Psycho For Love: Patricia Rorrer killed her ex-boyfriend's new wife, Joann Katrinak, and their 3-month-old son, Alex to make Andrew Katrinak suffer. On December 12, 1994, Joann answered a phone call from a woman shed never met, Patricia Rorrer, her husbands onetime girlfriend. Four months later, a farmer found the bodies. Patricia demonstrated a consistent habit of long-distance calls from home, then had an obvious gap while claiming she. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Andrew Katrinak was suspected because he failed two polygraph tests when asked if he had lied to police and hid evidence. Book her. No disagreements, but maybe D and D and health club membership arent so far apart. Andrew described his existence with Joanne and Alex as a little Camelot., Ex-spouse off list. The circumstances of Lisa Manderachs murder, the subject of todays post, seem even more improbable. Both sides agree Joann hung up on Patricia. Unicorns and getting really buff can be equally fantastical. So begins a case that features a missing wife, a missing baby, and the husband who gave news interviews repeatedly asking for the return of his wife and son. Conflicting versions. Last weeks post told of two nice people with the bad luck to cross paths with a personable married couple who were thrill killers looking for prey. not three days before it to tell him she had won a national horse competition in Oklahoma. Later, they both worked 12-hour graveyard shifts at a textile factory. But fortunately the murder createdplenty of forensic evidence that made for a stronger case against Fairley. They broke up in 1993. A closer examination of the hairs showed traces of dried blood. If shes the killer, then she would know full well that the cigarette butt was hers and the DNA would match. Andrew told investigators that the unpleasant phone call between Joann and Patricia happened just three days before his wifes disappearance. He gave an audio interview to the Wrong Man investigators when they made a surprise visit to his house, but he declined to appear on camera. 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. Andrew mentioned to police that his former live-in girlfriend Patricia Rorrer once managed a horse stable two miles from the bodies location and would have been familiar with the riding trails close to the murder scene. "I'm not worried about my clothes," Rorrer said. She currently resides in Cape Girardeau, Mo., where she works as a daily reporter covering the crime beat for the Southeast Missourian newspaper. When Joann failed to arrive, her mother-in-law tried calling, but there was no answer at the Katrinak's. Her car was soon located in a parking lot within walking distance of their home. Advocates for her innocence complain of hype surrounding the case. ""She was cool," Hege said of the 33-year-old mother, about the same time Rorrer was being arraigned. She walked into a kids clothing store where a young man working the cash register just happened to be a fantasy-gamesuperfan seething with thoughts of criminal perversion. And the alibi she used at trial -- that she was in a country music club with her fiance and his friend -- isn't credible, according to the prosecution. Patricia defaulted on her mortgage and then returned to North Carolina, where she eventually moved in with a boyfriend named Brian Ward. The fact she no longer has that gun "is almost as good as having the weapon," McIntyre said..To believe Rorrer's testimony, he said, jurors would have to reject testimony of 22 prosecution witnesses, whom she said were mistaken in their recollections of events.."Either she's guilty or she's the most unlucky person who's ever walked on this Earth," McIntyre said..The killer, he said, would have to have the same DNA as Rorrer, the same color and length of hair, the same gun, the same knowledge of the Katrinak home and the woods, and have a reason to kill Joann Katrinak. USA. She returned to North Carolina in 1991. I think often of this case and hope Caleb Fairly rots in hell! Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. The main one of course was committing murder of a young woman and her infant son over an argument. His favorite rattle, shaped like a phone, lay near the crime scene. 