Wrong Man

In 2016, 52-year-old Vonda Smith was charged with the brutal murder of 21-year-old Jessie Morrison in rural Tennessee and sentenced to life in prison. Vonda was the grandmother of one of Jessie's children. According to Vonda, she loved Jessie and helped her pay bills and care for her children. But on the day of the murder, Jessie's blood was all over Vonda's car. Vonda claimed that she had lent Jessie her car that day and that she saw Jessie's boyfriend return it and get into a white van. She also said that when she launched her own investigation into the crime, Jessie's real killer attacked her one night and told her to mind her own business. "The Wrong Man" investigative team sets out to examine Vonda's story and find the white van that Vonda says played a role in Jessie's murder.

At a hearing in Greeneville, Tennessee, Vonda Smith, who vehemently says she did not kill Jessie Morrison, is denied the opportunity for a new trial. In an effort to reopen the investigation, the "Wrong Man" team talks with the men in Jessie's life, including her boyfriend Gary Ealey, who Vonda said returned her bloodied car the night Jessie was killed. But during an intense interrogation with investigator Ira Todd, Vonda makes a shocking statement about what she really saw the night her car was returned, and the investigation takes a new turn.

On December 15, 1994, Andrew Katrinak arrived home to find his wife and son missing. He discovered his basement door had been tampered with and that the phone wires to a cordless phone had been cut. Police thought that perhaps Joann had left and taken the baby with her. But Andy suspected foul play. When asked who might want to hurt his wife, he told police that his ex-girlfriend Patty Rorrer, who lived 500 miles away, might be holding a grudge because Joann had angrily hung up on her when she had called the house a few days before. Four months later, Joann's and Alex's bodies were found 15 miles from their home in an area that Andy said Patty knew well. Police took another look at Patty, who could not provide a strong alibi for where she was the night the victims disappeared.

Patricia Rorrer is found guilty of the abduction and murder of Joann Katrinak and her infant son, Alex. But "Wrong Man" investigators discover that there is no clear timeline between when Joann and Alex disappeared and when their bodies were discovered four months later. They interview a witness who insists she saw Patty with a man five days after her alleged kidnapping. And a forensic entomologist and a medical examiner tell them that considering the state of decomposition of the bodies and the size of the infant, they doubt that the bodies had been lying in the field where they were found for four months.

The "Wrong Man" team explores the case of Kenneth Clair, a homeless black man who was convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal torture and murder of a live-in babysitter, 25-year-old Linda Rodgers, in Santa Ana, California, in 1984. Hours after the murder, a child who lived in the home told police that he had seen a white man kill the babysitter. The "Wrong Man" team examines all aspects of the prosecution's case against Clair, particularly a description of jewelry taken from the murder scene that Kenneth's girlfriend claimed she saw, and the alleged "confession" she elicited from him while being wiretapped by the police. When they discover that she had sustained a severe head injury in an accident shortly before the murder, they consult with a neuropsychologist and learn that her injury would have affected her memory and cognitive abilities and may have made her susceptible to coaching. How reliable was the confession that convicted Kenneth Clair?

The "Wrong Man" team widens its examination of the Kenneth Clair case to consider who may have actually tortured and murdered Linda Rodgers. They explore the possibility that new DNA could be extracted from the evidence to help identify the killer. In discussing the violent sexual nature of the murder, the team points out that certain details in the crime scene indicate the killer could have been someone who was intimate with Linda. Investigators Ira Todd and Joe Kennedy try to track down the victim's boyfriend, who disappeared right after the murder.