Speaking of juvenile, is this your imaginary friend or a therapy session partner?
Posted on 03/24/2006 8:28:46 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I've known a lot of hypocrites in my life as well, captain. I could count myself among them at one time. Christian hypocrites are the worst. But since I've been Born Again into the Spirit of the Lord, I see them clearly for what they are. I now choose to spend my time with other servants of the Lord, rather than hypocrites.
Are you a Christian, captain? Or are you using those hypocrites as an excuse for not being honest before God about your sinful nature and your need for salvation?
http://www.livingwaters.com/good/
I said read the case from beginning to end.
I'm not letting her off the hook. Just saying he knew she was a danger to his children. He left his children repeatedly in the care of a woman who had repeatedly either hurt herself AND the children, had been hospitalized in catatonia, repeatedly had stopped feeding herself and the chldren, had been put on major psychotropic meds, only to have him ask her to go off of them to have MORE children.
This is after he had been warned repeatedly by the doctors that pregnancy etc would make her even more unstable.
This wasn't a 'surprise' murder but a case of someone who knowlingly left his children in harms way. He, being the sane, 'stable' and well warned parent is responsible for not removing his kids from harm.
And I repeat, he was well warned. He just chose to ignore it.
Just because you aren't driving the train doesn't mean you can leave your kids on the tracks and the blame the conductor.
BTW,
In working around the mentally ill, especially the criminally insane, the first thing you learn is that YOU are responsible for your own safety and the safety of others. They aren't innocent and you sure as heck better not be stupid.
If an incident happens, it's YOUR butt on the line first because you knew they were a hazzard and the first question you're asked is "What did you do to cause this?"
Wow, personal responsibility, what a concept ;)
In #203 he brought up the head covering / hair length business in I Cor. 11.
Appropos to "Walking in Memphis ..." Muriel, the piano player, asks the singer of the song:
"Tell me are you a Christian, child?"
And I said "Ma'am I am tonight"
Excerpt:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/NEWS01/603250338/1006/NEWS
"... In McMinnville, the couple lived in the Bel-Aire subdivision in a single-story brick rancher. Next-door neighbor Michael Weeter said the Winkler kids always played with his kids.
"They seemed like good people. It's hard to believe what is being said now,'' he said.
A friend, Kirk Brothers, acknowledged that the couple had tough times before moving to Selmer. Brothers, also a minister, said Mary Winkler had a miscarriage, a pregnancy before Breanna, their youngest daughter, 1, that caused the couple much internal anguish. ..."
More about Mary Winkler:
~~~~~
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=32992
Woman accused of murdering husband raised in Knoxville
It appears Mary Winkler was known as Carol Freeman in high school. She was a 1992 graduate of South-Doyle High School.
Mary Carol Freeman Winkler grew up in South Knoxville, went to school there and got married there.
Many who knew her then are just now figuring out that she was the West Tennessee woman wanted by the TBI.
"It just did not occur to me that's who it could be," South Knoxville resident Eugene McCammon said. "It never one time occurred to me."
McCammon had no idea the little girl that grew up across the street from him is the woman now accused of killing her husband.
"[She's] just one of those people you look around twice and they're grown up and gone," McCammon said.
Mary Carol Freeman's senior picture refers to her as just "Carol Freeman."
She graduated from South-Doyle High School in 1992 and was a member of the choir.
Appropriately, the substitute teacher was also photographed with a group known as the Future Teachers of America.
She went to Mt. Olive Elementary School and Doyle Middle School.
Freeman's father still lives in her South Knoxville childhood home.
"Just a good kid," McCammon said of his former neighbor. "Our daughter would baby-sit, and they got along just fine. I don't remember anything out of the ordinary."
Freeman's married name may sound familiar to as many as 3,500 Knoxville Church of Christ members.
"The Winkler name is very well known in Churches of Christ," explained Edwin Jones.
The minister of the Karns Church of Christ said Matthew Winkler's grandfather, Wendell Winkler, was a minister who occasionally preached in Knoxville.
His three sons, including Matthew's father, are also ministers.
Together, the family published material considered staples in Church of Christ classroom study.
"I got a lot of e-mails and phone calls," Jones said. "Because the Winklers are well-known."
He said his associate went to Freed-Hardeman University with Matthew Winkler, where Matthew and Mary also met. Jones said he had only heard positive things about Matthew, but he explained that the church will support Mary now, too.
"There is always forgiveness if forgiveness is needed," Jones explained. "And whatever the case, she certainly needs prayer."
Freeman's father again told 10 News he had nothing to say. The couple's Knox County marriage license shows that he married them.
----
http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/18178.asp
Friends of Preacher’s Wife Shocked Over Murder
Posted: 3/24/2006 10:48:00 PM
Updated: 3/25/2006 12:21:38 AM
Friends of the preacher’s wife who confessed to killing her husband were shocked Friday after hearing of the death, the confession and the subsequent first-degree charge she now faces.
Police arrested Mary Winkler in Alabama Thursday night after she confessed to killing her husband.
Those happy times came long before Mary Winkler wore the orange and white stripes of a jail jumpsuit. Several years ago, Felecia Jones and the Winklers attended Bellevue Church of Christ together.
“Around me, she was always such a happy person,” Jones said. “We were just friends, just buddies.”
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Jones' buddy is now a confessed killer.
Winkler faces a first-degree murder charge for shooting and killing her husband Matthew. Police arrested her Thursday night in Alabama. TBI said that's when the 32-year-old confessed to the killing.
