It's as if she had left with young Alex as planned but then somehow simply vanished. Her husband, Andrew, was surprised to not find his wife and child at home after arriving there after work. "He's a nice guy," Rorrer said of Katrinak. How could I explain to my daughter years later that I took a plea for something I didnt do? she said. All this culminated in Caleb Fairleys April 1996 conviction fortwo counts of murder, aggravated assault, theft, and abuse of a corpse. "Investigators allege Rorrer "in a fit of irrational rage" drove from Linwood, N.C., to Catasauqua, to abduct Joann Katrinak and her baby, Alex, at gunpoint. Someone had shot Joann in the face with a .22-caliber pistol, then beaten her about the head hitting her 19 times in all with a blunt object. Andrew languished for weeks and then months as investigators failed to suppl any explanation for his wife's and son's mysterious disappearance. Police converged on the scene and soon realized it was not only the remains of Joann Katrinak, but sadly of Alex too. Image credit: Episode screen capture from, - Sarah OConnor: Joann Katrinaks Mother, - Det. But if Andrew wanted to find his wife and his son, why on Earth did he wait until 10:30pm before notifying authorities? Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. Having read this recent appeal document (worth a perusal its not too long), which seems to address the fundamental issues at stake, I see no merit in the claim of wrongful conviction, but rather a clutching at straws in the hope that some (spurious) claim may just cast sufficient doubt on the conviction. Catasauqua is only about 54 minutes away from where Fairley lived in Gulph Mills. Plus, two men, her babys father and his friend, testified they saw Patricia at the line-dancing club the night of the homicide. She received 12 months' probation.Rorrer was 18 when she lost her 3-1/2-month-old son on Nov. 20, 1982. Had a father the slightest inkling that a g/friend he would marry had murdered his child, unless a psycho he couldnt possibly be with her. No disagreements, but maybe D and D and health club membership arent so far apart. Rorrer had never actually met Katrinak. Suspicion initially fell on Joanns husband, Andy, when their bodies were found in woods in Apr 95. But none of those charges ever stuck. It was love at first sight when Joann O'Connor met Andy Katrinak in the spring of 1992. After his wife disappeared, she made no attempt to be with him or to see him. Imake it a practice not to look too hard for up-to-date information about victims family members because, unless they show up onDr. PhilorDateline, theyre probably not looking for media attention. ""She was cool," Hege said of the 33-year-old mother, about the same time Rorrer was being arraigned. This was part of Rorrer's defense strategy it seemed like an unrealistic motive to commit murder. More hairs there. Im real immature. Joann Katrinak. As for an update on Lisas widower, Jimmy Manderach, it appears he still lives in the same part of Pennsylvania. Frankly, Im neither surprised nor impressed by their decision. It was after that round of testing that Rorrer insisted the cigarette butt be tested for DNA, as she was convinced it would exonerate her. A newspaper account described Patricia as a soft-spoken, demure woman who had a sweet Southern accent and wore feminine clothes in court. But by all accounts, Rorrer only spoke to Andrew Katrinak once or twice a year. There were no love letters, cards, gifts, or any other indication that she still had a romantic interest in him. When their bodies were found four months later, police sought the clues to find their killer. It seems Patricia's own daughter and baby Alex Katrinak were very close in age. Jaime: Thanks for your thoughts. Im not persuaded in this case it applies but then what do I know other than what I read? Or did they? At 17, Patricia dropped out of high school and married landscaper Gary Gabard. Search is on. Frank J. Hearn Michael J. Brady Antonio Verrelli B Stephen Zahornasky Hugh H. Taulty. Fairley has not found prison life agreeable. But, Id like to offer you a challenge. Whose hair is it?by Bridget DiCosmo Redacted from "Unreliable Chain: Questionable Hair Evidence Condemns Woman to Prison"Justice Volume One Published by Point Park University. Those hairs would ultimately send Rorrer to prison for life, even though she claims she never was in the car, and the evidence collection and preservation practices have been attacked.The next day, Andrew Katrinak told police that a gut instinct made him think Rorrer was involved. Andrew's involvement in the latter theory was dismissed when his alibi checked out. Dial-a-problem. It's not often there's a laundry list of clear signals, but it's fun to iterate them when there are so many. As for the words exchanged on the call between the two big-haired women, Joann told Andrew that Patricia had used profanity; Patricia said it was the other way around. The second round of testing came back as a 100% match, raising the question of a mistake. As soon as she steppedinto Your Kidz &Mine, Fairley, who had a passion for vampire lore, reportedly recognized her ashaving theidealizedlook of the womenportrayed in vampire-relatedliterature. However, it seems this was only after the bodies of Joann and Alex were found on the remote horse trail. 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. So lets get going on the recap of the Forensic Files episode A Woman Scorned, along with extra information drawn from internet research: Joann Marie OConnor was born on Oct. 11, 1968, the youngest of Sarah and David OConnors four children. Joann Katrinaks Killer Still Has Innocence Advocates(A Woman Scorned, Forensic Files). I dont think she was ever scared until we put the cuffs on her.. 