Posted on 06/30/2006 9:54:04 AM PDT by LouAvul
SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- For three months, the 4,500 souls of this God-fearing town have been left to wonder if a demure preacher's wife shot her husband in the back and ran off to the beach with their three girls.
.......
Here, third-generation preacher Matthew Winkler, a strapping 31-year-old with a booming voice and charisma to burn, was beginning to make his mark after little more than a year. He had a knack for connecting with younger members, who called him "Wink."
On March 22, four church members -- including a doctor and the town undertaker -- let themselves in to the tidy brick parsonage on Mollie Street when Winkler didn't show up for Wednesday evening services.
They found him in the master bedroom. He had been shot in the back with a shotgun.
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Across the street from where the Winklers lived, Sharon Everitt has no problem with Mary Winkler going free.
"She could come in here, she could sleep in my bed, live in my house," Everitt said. "She is not a danger to anybody." At the time of the slaying, Everitt recalled, the Winklers were portrayed as the perfect couple. The day he died, she said, Matthew Winkler "got elevated to sainthood."
Everitt and her husband, Dan, said they saw another side to Matthew Winkler that troubled them. After their rottweiler, Madison, wandered into the Winklers' yard, the preacher threatened to shoot the dog.
They found his behavior rude and aggressive, they said. Mary Winkler stepped back as her husband spoke, as if to signal she did not agree with his approach, Sharon Everitt recalled.
"I remember saying to myself, 'This is not new neighbor behavior. This is not preacher behavior. What is this aggression?' Boy, I betcha he's fun to live with," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Anything in life is a challenge. Finding time and money to get master's degree when one has children is a challenge. Being very sick and not having sick leave or anyone to help out is a challenge. Life is a challenge. Yet, people don't kill others, because they are confronting a challenge. Unless of course they are murders.
I am sorry to hear you have had adversity in your life. I am sure you and your children are stronger today because of it and won't fall into the same hole, because you no longer see yourselves as victims, but proactive beings that have and make choices. Good for you. I am sure your children are stronger having seen you live with a problem and get yourself out of it in a proactive way.
Life is adversity and they will see this and that one can deal with adversity sanely, reasonably, morally and in dignified, gracious manner. That is a good mother that prepares her children in this way. Teaching them to blame and be victims, not so much. Child abuse as far as I am concerned. Sets them up to pick partners that support that world view and continues the cycle--they either become the 'abused' or 'abuser'.
I said to my female pastor, "Since the day the babies came home from the hospital, my husband has become increasingly abusive."
She replied, "Well, how much of that is your fault."
She murdered only as an alternative to suicide.
www.websleuths.com
They have a forum in their trials section concerning this case.
One of the *only* comments LE has made is that Matthew had done nothing to provoke this. No infidelity, no child abuse.
Ha, just the word "undertaker" used in the article signals the type of town it happened in. He's not only the undertaker and mortician, he's the coroner and medical examiner.
He wasn't there at the crime scene for that reason - he just happened to be in the Bible study group Matthew was supposed to lead that night - they were the ones who went and got a key to the house and let themselves in because they couldn't imagine why he wouldn't show up for his own Bible group that he lead.
Obviously, they did the right thing - but it was just a coincidence that a mortician - *the* coroner - was there.
The convict thing isn't true. Mary was never married before and no evidence has *surfaced* of the inmate in FL who is the subject of the rumor.
Any ideas on how we can get the dead man's version?
Are you talking about the Church of Christ?
No. I was talking about the natives of West Tenn.
No, I really do mean 'ethnocentric', in that we tend to look at the world through our understanding. I guess it really does mean self-centered though, now that I think about it. It just sounds better than self-centered!
"Ethnocentric" means concerned with or centered around an ethnicity or race. "Egocentric" means concerned with or centered around one's self.
Either one might be what you were wanting to use - it's just that more people use "egocentric".
I agree with you. Unfortunately, I lived through a loved one being involved with a preacher's son -- never knew such evil existed -- the son, the preacher, even the mother were freaks from hell yet appeared so "Christian" with their soft voices, and crosses the size of Texas draped around their necks. The abuse was all the more sadistic given these pervs presented themselves as humble, god-fearing folks. I could have easily killed the SOB preacher and his spawn myself and felt no remorse. Thank God, it's only a bad memory, but I came to understand the suffering of mental and emotional abuse and the damage it does not just to the person involved, but to their friends and family.