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. Finally, four months after that dreadful day in December, a farmer plowing his fields found what at first seemed to be a pile of discarded clothing. In December 1994, Andrew Katrinak arrives home to an empty house. My guiding principle if I were administering criminal law is what is it reasonable to do to establish probative fact and what is it reasonable to believe of those facts (a matter for the jury)? Despite the new evidence and hypotheses, the courts have rejected all of Patricias bids for a new trial. If those hairs taken from Joanns car had had a root attached, there would have been no reason for this case to be the first one in the commonwealth to use mitochondrial DNA testing. That may be true, in that Alex may have died of exposure, not intentional killing. Even her defence counsel is desperate: having accepted that if mounted hair (see the doc) DNA was hers, she did it, it then moved to avering that she was framed when said hairs proved to be hers. Shes just extremely happy with Andy, her brother, Michael OConnor, told the media. I cant agree on the evidence Im aware of that this is more likely than her guilt. The states theory was that this was a fatal attraction/cant let go motivated killing. When Rorrer was initially granted the right to do post conviction testing, the first thing she wanted tested was the butt. However, the only record of any call made from Rorrer to the Katrinak household was on Dec 7th. Her mother, Patricia Chambers, provided day care for their baby son, Charles. Rorrer had never actually met Katrinak. Finally, maybe not a conspiracy but rather a botched investigation and forensic analysis of the hair sample. One on one? Trash-talking ex. Its proximity to the stable she'd managed made an undeniable association to her. Plus, he had only a minimal life insurance policy on Joann and he passed polygraphs, according to The FBI Files: Family Secrets. (Disclaimer: Im not a big fan of eyewitnesses who come forward years after the fact, but its possible). It was conceivable that Andrew believed they were still out. To commit the murders, Rorrer took her victims out to a location that was familiar and significant. (Easy for me to say) but I hope they have. December 15th, 1994. (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. Theremaining three were sent to the FBI.A subsequent report states the FBIcould not test the hairs because they werecontaminated by someone who touchedthem during the collection process,rendering them scientifically worthless.Despite those reports, state police without recording the chain of custody inany record that has been revealed incourt said they sent all of the evidenceback to the FBI for more testing.While three of the six hairs weredestroyed in previous tests and twoearlier reports revealed no roots fortesting could be found in the others, nowa FBI analyst not only discovered roots totest on the hair samples, but also latermatched them to Rorrer.The new DNA tests, combined withwhat prosecutors said was evidence thatshe was trying to conjure up an alibi Rorrer said she was simply trying todocument her movements in NorthCarolina that day ended with her arrestin the double murder.It was the first time she would facecriminal charges. Viz Andrews newer wife, he likely, to me, believed absolutely that she could not possibly be the perp, as endorsed by the fact that he married her. 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. After relocating to Pennsylvania, Patricia met the 6-foot-2-inch Andrew in a restaurant. Investigators discoveredhis DNA under Lisas fingernails, some strands of long dark hairwith the roots attached (suggesting a struggle) in the vacuum cleaner bag at the store, and the babys DNA on thecarpet. I wish someone would look into the possibility that Caleb Fairley may have murdered Joann Katrinak and her infant son Alex in Catasauqua, PA, in December of 1994. He disposed of the little girls body in Valley Forge National Park, where hikers soon discovered it. 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. Just a few points (not rhetorical): do we KNOW Rorrer suggested examining the butt (not that its significant anyway cos of course police would)? Stable situation. It was conceivable that Andrew believed they were still out. Of course anything is possible, but I have studied this case in great detail, and my gut instinct is that Patricia Rorrer never left North Carolina, just as shes always maintained. He had worked as a semi-pro boxer in Las Vegas in his youth and later settled . She was always looking for a fight, Gary Gabard told the Morning Call, which noted that he was a head shorter than Patricia. Inside the locked 1992 vehicle, police discovered some strands of blond hair stained with dried blood. Lisa Manderach, two weeksshy of her 30th birthday, worked full time as a fork-lift operatorin a food warehouse and also had an entrepreneurial streak. The township invested an additional $50,000 for new equipment for the playground in 2012. On Instagram, I found a post for a two-part Win at All Costs podcast featuring journalism professor Bill Mousheys interviews with Patricia Rorrer from prison in December 2019. With 400 (and 6) episodes, this progress bar indicates my progress toward finishing all of them. Join Facebook to connect with Andrew Katrinak and others you may know. TENTH DISTRICT. 