But her reputation wasnt exactly sleek and shiny. Decades-old Lehigh Valley murder case back in national spotlight - WFMZ.com Then 31 years old, she had lived a rocky existence. 3 0 obj On December 12, 1994, Joann answered a phone call from a woman shed never met, Patricia Rorrer, her husbands onetime girlfriend. 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Patricias accusers theorized that she resented Joanns domestic bliss with the tall, athletic Andrew Katrinak. Watch Wrong Man: Ep 203 - Patricia Rorrer: The Hang Up Online - STARZ You have permission to edit this article. Not gender neutral. 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. For every fact that is presented, there are two interpretations to give.. If you know anything about their case, please call or text the "In Pursuit with John Walsh" hotline: 833-378-7783 (3-PURSUE). Phone records confirmed Patricia placed the earlier call from North Carolina, not Pennsylvania. Charles Robert, the 3-month-old son she had with Gary Gabard, died of sudden infant death syndrome; Patricia found him blue in his crib. Andrew described his existence with Joanne and Alex as a little Camelot., Ex-spouse off list. Rorrer was convicted of murdering Joann Katrinak and her 3 month old son. Since that time, Rorrer has held out hope that Pennsylvania's Superior Court would grant her a hearing to examine the new evidence that has come to light in her case. 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. Her alibi about going to the club, called Cowboys Nitelife, got fuzzy when investigators discovered she hadnt signed the guest book on that day. Her friends say she was railroaded by the system and they want Ch Read allPatricia Rorrer is serving a life sentence, convicted of driving 500 miles to kill her ex-boyfriend's new wife and his baby. 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Together they had a baby girl, Nicole. Plus, he had only a minimal life insurance policy on Joann and he passed polygraphs, according to The FBI Files: Family Secrets. Smith will face charges for allegedly killing her husband, Antione Smith. Her newest book, Convenient Suspect, is scheduled for release in the fall of 2017 and recounts the murders of Joann and Alex Katrinak and the potential wrongful conviction of Patricia Rorrer. She was born on Jan. 24, 1964, in eastern Pennsylvania and moved back and forth between there and Davidson County, North Carolina. Contained in Superior Courts 22-page opinion are a minimum of 24 factual errors; many of which are extremely serious. She failed miserably to convince me, or anyone else who mattered, of her innocence. Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand Up, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Joann Katrinaks car was later found next door in the parking lot of a local tavern. $8.99/mo. The organization purports that if there were awards for distorted reporting, the Morning Callwould win high honors.. Shes extremely, extremely happy with the baby. Meticulous primping. And Andrews explanation of how the intruder got in through the basement door seemed contrived, according to Grube, who gave an interview to Wrong Man, a 2020 true-crime docuseries from the Starz network, which produced two episodes called The Hang Up about the Rorrer case. She just stayed in touch with everybody, Kathy Barber said in her interview on NBCs Murder in Lehigh Valley: Keith Morrison Reports in 2017. Book her. Documentary, Drama 2020-2020. How would an intruder find it? Back in 1994, a mother, Joann Katrinak, and her baby disappeared and their bodies were later found in Heidelberg Township. Incriminating words. ", Neely said, "If there were no hair roots when this hair went to the FBI, where did a hair with a hair root come from?". Her brother returned home but she never did. Investigators theorized that this action angered Patricia into a jealous rage that ended with abduction and murder. Back in March of 2017, Investigation Discovery ran Murder in Lehigh Valley: Keith Morrison Investigates which questioned the conviction of Patricia Rorrer for the brutal double murders of Joann Katrinak and her infant son, Alex. Four months after Joanns disappearance, farmer Paul Kovalchik reported seeing what at first looked like a pile of clothes on his land in Heidelberg Township woods, about 15 miles from the Katrinaks house. Convenient Suspect: A Wrongful Conviction In The Murder In Lehigh It makes you crazy, because you challenge her with every allegation, and she acquits herself. People envied the Katrinaks rock-solid marriage and picture-perfect life; with the house, the kid, and the two cars in the drive, they seemed to be living the American dream. No charmed life. And yikes, he discovered someone had cut one of the houses phone lines and pried the hinge on the basement door. At 10:30 p.m., Andrew reported his wife missing. Andrew told investigators that the unpleasant phone call between Joann and Patricia happened just three days before his wifes disappearance. The person responsible, needs to be punished. According to the prosecution it was enough to convict. Is to get Patricia a fair trial that will prove her innocence, and give justice to Joann and Alex who died a horrific death. (In an exclusive clip, Morrison questions the tactics of prosecutor Michael McIntyre.). Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. What Happened To High School Senior Erica Fraysure? Two-Part Special Premieres Sunday, March 5 at 8/7c; Features Exclusive First-Ever Interview with Inmate Patricia Rorrer (Silver Spring, Md.) State police and the Philadelphia division of the FBI appealed to the public for leads. Patricias phone bill showed no record of a call to Catasauqua that day, but police noticed she didnt make any calls at all from her house in North Carolina that day either suggesting she could have been out of state and used a pay phone to dial up the Katrinaks. Man Arrested In Connection With Disappearance Of Woman Last Seen At Seattle Mariners Game, The Search Continues For Minnesota Mother After Her Suspicious Disappearance, A Person Of Interest And Reward Established In Search For Missing Mother Heather Mae Kelley, Mystery Remains After 13-Year-Old Girl Vanished From A Minnesota Gas Station In 1989, Maybe Someday Someone Will Break: Alabama Mother Searches For Daughter Who Vanished In 2010, An Alabama Woman Disappeared After Her Boyfriend Dropped Her Off At Home, Have You Seen Semaj Goodwine? Gay Bars, 1 Suspect Still at Large, Cold Cases Heat Up: How Advances in DNA Technology Are Helping to Bring Justice for Victims. Nailed? Neely said this new information could reopen the case and set Rorrer free. This is a despicable crime, prosecutor says of Kelly Renee Turner approving surgery after surgery for the child. Andrew Katrinak reported missing his wife, Joanne and 3.5-month-old son, Alex, in December 1994. If you subscribe to Hulu and upgrade to Starz (theres a free one-week trial offer), you can stream the Wrong Man episodes about Patricia Rorrer. Chris Harris has been a senior true crime reporter for PEOPLE since late 2015. Plus, two men, her babys father and his friend, testified they saw Patricia at the line-dancing club the night of the homicide. 