“I'm still in denial. I know that's not Mary. That's just not her,” Jones said.
Jones doesn't want to believe Winkler would go into her bedroom and shoot her husband several times in the back. To her, it just seems out of character.
“Mary and I used to go shopping together. They would call me to come keep the girls if they had somewhere to go,” Jones said.
The Winkler's children, ages 8, 6 and 1, are now stuck in the middle of this.
“You think of the lives that are affected: the kids, permanently. There's just absolutely no explanation for it,” Jones said.
Wyatt Rampy also attended church with the Winklers when they lived in Nashville. The story about this family caught him off guard.
“Nothing that would ever point to where you would say: 'I could see this coming or coming down the road like that',” Rampy said.
But something did happen.
“This is not her,” Jones said.
It was something that made a friend, a wife, a mother change the lives of her family forever.
Police still haven't released a motive for this killing, but the TBI said it was not infidelity.
Matthew Winkler's parents now have custody of the three children.
----
[Excerpt]
As Mary Freeman, Mary Winkler attended Laurel Church of Christ in Knoxville with her family, and graduated from South-Doyle High School in 1992. In 1994, she enrolled at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., a college affiliated with Churches of Christ.
Mary Freeman and Matthew Winkler met at the school, where Matthew's father was an adjunct professor. Mary took education classes, and Matthew took Bible classes. Neither graduated. The couple obtained a marriage license in Knox County in 1996.
Her father, Clark Freeman, declined to comment Friday. Her mother, Mary Nell Hackney Freeman, died in 1999.
"It's been almost two decades since Mary attended here as a child," said Mike Buckley, associate minister at Laurel Church of Christ in Knoxville. "She was known as a sweet girl, and at this tragic time our prayers go out to the Winkler and Freeman families."
Good lord,
That's a lame reply....right up there with "yo mama".
Get back to me when you don't need a phone book to reach the keyboard ;)
Thanks for the info....
BTW, my post was about the Andrea Yates case (sorry, I should have been clearer).
LOL!
Yeah, I knew that - yours was just the nearest post that wasn't about the Church of Christ, so I latched on. Sorry *I* wasn't clearer!
IF the post from Rte66 below is true, then it is likely she wanted to get FAR away from her child molesting husband...no point in being within commutable distance of the husband:
"We may have solved the mystery of "condo or motel". It looks like it may have been both.
Someone who knows the family said that Mary checked into a motel in Orange Beach, but had planned to go to FL to a condo she had rented. She didn't get there because she was *detained* by the Orange Beach police who recognized the description of the vehicle and passengers from a bulletin (not an Amber Alert yet at that point).
I'm thinking that Selmer police had an idea that Mary was heading that way (remember last night they said they knew at 6PM she'd be in the Orange Beach area, before she was found there at 7:30PM?) because of the condo being rented and that documentation showing up somewhere in the evidence, or being a planned rental that was already known about in advance -- spring break for the kids or something."
Wasn't that for those who converted after marriage?
Some more details have changed since I wrote that.
1) It was the Sleep Inn in Orange Beach that I saw in the TV news coverage. Has the same type of black sign as Comfort Inn, but wasn't readable to me--the name was in an online article today. It is multi-story.
2) We know now that the condo, wherever it is, was rented by Mary AFTER the crime occurred, so wasn't a planned vacation-type thing.
3) It is not Spring Break in the Selmer schools; they already had theirs.
4) Tuesday was Mary's very first day to substitute teach since signing up.
5) She confessed to "planning" the murder, according to the cops, which is why they are so adamant about first-degree.
6) I'm not 100% convinced that the oldest child doesn't know how to fire a gun - but I don't know if an 8-yo girl could handle a long gun - some said the "turkey-hunting" gun in the house was a rifle - I would've thought it would be a shotgun. Either one would have a bad kick for a kid, though.
7) A side note to this, not pertaining to anything specific - evidently Clark Freeman, Mary's father, is also a minister. I can't find a confirmation of that, except that one article said he performed Mary and Matthew's wedding ceremony in Knoxville, her hometown and also where her parents still lived at the time.
...My questioning of that is that Matthew's family was the long-time well known CofC family of preachers - it seems like they would've shared duties or let Mary's father be the "father of the bride" for that one day - not "working" at the wedding. Just my thoughts. Also, if Mr. Freeman is really a minister, I saw his name on the alumni list of the college the Winklers attended - Freed-Hardeman - so I would guess Freeman would be CofC also.
Just some thoughts here.
I suspect the same. The International Church of Christ (and Boston Church of Christ/"Boston Movement"/Crossroads Church of Christ/"Crossroads Movement" ) is rather cult-like and legalistic.
(I'm not affiliated with either ICoC or CoC.)
From Memphis TV station:
Mary Winkler Extradited Back to Selmer, TN
Posted: 3/25/2006 7:02:15 PM
"Mary Winkler is back in Selmer, Tennessee where she faces first-degree murder charges.
Winkler made it to the McNairy County Jail Saturday afternoon. She was slumped over in the back seat of the police car. The person who drove Winkler says she was quiet and cooperative on the drive back from Orange Beach, Alabama where police arrested her Thursday for her husband's murder.
Police in Baldwin County, Alabama handed her over to Tennessee authorities around 11:30 Saturday morning. Police found Winkler's husband, Matthew, shot to death inside the family's home Wednesday night.
Investigators say they've also found the gun used in the murder. The TBI says the couple's three young daughters were at the home when their father was shot.
Winkler will be formally charged for the murder Monday afternoon."
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