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. But when did he find the evidence of the break-in? If Patricia drove it back from the murder scene after she shot Joann and then beat her to death, luminal would have lit up the interior. Another former boyfriend said she talked about Andrew frequently and liked to gaze at old photos of him. "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. Next thing you know, a muscle bound nerd does something dreadful. Counsel for the 52-year-old woman convicted in 1998 argues evidence handling calls for new attention, reports say. Everything about that statement rings false, but it sure worked out for Officer Suzanne Pearson; she was promoted to Sergeant after sharing this bombshell confession with her superiors. DNA tests In 13-year-old Murder Case Could Be ReexaminedMar 21, 2007. It's not often there's a laundry list of clear signals, but it's fun to iterate them when there are so many. But by all accounts, Rorrer only spoke to Andrew Katrinak once or twice a year. Joann Katrinak, and her baby, had planned to go Christmas shopping with her mother-in-law but she never arrived to pick her up despite calling to say that she was on her way there. 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. But by all accounts, Rorrer only spoke to Andrew Katrinak once or twice a year. Police got a search warrant for Fairleyshome and discovereda great deal of pornography. !) and detractors (This is another bs attempt to free a psycho). While not promising to allow the tests, a judge says he will allow an expert to examine evidence from the deaths in 1994 of 26-year-old Joann Katrinak and her three-month-old son, Alex. Men who murder are conventional, women are sensational, posits the Worldwide Womens Criminal Justice Network. ), And in another bombshell, Joanns good friend Karen Devine said Joann planned to leave Andrew after the holidays. In December 1994, Andrew Katrinak arrives home to an empty house. After his wife disappeared, she made no attempt to be with him or to see him. Pennsylvania prison inmate is asking for new D-N-A tests in a 13-year-old murder case. Patricia Lynne Rorrer made for a good suspect. Her husband, Andrew, was surprised to not find his wife and child at home after arriving there . She had money put aside. He would be alive today if it were not for Patricia Rorrer. The mild-mannered Sarah died in 2019 at the age of 83. Rorrer said she purchased grain for her horses that day, brought it home and then later went to a bar for western dance lessons with her fianc and another man. In 1986, she met and began a relationship with Andrew Katrinak. Today, they are married and live in Colorado. Her name is not on a Dec. 15, 1994, sign-in sheet for the private club..Police never found the murder weapon, a .22-caliber gun.."Where's the gun, Patty?" His wife's vehicle was discovered in a parking lot 100 yards away from their house.The bodies of the mother and son were found in April 1995 in a rural, wooded area 15 miles from home. And yikes, he discovered someone had cut one of the houses phone lines and pried the hinge on the basement door. Im real immature. Katrinak, Andrew J.Andrew Joseph Katrinak, 88, of Bethlehem, died on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at Blough Healthcare Center in Bethlehem.He was born in Bethlehem son of the late Martin and . Enter numeric value. Four hours is a long time between Andrew getting home from work and calling the police. She said she did not give the hang up by Joann Katrinak a second thought. More hairs there. Rorrer said she was almost 500 miles away in North Carolina on the day of the disappearance. But Rorrer said she didn't ride on the trails and wasn't familiar with the area. Yet, Joanns husbands ex girlfriend, who lived 500 miles away and had never met the victims, was convicted of the crime on a flimsy theory and highly questionable hair evidence. As for an update on Lisas widower, Jimmy Manderach, it appears he still lives in the same part of Pennsylvania. December 15th, 1994. It was, and is, perfectly reasonable to convict without forensic evidence. It wasnt until post-conviction DNA testing that those hairs suddenly, inexplicably had roots. Although the prosecution used it as evidence that she was trying to create a false alibi, it actually sounded more like Patricia was simply trying to nail down the facts he had already asserted to her. She Faces Prosecutor Tomorrow.March 03, 1998by DEBBIE GARLICKIThe Morning Call, Double-murder trial defendant Patricia Rorrer took the witness stand in her own defense Monday, giving jurors a Cliff Notes version of her life up until the time a Catasauqua woman and her baby disappeared in 1994.Rorrer, 34, testified in a soft, slow voice for an hour and 20 minutes before court adjourned on the 14th day of her Lehigh County trial.