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A Fatal Attraction
On December 15, 1994, 27-year-old Joann Katrinak and her 15-week-old baby disappeared from their home in Catasauqua, PA. The next morning, Joann's husband, Andrew, found her car nearby. Police considered Andrew a suspect -- but with no body there was no case. Four months later, during the spring thaw, a farmer found the bodies in a wooded area. The Medical Examiner determined Joann had been beaten and shot in the face; the baby likely died of exposure or suffocation. Poring over Joann's car for evidence, police found six blond hairs, each about eight inches long. These were matched to hairs found at the crime scene (seen below), with roots indicating they had been dyed blond and pulled forcibly from the scalp.
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With forensic evidence now suggesting that the culprit was a woman, detectives investigated Andrew's past relationships, including one with a woman named Patricia Rorrer. Although the relationship had ended five years earlier and Rorrer now lived 500+ miles away in North Carolina, Andrew said she had called three days before Joann vanished. Joann answered the phone, telling Rorrer, "we'd had just had a baby and were happily married," and asking her not to call again.
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When police went to NC to talk to Rorrer, she denied any involvement -- adding that she had black hair, not blond. But when experts tested Rorrer's hair against the crime scene hairs, they got a definitive DNA match. In addition, a photo taken days before the murder shows Rorrer with her hair dyed blond. Rorrer was subsequently found guilty of murder and is now serving a life sentence.
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