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. Just recently, however, that hope was dashed when the court denied her appeal. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? On a secret recording, Patricia asked Jarrett to vouch for her attendance or she might go to the electric char. Patricia also pointed out that when author Tammy Mal started her research and speaking to me, she was not an advocate at all but she reversed and ended up advocating for Patricias innocence. And because some of Patricias advocates have suggested Andrew Katrinak had a motive for murder, I checked into whether he had a life insurance payout to gain upon Joanns demise. Shortly before Joann and Alex disappeared, Patricia called the Katrinak house. @!44` ^]5[a$iq`k7jKV&fU-Ru=$^ And James Pfeiffer and Jim Burke have remained on her side. Then 31 years old, she had lived a rocky existence. They broke up in 1993. In fifty years, this is the most complicated case Ive ever been involved in, an investigator says of the search for Andrea Knabel. STARZ - Uncover shocking new evidence in Patricia Rorrer's - Facebook Patricias marriage fell apart, and she returned to Pennsylvania, where she fell in love with Andrew Andy Katrinak after meeting him at a restaurant. Both were deceased. All of STARZ blockbuster movies, epic originals, and addictive series. 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. http://starz.tv/FB As for the murder weapon, police didnt find a .22 caliber pistol on Patricias property, but an ex-boyfriend claimed that she owned one and it would always jam after one shot. At the states request, the instructor wore a wire during a phone conversation with Patricia. See production, box office & company info. Patricia seemed like the girl next door but all of a sudden, something snapped, Katrinak later told Wrong Man investigators. Ex-boyfriend Walter Blalock said that Patricia wanted him to be more like Andrew. In TV clips, Andrew didnt come off as anguished. This is a genuine puzzler, Morrison tells PEOPLE about the case that inspired Sundays two-part special, Murder in Lehigh Valley: Keith Morrison Investigates. As for an epilogue on ex-flame Andrew Katrinak, he has moved to Colorado and kept a low profile since the trial ended. His father confirmed his alibi that they were doing construction work together, putting an addition on the house of friends Tom and Kathy Holschwander, at the time of Joanns disappearance. After Joann Katrinak, the wife of Patricias former flame, turned up dead along with her infant son, prosecutors suspected Patricia. As the husband and father, he seemed the logical suspect, and the police worked hard to build a case against him. Therefore, when Andrew revealed that his ex once worked in a barn near the site of his wife and sons bodies, she became a suspect. Read More:Where is Jacqueline Crymble Now? Today, her attorney says not only was his client wrongfully convicted, but she was framed. %PDF-1.5 Now retired, he declined ForensicFilesNow.coms invitation to spar directly with Patricia via a podcast. It showed her usually all-brown hair haphazardly highlighted blond. And dance instructor William Jarrett couldnt remember whether she attended his dance class at the club the night of Joanns disappearance. No activity on her bank account or credit cards took place after the day she went missing, so investigators dismissed the theory that she took her child and bolted. After her arraignment, she had to walk past a crowd of dozens of locals screeching hang her! and baby killer! Patricia clung to a Polaroid picture showing her and her own little girl. A copy of an undated handout photo of Joann Marie Katrinak and 15-week-old Alex Martin Katrinak, both of Catasauqua, Pa. who were found dead in Dec. of 1994. Photo by: Donna Fisher/Allentown Morning Call/TNS via Getty Image, Donna Fisher/Allentown Morning Call/TNS via Getty Image. Medical examiners determined Katrinak had been beaten and shot. Another former boyfriend said she talked about Andrew frequently and liked to gaze at old photos of him. Her friends say she was railroaded by the system and they want Chris and Fatima to join their fight to free her.Patricia Rorrer is serving a life sentence, convicted of driving 500 miles to kill her ex-boyfriend's new wife and his baby. Peacock Productions, a division of NBC News, is a nonfiction production company that combines the editorial expertise, technical resources, and seasoned talent of NBCUniversal to create series, events, and live specials for global audiences. (McIntyre said that Egan ignored Traupman because he was a nut who said that the man he saw arguing with the woman in a car was Hispanic but wearing a fake mustache and a toupee. (Media sources vary as to whether she actually worked at the stable or just rented a stall there for her own horse.). Lehigh Valley: Patricia Rorrer Still A Convenient Suspect? She was also accused of breaking into barns, stealing horses, and underfeeding the ones she owned. For ID, Sara Kozak is executive producer and senior vice president of production, Jane Latman is executive vice president of development, Kevin Bennett is general manager, and Henry Schleiff is Group President of Investigation Discovery, Destination America, and American Heroes Channel. Rorrer and Andrew broke off their relationship in 1990, but they remained in regular contact even as Rorrer moved 800 miles away.