~~~~ " ... The agent says shortly before the killing, Winkler had shifted money between at least two banks. He says she deposited checks totaling $17,500 dollars in family bank accounts from unidentified sources in Canada and Nigeria. ..."
That's right and it really bothers me that his parents have custody of the girls.
What is one reason a person would shoot their husband in the back and then not want to talk about it in public?
Catching your husband sexually abusing one of your children -- in the act -- I'm afraid I could/would take a lot, but not that.
Any other reason for shooting him, would be something she could talk about in public, but in this case I would want to protect my child from further scandal; especially in a small town.
No, straightforward does not confuse me, however sometimes the government just isn't there to help out. Maybe you can't tell extended family, because of shame, or because you're afraid they might be targeted as well. I didn't tell anyone what was going on for 19 yrs. Life certainly is a challenge, to put it mildly. You can usually get through it without killing someone. Some folks just snap under the pressure, while others internalize the stress.
A lot of people have adversity in their lives, and not only overcome it, but excel despite it. Who knows. I developed some health problems because of the ongoing harassment, but I know there isn't anything I can do about it right now. It's very subtle. My bf has also become a target.
Funny you should mention setting up children to grow up and either become abused or abusers. It is completely true, unless there is an intervention early on. Children learn what they see, not what you tell them. My children have come away with the notion of doing the right thing makes you a sucker. Time for me to take care of myself. I wish there was a way for kids to learn about the life defining consequences of picking the wrong mate before they even start dating. It would do more good than learning how to put a condom on a banana.
Getting back to the topic, I heard on the news, that they were fighting over money, and she doesn't remember shooting him. This ought to be good.
I wonder who threw that rumor out there. I read it on this thread. It must have come from somewhere. Thanks for letting me know.
People murder people everyday. I could care less about this wacko family. RIP to the preacher, but the looney wife hopefully will be in jail for life.
That was just a snapshot of one moment in time. I'm sensitive to those things and that particular photo didn't bother me at all.
If you saw the girls at the funeral and all the pix of them, the older smiles a lot and the younger is just more serious all the time. The way people talk about them who know them say their personalities are like that, too. They're very bright, according to teachers and friends.
Patricia heard the gunshot and came out of her room and down the hall - then asked Mary what had happened. She said daddy was sick and going to the hospital and that they were going to the beach.
She had withdrawn $500 at least twice the day before, yet had only $121 on her in Orange Beach. She said they stopped in Jackson, MS, on the way down, so maybe they spent the night there. Must have been an expensive hotel room.
Farese is trying to spin that she was a victim of the Nigerian internet scam - but the TBI agent said she was an active participant, opening three other bank accounts, one in her name only, with an expired license. I'm going to bet that it said "Carol Freeman," the name she went by in high school and college.
I'm not nearly as worried about the elder Winklers having the girls now as I was earlier. I was afraid it might be a rigid atmosphere, but maybe not.
I am sickened, though, that Mary got to see them last Sunday in jail. The Winklers "surprised" her by bringing them to visit, without telling big mouth media freak Farese they were coming (as if they were giving in to his vocal and publicized demands that Mary be allowed to see them). The last thing they needed was photographers.
Still, it had to be traumatic and the newspaper articles said it was. The girls cried about having to see their mom through a glass partition. Mary waved to the baby as one of the grandparents held her.
My hope is that the counselors had said it was OK in advance - that the time was right - maybe even that this was the best way, unannounced.
I just don't think Mary should get *anything* that could be considered any kind of "privilege." She left her husband to die, asking her "why" she shot him, just after he woke up to the alarm clock. She disconnected the phone from its cord, so he couldn't call for help! It was near him, with the phone line under his body.
All those people who want to let her come live with them and give her a job should look at all this - she was kiting checks, lying, stealing, and then she murdered her husband - and took the shotgun with her to the beach with the children!
So, he didn't die right away? The trial should be very telling.
You know, I never cease to be amazed that anyone would fall for those Nigerian email scams.
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