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.Rorrer, who had a five-year relationship with Katrinak that ended in 1989, testified that she and Katrinak remained good friends after the breakup, writing letters occasionally and calling each other.She said she was happy for Katrinak when he told her in a telephone call in March or April 1994 that he had gotten married and a baby was on the way. They theorized might've simply started a new life with another man, but this seemed absurd to everyone who knew Joann. Shes attracted the help of writer Tammy Mal (full name Tammy Malinowski OReilly), author of Convenient Suspect, a book about the case. 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. Again, this vital piece of evidence was never tested prior to trial. Katrinak, Andrew J.Andrew Joseph Katrinak, 88, of Bethlehem, died on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at Blough Healthcare Center in Bethlehem. 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. According to Pennsylvania State Police, Rorrer met Andrew Katrinak, the husband and father of the victims, in 1986. Daughter of George & Margaret Panik and wife of Andrew Katrinak. Plus, two men, her babys father and his friend, testified they saw Patricia at the line-dancing club the night of the homicide. That day I was at the Dunkin Donuts too. But if Andrew wanted to find his wife and his son, why on Earth did he wait until 10:30pm before notifying authorities? ~~~~~~~POLICE ARREST WOMAN IN 3-YEAR-OLD CASE OF SLAIN MOTHER AND CHILDAssociated PressJun. On September 15, 1995, she and Devon headed to Your Kidz &Mine, a new clothing store in the Collegeville Shopping Center, 10 minutes from her house in Limerick, Pennsylvania. But none of those charges ever stuck. JUROR, DISCUSSING AFTER THE RORRER TRIAL THE FACTORS THAT LED TO HIS DECISION. Joann Katrinak - 349. Andrew Katrinak was suspected because he failed two polygraph tests when asked if he had lied to police and hid evidence.If it wasnt for the DNA, I wouldhave had a hard time saying guilty. GEORGE JAMES GATANISJUROR, DISCUSSING AFTER THE RORRER TRIAL THE FACTORS THAT LED TO HIS DECISION.27During the investigation, police took hair samples from several individuals, including Andrew Katrinak, but none matched the headrest hairs. Meanwhile, the case of the missing mother and baby turned into colossal news across the U.S. and internationally. One final thought about those hairs: they were described as dirty blond and approximately 8 inches in length. Great catch. Prosecutor pounds away. You will also be advised that the transcripts consist of 6500 pages and the cost of copying it runs between $3.00 to $5.00 per pagemeaning you will have to fork over between $19,000 and $32,000 just to see the transcripts. Try sending something like that to a lab for paternity testing and see how far you get. Should reasonable doubt be defined for the jury or is that to nudge them some unintended direction by lawmakers? The Irish-Italian girl had full, fluffy dark hair, olive skin, and a pretty face. Her attorney persuaded her to have the hair re-tested. Until WCJN has thought that the hair was planted but the FBI has just released a report detailing unscientific and fraudulent analysis of hair samples in criminal cases. I used to have a crush on Lucy Lawless, from Xena the Warrior Princess. "Rorrer was born in Phillipsburg. (Media sources vary as to whether she actually worked at the stable or just rented a stall there for her own horse.). If I were to challenge all the so-called evidence in the comments, it would make for a very long read. It seems Patricia's own daughter and baby Alex Katrinak were very close in age. Until next time, cheers. She turned a flushed face and red nose away from the visitors' section.Her demeanor during testimony about her baby, who turned 2 last month, was far different from that during the rest of the Lehigh County trial.Earlier, she was dry-eyed as witnesses described the numerous wounds to Joann Katrinak, who had been shot and beaten, and the baby's death from exposure to cold or suffocation. 