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. Most of all, Patricia said, she would like a rematch with prosecutor Michael McIntyre. As to Andrew being the killer, I thought the police acknowledged his cast-iron alibi (but correct me if Im wrong). When Rorrer was initially granted the right to do post conviction testing, the first thing she wanted tested was the butt. 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. Andrew Katrinak hugs a friend as he emerges from the courthouse after Patricia Rorrer, his former girlfriend, was sentenced to life in prison, March 9, 1998, for the murder of his wife and child 2 . The baby had been smothered or left to freeze to death. It showed her usually all-brown hair haphazardly highlighted blond. At the states request, the instructor wore a wire during a phone conversation with Patricia. But Rorrer said she didn't ride on the trails and wasn't familiar with the area. TWELFTH DISTRICT. Under cross-examination, she said she didnt believe it was her hair in the Toyota.It took a jury of eight men and four women five hours to find her guilty on counts of kidnapping and first-degree murder. With 400 (and 6) episodes, this progress bar indicates my progress toward finishing all of them. "We got along fine. Fairleytook Lisas body to a wooded spotin an industrial area near his health club. Rorrer maintains her innocence to this day and argues that someone either negligently or intentionally put her hair on the slide. I think often of this case and hope Caleb Fairly rots in hell! Shes attracted the help of writer Tammy Mal (full name Tammy Malinowski OReilly), author of Convenient Suspect, a book about the case. Burke said the prosecution brought no one from North Carolina to testify that Rorrer wasn't home for several days..McIntyre said Rorrer tried to conceal her guilt by concocting phony alibis, which shows consciousness of guilt. Pfeiffer and Burke claimed that police Sgt. One on one? Join Facebook to connect with Andrew Katrinak and others you may know. Rorrer said she was almost 500 miles away in North Carolina on the day of the disappearance. "Rorrer was born in Phillipsburg. The 26-year-old was recently married, and this would be four-month-old Alex's first Christmas. This was one of. (Disclaimer: Im not a big fan of eyewitnesses who come forward years after the fact, but its possible). 24, 1997. The 5-foot-9-inch-tall Patricia was physically strong, no match for 5-foot-4-inch Joann. Even though no gun wasever tied to the killing, a firearms experttestified that Joann Katrinaks injuriescould have come from such a weapon.Andrew Katrinak testified that he hadan amicable breakup with Rorrer, but healso told a jury she had knowledge of thelayout of his home. . It also presented initial FBI reports which claim half of the hair evidence was destroyed during the DNA testing process and the other half was tainted and untestable. Rorrer, who is Katrinak's former girlfriend, was convicted of abducting Joann Katrinak and her son from their home, shooting Katrinak in the face, and leaving her and the child in the woods, where their bodies were found nearly four months later. He allegedly pressured one of those friends,Christopher Lefler, to perjure himself bycorroborating the dance alibi in court; Lefler refused. How about the phone line being cut? Unicorns and getting really buff can be equally fantastical. After Joann Katrinak, the wife of Patricias former flame, turned up dead along with her infant son, prosecutors suspected Patricia. Shes far from dumb, but shes not exactly educated, either. Next thing you know, a muscle bound nerd does something dreadful. I used to have a crush on Lucy Lawless, from Xena the Warrior Princess. Four hours is a long time between Andrew getting home from work and calling the police. I found it necessary to document each time an episode featured one of these. !) and detractors (This is another bs attempt to free a psycho). But if Rorrer was a genuine suspect, it's likely investigators would have attempted the mitochondrial DNA match on the hair anyway. The forensic reports indicate that there was a significant amount of blood and tissue clinging to this fingernail, which would have been an excellent source of nuclear DNA testing. 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. Why? I also communicated with Patricia via email to get her input on some matters. If it could reasonably have affected the outcome a retrial is necessary. Then, in what has to be everyones favorite part of the episode, police noticed Fairley was wearing beige makeup on his face when they brought him in for questioning. I hope her spouse and family find peace. Family members found Joanns tan Toyota sitting vacant in the parking lot of McCartys, a nearby bar. Police found Lisasbody after Fairley agreed to disclose its location in exchange for a promise that they wouldnt pursue the death penalty. Three of them were mountedon slides and sealed in adhesive. The Generation Why Podcast Episode 349. After a very early failed marriage, the 24-year-old Joann scored a new husband in Andrew Katrinak, 38, whom she met at a club. Joann bore a strong resemblance to Lisa Manderach. . Brad Jackson was able to describe what his daughter Valiree was wearing in incredible detail, down to the color of her socks. She also did volunteer work for Meals on Wheels. The prosecution alleged that after the murder, Patricia drove Joanns car to McCartys parking lot and backed it into a parking space. Well, that really caught our attention of course.". While theres no evidence to suggest he was unfaithful to Joann, within 6 months of her