Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman - A complete timeline of Sarah Jo Pender's murder trial from Hulu docuseries, revisited 

Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman, a Hulu docuseries, follows one of Indiana’s most divisive criminal cases, that of Sarah Jo Pender, once labeled the “female Charles Manson” and given 110 years for a double murder she maintains she did not commit. More than 20 years after the murders of Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman in Indianapolis, the case remains hotly contested, scarred by skepticism and doubts about the integrity of the conviction.

What makes Pender’s story not only so compelling but so troubling is the sweeping change of narrative: The narrative has drastically changed. That same prosecutor who described her as a manipulative mastermind now publicly acknowledges sorry. The evidence that convicted her is now said to be unreliable. As the docuseries traces the chronology, it exposes a case that has changed from a sensational murder trial to a more wide-ranging discussion about wrongful convictions and the justice system’s ability to correct itself.

Here is the complete timeline of Sarah Jo Pender's murder trial, as shown on Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman

2000: The murders

On October 24, 2000, Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman suffered a 12-gauge shotgun blast that ended both their lives, portrayed in Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman. Pender’s then-boyfriend, Richard Hull, said he pulled the trigger. At trial, prosecutors contended that Pender had urged Hull to commit the murders amid a falling-out over drugs and money. She had bought the shotgun and assisted in disposing of the bodies.

Pender has always claimed she did not mastermind the murders. In a 2023 interview from Rockville Correctional Facility, she said:

"I think that it's important that the CIU pay attention to my case out of these 400 cases, because the evidence is overwhelming that I didn't do it. I've paid 22 years of my life, five of those in solitary confinement, I've paid my dues and I deserve to be let at home."

She admitted to buying the weapon but said Hull told her he intended to shoot in the country. When she comes home, she's gone to shoot, and when she turns around, it's a body. Scared, she helped dump the bodies.

2002: Conviction and sentencing

Then Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells, the defense lawyer, said she was “a female Charles Manson” and that she had manipulated Hull into killing their roommates. Pender was found guilty and sentenced to 110 years, as shown in Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman.

Years later, the prosecution’s case began to weaken. A handwritten “snitch list” of key witness Floyd Pennington, a convicted child molester, had leaked. The list consisted of people who are ready to testify against in exchange for deals. Although Pender’s name was not on it, Sells said it signaled Pennington’s readiness to fabricate testimony.

"I know of no credible evidence that Sarah Pender actually shot anyone. As a matter of fact, there is evidence she did not."

He admitted, as explored in Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman,

"If I'd known the stuff that I know now, I mean, there's no way that I would have prosecuted her. I'm so sorry that she's been there, especially this long."

2008: Escape and solitary confinement

Pender got away from prison in 2008, a decision she later said was born out of desperation. After her capture, she spent five years in solitary confinement. In prison, she took advantage of educational and communal programs, and later received job offers and a graduate studies place contingent upon release.

2023: Sentence modification denied.

On 5th January 2023, Marion Superior Court Judge Kevin Snyder ruled against her petition for a reduction of sentence to time served. The one-page ruling did not give any reasoning, as shown in Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman.

Victims’ family members remain firm. Steve Cataldi, one of the victim's family members, said,

"She's going to serve the rest of her life in prison. That's what she deserves."

Supporters were stunned. Former correctional officer Kelsey Kauffman said:

"I'm stunned. I'm amazed that the criminal justice system works in such a way that when the prosecutor says that someone is innocent, that doesn't carry an enormous amount of weight."

Pender’s father, Roland Pender, added:

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"The Indiana justice system says once again, 'We never make a mistake.'"

As it turns back to the case, Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman poses a haunting question for its viewers: was convicted murderer Sarah Jo Pender a calculating genius, or a woman who was falsely convicted in a miscarriage of justice, and the system did not want to reopen its findings?

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