Teen Temptation and Murder Mystery

June 19, 2008 — -- From a rare look inside the world of Amish teenagers embarking on a pivotal life-altering journey, to unraveling the mystery surrounding a teenage girl's unsolved death nearly two decades ago, this summer's "Primetime's" limited series debut with two powerful hours.

"Primetime: The Outsiders" features reports on people living by their own rules, in worlds unfamiliar to the rest of society. The premiere installment takes an unprecedented look at Amish teenagers at a crossroads, as they come of age and decide their future. For the past year, ABC News has followed a group of Amish teens in central Ohio as they experience an Amish tradition called "Rumspringa" -- where the young have a chance to explore the usually forbidden modern world before deciding whether they're ready to forever commit themselves to the Amish way of life.

That means living with no electricity, no cars, no music and no education beyond the 8th grade. The challenge is that, if the temptations of the outside world prove more powerful than the world they have always known, the teens will spend the rest of their lives severed from their families and their communities. It's a high stakes choice between the enticement of freedom or returning to the faith and comfort of family life.

ABC News' Jay Schadler meets with four Amish teens who face this soul-wrenching struggle. "Primetime" follows 18-year-old Danny Troyer as he runs from his Amish roots by literally jumping from the second floor of his father's farmhouse one night. He negotiates his way through remote controls, text messaging and drunken nights, to find that he has escaped one set of rules for another he just doesn't understand. Viewers will see the teens make very different decisions: one will go back to Amish life, one will go to jail for burning a buggy, one will leave forever, and one is on the cusp of a decision.

"Primetime: Crime" goes deep inside real cases, uncovering new evidence and getting exclusive witness interviews. The series debuts with an investigation involving a mystery that's been buried for 18 years. When 16-year-old Janie Ward died at a party on Sept. 9, 1989, at a rural cabin in the Arkansas Ozarks, her parents were told that she died falling off a porch. There was only one problem: the porch was just nine-and-a-half-inches high.

For nearly two decades, Ward's parents have been fighting to prove that she was murdered, and that the crime was covered up -- not just by the kids, but local authorities as well. Through the years, there have been rumors of corruption, missing evidence and accusations of high school rivalries.

"Primetime" interviews an alleged eyewitness who says she saw Ward beaten with a baseball bat by a popular classmate who happened to be a beauty queen and a prominent judge's daughter. That former classmate, who has been the target of rumors of wrongdoing since the night Ward died, speaks out for the first time in 18 years to ABC News' Jim Avila.

For three years, "Primetime: Crime" has investigated the murder night through exclusive interviews with witnesses, law enforcement and the family, as well as behind-the-scenes access to a special prosecutor's investigation and top forensic specialists. Ward's body has been exhumed twice and autopsied a startling three times, with different findings each time.

"Primetime: Crime" is with a top forensic team as they try to unravel the mystery that has haunted the Ward family and the town of Marshall for 18 years: Was Janie Ward murdered?

Watch "Primetime: The Outsiders," Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET beginning June 24, and "Primetime: Crime," Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET beginning June 25.