death Andrew and this woman were openly seeing each other. When Andrew Katrinak arrived home from work shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 15, 1994, he noticed two unusual things. In general, I wouldnt be so hasty to assume a link between perverted, well, whatever it was he had in his possession, and criminality. "They were skin and bones and totally neglected," Eggers said. A closer examination of the hairs showed traces of dried blood. Andrew Katrinak speaking after his wife's alleged murderer is convicted. "I guess she thought she wasn't going to get caught. She claimed to have been home during this period how did her defense team justify such a departure from Patricia's norm? Sometimes Andrew goes by various nicknames including Andy Katrinak, Andrew J Katrinik, Andrew J Katrinak, Andrew Katrinah and Andrew J Katrinak. But Patricia had moved from Pennsylvania years ago, and she'd started her own family in North Carolina. If I knew I was going to get caught, I never would have brought you into this world, the arresting officers testified they heard her say to Nicole. North America. But other things Patricia did also seemed strange, especially according to prosecutor Michael McIntyre. View the profiles of people named Andrew Katrinak. Rorrer was an easy target due to all the circumstantial evidence. 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. An ex-boyfriend of Patricia knew she owned a distinct .22 caliber pistol and knew of its tendency to jam, but Rorrer could only deny owning such a weapon. Patricia knew her gun tended to jam, but she used it anyway. (A good point. The nail was not consistent with Joann or Rorrer with regard to size and grooming. They theorized might've simply started a new life with another man, but this seemed absurd to everyone who knew Joann. Hair we go. She failed miserably to convince me, or anyone else who mattered, of her innocence. I also forgot to mention the fingernail evidence. Her car was soon located in a parking lot within walking distance of their home. The trio were all dark and striking. Lists. What you suggest is that law enforcement officers had to lie (about what she allegedly said, for example), AND that DNA was not just poorly/mistakenly administered but corruptly. were relatively and mercifully swift, mitigating their conscious pain and suffering.. Meanwhile, the case of the missing mother and baby turned into colossal news across the U.S. and internationally. And dance instructor William Jarrett couldnt remember whether she attended his dance class at the club the night of Joanns disappearance. Highly charged case. Having said that, to simply answer your question why? Police and FBI being under pressure to solve this highly publicized case, it had already been two years before they arrested Rorrer and case had gone cold. There were no love letters, cards, gifts, or any other indication that she still had a romantic interest in him. To her infant daughter, she supposedly said, If I had known I would get caught, I would never have brought you into this world. To me, those words sound overly dramatic. She said she had no animosity toward the Katrinaks and she had never met the dead woman. Of course, its not if such forensic evidence that is or may have been exculpatory has been maladministered by accident or design. Im not trying to throw shade at either one of them, but I do find it odd that when police asked Andy if he knew of anyone who lived in the area, he thought of an ex-girlfriend he hadnt been with in over 5 years, but failed to mention his friend, with whom he had much more frequent contact. Patricia was convicted based on her head hairs being found in the victim's car. Sponsored by Ancestry. The Innocence Project has declined to take her case. 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. Daughter of George & Margaret Panik and wife of Andrew Katrinak. As usual, Rebecca at Forensic Files Now has a thoroughly researched article about the Patricia Rorrer case and events since her conviction. Rorrer said she had spoken once to Joann before she and Katrinak were married and that Joann seemed friendly when she put Katrinak on the phone.Rorrer said that years ago, she rented a barn in Washington Township for her horses. It was, and is, perfectly reasonable to convict without forensic evidence. Plus, he had only a minimal life insurance policy on Joann and he passed polygraphs, according to The FBI Files: Family Secrets. Then, despite her multiple alibis, she has an inexplicable five-day gap in this pattern. The North Carolina woman accused of killing the wife and 15-week-old baby of her former boyfriend, Andrew Katrinak, calmly answered questions from one of her lawyers, James Pfeiffer. They allege that she drove the victims to Heidelberg Township woods where they were murdered and abandoned. Lieutenant Christopher Coble and Sergeant Suzanne Pearson would later testify that Patricia cried and apologized to 18-month-old Nicole, telling the baby, Im sorry for doing this to you and lamenting to the officers that she would never see little Nicole again. The last 20 years of Patricia Rorrer's life have been a tale of failure, two brushes with the law and the death of her infant son.Rorrer, charged Tuesday with the 2-year-old murders of Joann Katrinak and Katrinak's infant son, moved back and forth from the Lehigh Valley and Linwood, N.C., since the late 1970s, leaving failed relationships, a spotty work record and arrests for shoplifting and cruelty to animals. Oddly, the test results on the DNA from the cigarette butt was the deciding factor for me: thats when I KNEW the evidence had been compromised.
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