Walter Ogrod was born on February 3, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Castor Gardens neighborhood, where he lived a quiet, unremarkable life. Before his involvement in the crime that would later define his life, Ogrod had a minimal criminal record and was not widely known in his community. He lived close to the Horn family and was acquainted with them, but he did not have any notable interactions with Barbara Jean Horn, the young girl whose death would lead to his wrongful conviction.

On the night of July 12, 1988, four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn was reported missing from her home in Philadelphia. She had been playing outside but vanished without a trace. Four days later, her lifeless body was found in a cardboard box on St. Vincent Street, not far from her home. An autopsy revealed that Barbara had been brutally killed, suffering blunt force trauma to the head.

In the years following her death, there was little progress in solving the crime. That changed in 1992 when Walter Ogrod was arrested after he allegedly confessed to the crime. His confession was later deemed unreliable and was considered to have been coerced during a lengthy interrogation. 

Ogrod spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime he did not commit. Throughout his time in prison, Ogrod maintained his innocence, and his case garnered attention from advocates for wrongful convictions. In 2020, new evidence came to light, including DNA analysis that did not match Ogrod to the crime scene. This prompted a re-evaluation of his case, and on June 5, 2020, after 28 years of incarceration, his conviction was overturned, and Ogrod was released from prison.

The city of Philadelphia later reached a $9.1 million settlement with Ogrod in November 2023, acknowledging the wrongful conviction and the years he had spent unjustly imprisoned. Barbara Jean Horn's family continues to seek justice for her death, and the true perpetrator of the crime remains unidentified.