25, 1997. Facebook gives people the power. She moved to North Carolina after her relationship with Katrinak ended in 1991. Whatever observers claim about the circumstances surrounding the crime why would she do this/surely shed be seen/shes unlikely to have thought that they are speculative, whereas the hard science, beyond REASONABLE doubt, says she did it. She asked to speak with Andrew, who was home during the call; Joann refused. This was further disproved when her bank reported there'd been no activity on Joann's credit cards since her disappearance. He wanted to move to Colorado and she was against it.. Patricia demonstrated a habit of making almost daily, long-distance phone calls from her home in North Carolina. Fairley, a blond, heavy, powerful-looking fire hydrant of a man who lived with his parents, was described by a friend as adevotee ofDungeons and Dragons, a role-playing game that allows peopleto act out story linesinvolving medieval warrior heroes, dragons, wicked monarchs, you name it. At 10:40 p.m. he calls 911 to report his family missing. She seemed like quite an unlikely suspect at least at first. Both were deceased. Joann Katrinak, and her baby, had planned to go Christmas shopping with her mother-in-law but she never arrived to pick her up despite calling to say that she was on her way there. She is a tough one, Sheriff Gerald Hege would later tell the Morning Call in a June 29, 1997 interview. As of at least 2012, he was trying to have his convictions vacated and get a new trial following a Supreme Court decision that deemed life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders unconstitutional. I do not just blindly accept whatever the courts decide. "We got along fine. Why would somebody tell you, theyre going to fry me, if they didnt do it? Jarrett told Wrong Man. http://articles.mcall.com/1998-03-06/news/3183202_1_mcintyre-defense-lawyer-killed/2, Motive Made Focus Of Rorrer Case Closing Prosecution, Defense Agree It Doesn't Make Sense. The father of her son is not known.In 1993, Rorrer called Katrinak, who told her he was married. They were married 62 years. To answer your question re the testing of the cigarette butt: it was never tested prior to the trial, and one can only speculate as to why it wasnt. We found out that he was a real pervert, all kinds of sexual devices and various perverted stuff, District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. told Forensic Files rather triumphantly. The indications of Patricia's involvement in Joann's and young Alex's disappearance were numerous. Detective Robert Werts stated Rorrer offered four or five alibis for the time of the incident. The media love the femme fatale., FBI lab blunder. That same year, police arrested Calebs father, James Fairley, who owned a pharmacy in Phoenixville, for allegedly providing a customer with the painkiller Darvon illegally. They lived together in Salisbury Township, Pa., for about two years, but they . "Like I said, we were still friends," Rorrer said.She testified that she had met a new man and was happy that Katrinak had found someone special. From the start, the Rorrer murder case was plagued with allegations of inconsistent evidence collection and testing that eventually led a judge to hold hearings on whether she deserves a new trial.Her case shows how the present system in contrast to the dictates of the Coverdell Act actually contributes to scientific confusion and has almost no automatic audit on investigations when misconduct allegations are leveled.On Dec. 15, 1994, Andrew Katrinak told police he arrived home from his construction job to find his wife, Joann, and 4-month-old baby, Alex, missing from their Catasauqua, Pa., home. For more on the Katrinak murder case, you can watch Autopsy Six: A Fatal Attraction for free on YouTube. By: Robert S. In 1994, Joann Katrinak called her mother-in-law and made plans to go holiday shopping. Police converged on the scene and soon realized it was not only the remains of Joann Katrinak, but sadly of Alex too. 7 Unnerving Facts About the Lindberghs and the Kidnapping, The Lindbergh Kidnapping: Forensic Files Lost Episode, Dawn Fehring: A Missionary Dies Too Young, Daniel and Cynthia McDonnell: Good Cop, Bad Wife. Although there was a conviction in that case, there are many troubling aspects and questions surrounding the conviction, and the states theory was probably the silliest thing I ever heard.
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