Slain Minister's Wife to Be Charged With Murder

Fox News ^ | March 24, 2006

[Blogger]

Slain Minister's Wife to Be Charged With Murder Friday, March 24, 2006 MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The wife of a Tennessee pastor found shot dead in his house Wednesday will face first-degree murder charges, authorities announced Friday.

Mary Winklerwas found Thursday night with the couple's three daughters in Orange Beach, Ala., about 400 miles south of their home in Selmer.

Investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said she was interviewed during the night and the charges were being prepared.

"We've interviewed her and she was cooperative," said Jennifer Johnson of the TBI, adding that once a warrant with the charges was drawn up, extradition proceedings would begin to have her returned to Tennessee.

Matthew Winkler was found shot to death in the bedroom of his parsonage Wednesday by church members who began searching for him after he failed to show up at an evening event at Selmer's Church of Christ.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry, but Winkler's wife and children — Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 — were gone.

[Birmingham Rain]

I'm wondering if it was rented for the whole family for a vacation getaway.

[yer gonna put yer eye out]

"The headline is . . . poorly worded. How can a dead woman be charged with murder???"

Liberal journalism degree?......

[Jedidah]

Cable TV and the internet. Bad stuff has always happened, but we didn't have to hear about it 24/7.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"IF she is indeed guilty she's a cold-blooded killer and worse than anything he might have done. Period."

So you don't buy into the ideas that some people are alive because it is illegal to kill them and some people are dead because they needed killing?

Killing in cold blood by shooting a dangerous person in the back sometimes makes sense to the shooter. None of us know enough to make statements like you did. Period.

Michael Frazier

[r9etb]

Well call me crazy that I find it disgusting to speculate that a man shot in the back by his wife is a child molesting, wife beating adulterer.

Could be that he was, and she took her chance when she got it. Or it could be that she's a loon. Or something else. This is all just speculation, because folks are morbidly interested. You read far too much into the comments.

[vetvetdoug]

I hate to burst your bubble, but that house around here will bring between $80-100K. I live 12 miles from that house in a rural area. I'd be a gazillionaire if I had my house and property in New Jersey or California. The median income for Alcorn County, Mississippi, and McNairy County, Tennessee, is somewhere between $20 and 30K per year.

[Rte66]

Mary Winkler at Baldwin Co AL Corrections Center

Yeah, here's a vacation snapshot from beautiful downtown Gulf Shores

[pnz1]

Alabama LE says they were staying at an area motel.

[Atlantian]

I'm 59 and grew up in Chicago. During the '50's and 60's horrible murders took place, especially of children. I can still remember 50 years later the names of some of the children who were murdered.

And I can still remember my mom waking me up one Saturday morning to tell me about the 8 nurses who were murdered the night before. The ones Richard Speck killed.

I was very watchful as I walked to elementary school by myself. I learned at a young age the world could be a scary place.

[Rte66]

Everything I saw said "condo" on the beach, but they never stayed there.

Here's finally a person to attribute the confession statement to, besides the spokesperson Johnson.

~~~
Update 32: Minister's Wife Confesses to Killing Him
By WOODY BAIRD , 03.24.2006, 01:03 PM

The wife [of] a minister found shot to death in their church parsonage confessed to investigators and agreed to return to Tennessee to face first-degree murder charges, authorities said Friday.

Selmer Police Sgt. Roger Rickman said Mary Winkler confessed to the shooting, which he said happened on Wednesday. She then took the couple's three daughters to Alabama, where she and the children were found late Thursday.

"To my knowledge, the children saw nothing," Rickman said when asked if they witnessed their father's death. ..."

[pamlet]

It looks like a normal "farewell" letter to me... afterall HE was the one who was the youth pastor...

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out... it's so hard to say .. especially since so far anyway there have been no indications that they had anything but a normal family life...

[Minn]

Bi-polar is what Debra LaFave said she has isn't it?

No doubt she's Bi. Don't no about the polar part.

[Birmingham Rain]

1) Condo rented for the family, someone in the family knew something bad would happen while there;

2) Condo rented by wife because she planned to be out and away from him for a while or permanently for whatever reason and that turned sour; or

3) The renting of the condo had nothing at all to do with anything.

Curious bit, though, to wonder about.

[sauropod]

You called it.

[Politicalmom]

Did you read the threads about the teen who was shot for stepping on an old maniac's lawn?

Same concept.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"The vigilante mentality on FR astounds me sometimes"

Hey, I just read your Freeper page.

How can someone who describes himself as a Jack Bauer wannabe chide people here for having a vigilante attitude?

Jack is a character who tells a handcuffed prisoner he will carve the prisoner's eye out. Michael Frazier

[spectre]

What's more "disgusting" is that anyone would believe that this woman, and mother of three girls would shoot her own husband in the back because SHE was having an affair...IMO.

Now, I will wait till we know more about the circumstances, but it is highly unlikely that IF she premeditated her own husbands murder, she would chose the method she did...geeze.

The two oldest girls will no doubt be witnesses to something although we don't have enough information yet.

This is a very fragile situation for the youngsters.

sw

[girlangler]

I just heard on Fox News the spokesman for the sheriff's dept. in Tennessee say the west Tennessee drug task force was down there in Alabama (along with a couple other agencies like the TBI).

Did anyone else catch this?

Why would a drug task force be there?

[MHT]

Speaking of the community, I bet there are Freepers in that part of the world who could fill in some of the missing holes about the family.

[pamlet]

It's been referred to as a "parsonage" which usually means the church owns it and the Pastor and family live in it as part of their compensation...

Also - the real estate in that part of TN is probably MUCH more affordable than NJ... ;)