Joanna Rollins (Kate Mulgrew) is the main villainess in Murder, She Wrote's sixteenth episode of season eight. She was a famous soap opera star. Joanna was in a relationship with former child star Devon "Sonny" Lane. The two conspired together to kill prosperous businessman Walter Bowman to gain the fortune.
The scheme involved Joanna pretending to break up with Sonny and to start a relationship with Walter. Eventually, Walter was encaptivated by Joanna and married her, putting her in the line for the inheritance. Next, Joanna befriended Jessica Fletcher as an audience to the drama she was weaving — Joanna and Sonny fighting, Sonny threatened to kill Walter and Joanna during their wedding day and breaking the painting he gave her.
Joanna and Sonny moved on to the climax of their meticulous plan — to kill Walter. The greedy Joanna made sure that the date of the murder was when it was the cook's night out so that Walter could be alone. Sonny applied for a casting call to Dorothy Fremont as an alibi. The evil Joanna set up the shotgun in a contraption in her closet, since Walter could open his closet anytime, she had to put it in her closet so that Walter would be killed while they had their perfectly timed alibis — Joanna was in a Chinese restaurant with Jessica and Sonny was having a shouting match with Dorothy Fremont in her office. Joanna called Walter to get something for her in her closet in order for Walter to open the closet and get blasted by the rigged shotgun. Afterwards, Sonny would take down the contraption and slid the gun under the bed.
Jessica deduced Joanna and Sonny as the murderers when there were circular markings on the rifle — indentations made by C-clamps that was used to put the rifle in the contraption. The C-clamps were found in Sonny's car trunk. Sonny was willing to testify against his girlfriend, Joanna pulled off her final act and "tearily" confessed to Walter's murder, and the two criminals were placed under arrest.
Trivia[]
- Earlier in the series, Kate Mulgrew appeared as the evil actress Sonny Greer in Season 3's "The Corpse Flew In First Class".
- Kate Mulgrew later lent her voice to evil murderer June Rosewood from American Dad.
- Mulgrew also played the evil Alma Lane in the third season of Mr. Mercedes.
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