She is as effective at telling a story today as she was back then. Patricia Rorrer sits in prison for murdering her ex-boyfriend's wife and baby, but her supporters say she wasn't even in the same state at the time of the crime. She made an effort to look perfectly groomed even when she took out the trash, according to her mother, who appeared on Forensic Files. He said, "The only possible thing that would make any sense is to claim that the hair that was tested wasn't the hair of the case, it was somehow, some other extraneous hair that got in there. . His favorite rattle, shaped like a phone, lay near the crime scene. Smith will face charges for allegedly killing her husband, Antione Smith. Joann and Alex Katrinak both vanished in 1994. She claimed that shed spent that fateful day at a tanning salon and a country music club, but suspicion mounted when the guest book for the latter didnt have her name and a photo shed taken 11 days prior showed her naturally brown hair dyed blonde. She was a real estate agent, a salesperson, and an equestrian, but she also had a rap sheet that included a 12-month probation sentence for shoplifting from a North Carolina Walmart. Aside from the hair, there was almost zero forensic evidence. Patricia Rorrer is serving a life sentence, convicted of driving 500 miles to kill her ex-boyfriend's new wife and his baby. But when Joann and Alex suddenly vanished from their Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, home on December 15, 1994, suspicion immediately turned towards Andy. Once, when a gun-wielding farmer and his buddy caught Patricia and Gary riding motorcycles on his field, Patricia walked up and got in their faces and argued, Gary recalled to the Morning Call. Theyd been missing for four months, but their discovery only gave rise to more questions than answers, especially as the young mother had been shot once in the face before being struck on the head 19 times. You can read the court documents in their entirety here. Inside the locked 1992 vehicle, police discovered some strands of blond hair stained with dried blood. Starting at. The team explores whether Vonda may have been wrongfully convicted, based on a shoddy investigation and circumstantial evidence. Katrinak's husband's ex-girlfriend was convicted of the crime, but now there's a possibility the case could be reopened. Sad discovery. 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Some lawyers call microscopic hair analysis junk science that today wouldnt qualify as evidence in a trial like Rorrers. Advocates for her innocence complain of hype surrounding the case. How would an intruder find it? Joann Katrinaks Killer Still Has Innocence Advocates(A Woman Scorned, Forensic Files). ), And in another bombshell, Joanns good friend Karen Devine said Joann planned to leave Andrew after the holidays. The case rocked Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and resulted in the conviction of Patricia Rorrer, now 53, the ex-girlfriend of Katrinak's husband. Neely said once state police started to focus on Rorrer as a potential suspect, they went to North Carolina where she was living and they obtained a sample of her hair to compare to the ones found at the scene. Forensic Files didnt mention it, but the hairs were actually brown at the top and the rest dyed blond, according to the show Autopsy Six: A Fatal Attraction. 1 talking about this. The state made a case fueled by circumstantial evidence and public outrage over the deaths of a modern-day madonna and child. Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand Up, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Mostly cloudy, brisk, and unseasonably cool with a few scattered showers. Legal Expert Weighs In, Suspect Arrested in Killings of Four University of Idaho Students, Back to the '90s: ID Specials Reexamine Decade that Launched True Crime Craze. One on one? Contained in Superior Courts 22-page opinion are a minimum of 24 factual errors; many of which are extremely serious. The Worldwide Womens Criminal Justice Networks website also points to a bombshell: In 2015, the Justice Department acknowledged that most of the team members from an FBI microscopic hair comparison unit gave prosecutors flawed data from 1980 to 2000 that could have unjustly contributed to a number convictions including Patricia Rorrers. She was born on Jan. 24, 1964, in eastern Pennsylvania and moved back and forth between there and Davidson County, North Carolina. She failed miserably to convince me, or anyone else who mattered, of her innocence. When Andy Katrinak comes home to find his wife and infant son gone, he summons the police and tells them he believes they have been abducted, and he suspects his ex-girlfriend Patty Rorrer might be involved. 