didn't know what it was, and it was actually sniffles from one of the camera guys. so touched by Joan in her words. She just has that way where when you talk, you lean in a little bit more.

She has a vulnerability to her, and I think we all are touched by her. And she even is speaking to other victims' families. She's helping other victims' families. She even said she recently spoke to some juvenile parolees, about 90 parolees, sharing Johnna's story in hopes that they will turn their life around.

I think it is that human connection, that hearing somebody who's experienced something that we don't experience every day. Joan, she was put in such a horrible situation.

And she took that, I think you even said some people would ball up and just couldn't go on with life, but she is such an inspiration the way that she rose above like a phoenix and she took on this challenge and she ultimately was looking for her daughter's killer. Billboards were used. She paid her own money for billboards. She helped change the laws. And they ultimately found that killer.

So I think these are stories that stick with a lot of people.

This was a shrine to her daughter. And I think there was a moment that you asked her a question that really stood with me, that this family, they had been planning that dream wedding. You saw the wedding dress. Months. It was only just months away. Right. A dream wedding. And then they had to make that switch, as you called it, to planning a funeral. And how do you get to that point?

So that really stood with me. And I think you probably were deeply moved by this as well. But the nails, the story of the nails.

It was a quest that we went on as we do in all these stories. We want to bring the victims to life. And I looked online. I didn't see any videos of Jonna anywhere. So I asked her mom, do you have any home videos? But unfortunately, this was a time period where we didn't have smartphones. And I could relate because Jonna, she would be the same age today that I am today.

And so I remember myself in that time frame when the murder happened, didn't have smartphones. I asked her, is there anybody that we could reach out to that would have some home videos? You came to Joan with this question.

And she gave me a list of friends' names. One was an ex-boyfriend's name. And so I reached out to him and he said, I may have some VHS tapes. I have to look. It took weeks, months before we got it, but I kept pressing him. He ultimately found some VHS tapes that he had to send to me through his smartphone. He actually recorded the VHS tapes in real time on his phone to me.

And so in order to get these, he wanted to make sure that Joan was okay with that. So he showed it to Joan. He did a FaceTime video and showed her the actual video as it was playing out. And I think in a way, this story also brought back more memories for Joan. She's getting to see her daughter in these videos that maybe she would never, never see. So in a way, I do feel like I'm helping

Bring back more memories of Jonna to her friends and family that had never seen these videos. So we unearthed new videos.

And I think this meant a lot for the friends. The friend who was in this video, Lacey Pope, who we interviewed. Mm-hmm. She had never seen this video, 20 years. So you can imagine the emotion when she saw it when we interviewed her for the first time seeing this. It really was touching.

Oh, she has. I think for her, more than anything, it was not knowing what happened to her daughter, finding the killer. And as a result of that, she helped change laws. And therefore, she has said that this is now her daughter's name is going to live on as a legacy, helping these other cases of other unsolved cases, cold cases.

So the DNA laws have changed in Tennessee because of the very work that she's been working on.

Exactly. And she said that You would not know about these laws unless you go through what she had gone through, what these families are going through, where they have a victim, a homicide victim. We did find out that nowadays there are 34 states where they take DNA upon arrest, upon a felony arrest, and the federal government.

not necessarily as a result of Joan or this law, but, you know, I just, in the back of my head, as I was going through this story, I thought that was interesting.

And DNA today, as we know, it's changed a whole bunch of crimes, changed the whole game. So the This was all new to her and she was learning. This was not something that she had studied and planned for. It was something that life presented to her and she took it on.

She actually made the match that led to Joan's daughter's killer. She was there at that moment. So I thought that was a huge pivotal moment. She's still there working at the lab and she's seen it change from the days of when Jonna was murdered to where it is today and how much progress has been made. The DNA lab used to be backlogged. It would take months, weeks. to get results from DNA tests.

Hey, it's so great to be with you, Deborah.

It's not like we think of in law and order where you solve a case. This took time. And then, so today they have about 17 people that work at the TBI lab, but at the time of the murder, it was only about two. So you can see the progress that has been made. So now they're a lot more efficient, high powered, solving cases a lot faster.

They all were impacted by this case. The whole Knoxville, Tennessee, they all were impacted by this case. Everybody from the Knox County Sheriff's Office, they said this is one of those cases that sits with them. It was such a mystery. Mm-hmm. And also so heartbreaking for them. I think one of the officers, really, the gravity of the situation hit me.

Her name's Diana Kidd, one of the patrol officers. She had said that she came into the scene and noticed that Jonna's hair when she got there was red. She thought she was a redhead.

There was so much blood and she only later learned that she was as blonde as her later. So I think these things stuck with the officers who worked on this case. And of course, the detectives have such great respect for Joan. They wanted to participate in these interviews that we did.

Well, it definitely was Joan and how passionate she was. I saw an interview that she did and I saw the anguish in her voice. But also, I was so inspired listening to her. This mother had no answers for nearly three years. She basically went on a crusade, and it led her to wanting to change the laws in Tennessee.