4 0 obj Hair we go. He wanted to move to Colorado and she was against it.. Another former boyfriend said she talked about Andrew frequently and liked to gaze at old photos of him. As for an epilogue on ex-flame Andrew Katrinak, he has moved to Colorado and kept a low profile since the trial ended. Next Up "We Can Now Be At Peace": Victims' Families React To "Grim Sleeper" Lonnie Franklin's Death Other loyal friends and associates attested to Patricias kindness toward horses and devotion to her daughter, whom she took along as she worked in stables. Is the wrong person serving a pair of life sentences for the 1994 kidnapping and killing of Pennsylvania mother Joann Katrinak and her 3-month-old son, Alex? On December 14, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Ms. Rorrer's petition for allowance of appeal, concluding her state appellate proceedings. As the husband and father, he seemed the logical suspect, and the police worked hard to build a case against him. Rorrer has appealed her conviction several times and her supporters believe additional DNA evidence . If you know anything about their case, please call or text the "In Pursuit with John Walsh" hotline: 833-378-7783 (3-PURSUE). At the states request, the instructor wore a wire during a phone conversation with Patricia. Therefore, today, in her late 50s, Patricia is imprisoned at the maximum-security State Correctional Institution Muncy in Clinton Township, Pennsylvania. The police report misspells his name (Troutman) and doesnt include his address, suggesting authorities didnt want anyone to track him down, according to Patricias side. Strands of the accuseds dyed-blond hair at two crime scenes proved it. Unbloody vehicle. It was one of the biggest murder cases to rock the Lehigh Valley. And even prosecutor Michael McIntyre, who wrote the book Hair Trigger about the case, acknowledged to Keith Morrison that it was a little odd that the police found blood on the hairs in Joanns car but nowhere else in the vehicle. The Free Patricia Rorrer page points to a sliver of a fingernail found at the murder site that didnt come from either Patricia or Joann. Andrew Katrinak reported missing his wife, Joanne and 3.5-month-old son, Alex, in December 1994. She was also accused of breaking into barns, stealing horses, and underfeeding the ones she owned. 2023 Warner Bros. Since that time, Rorrer has held out hope that Pennsylvanias Superior Court would grant her a hearing to examine the new evidence that has come to light in her case. Prosecutors offered Patricia a plea deal that would take the death penalty off the table, but she declined. You might think such a thing couldnt happen, but thats exactly what did happen in the Rorrer case. Prosecutor pounds away. And dance instructor William Jarrett couldnt remember whether she attended his dance class at the club the night of Joanns disappearance. Alexs cause of death has never been determined. She was a 23-year-old beauty just coming out of a bad marriage, and he a handsome and successful business owner 14 years her senior. Then 31 years old, she had lived a rocky existence. 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The organization purports that if there were awards for distorted reporting, the Morning Callwould win high honors.. Authorities said a vehicle previously purchased in Lake Orion, Michigan is linked to this Cape Girardeau, Missouri mystery. When police traveled to North Carolina to interview Patricia about the murders of Joann and Alex, she said that on the day of the homicides, she had visited a feed store, a tanning salon, and a country music club. No show. An infant was lying face down on her stomach. Patricia L. Rorrer was taken into custody from the Linwood home she shared with her boyfriend and 1-year-old daughter on June 24, 1997. %Ll-{Xjd>=ktWeO]g&7y1i8|il_s= Since then, Patricia has appealed her case and fought for exoneration, only to always be denied. Neely said, "One document of, which I have right in front of me here specifically states that the hairs from the seat back that were looked at by the FBI did not have a hair root.". Tammy Mal is a true-crime writer whos written for True Detective Magazine and Absolute Crime Publishing. Plus, two men, her babys father and his friend, testified they saw Patricia at the line-dancing club the night of the homicide. Peacock Productions reaches more than 300 million people worldwide every year across broadcast, cable, syndication, and emerging platforms with its award-winning specials and series. Search is on. At 6 a.m. on June 24, 1997, police arrested Patricia at her modest house in Linwood, North Carolina, and took her back to Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit InvestigationDiscovery.com, facebook.com/InvestigationDiscovery, or twitter.com/DiscoveryID. The couple moved into Andrews sturdy brick house at 740 Front Street in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. They allege that the North Carolina resident stealthily drove 500 miles to Pennsylvania and killed out of a sense of deadly indignation. All rights reserved. The person responsible, needs to be punished. The series was produced by Joe Berlinger, who made the Paradise Lost documentaries, which garnered actor Johnny Depps attention and ultimately helped free the West Memphis Three. 728 views. A newspaper account described Patricia as a soft-spoken, demure woman who had a sweet Southern accent and wore feminine clothes in court. After six hours of deliberations, in March 1998, a jury found Patricia guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping. With Chris Anderson, Fatima Silva. Joann answered and told Patricia to leave them alone before forcibly hanging up. I was like OK, maybe she was tired, you know with a new baby. In addition to the Facebook page, there are Reddit threads on her case. 1:57. MURDER IN LEHIGH VALLEY: KEITH MORRISON INVESTIGATES is produced for Investigation Discovery by NBC News Peacock Productions with executive producers Elizabeth Fischer and Knute Walker, senior producer Kimberley Ferdinando and the president and general manager of Peacock Productions, Sharon Scott.
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