Mary grew up at Laurel Ave CoC (per an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel) in Knoxville. I don't personally know if her father is/was a minister at that congregation or not, but it is also possible that her father is an elder in the CoC. Elders in the CoC can legally perform wedding ceremonies (in TN?) because they are pastors (pastor, elder and shepherd are used interchangeably in the NT when describing the role of elders in the church).
This is an interesting post from another thread by a woman named Julie:
"Thanks to AK for this link: http://snipurl.com/o5ff . I noticed three things in this article, written by Matthew Winkler about his daughters several years ago.
1.) He can’t figure out how best to spell his older child’s nickname. First it’s Trisha, then Tricia. I may be nitpicking, but even my dyslexic husband can proofread that well and knows how to spell our children’s names. This indicates some small bit of distance or disregard for his child, especially as the piece was for publication. A very small thing, to be sure, but a tiny symptom of what may have been a larger problem.
2.) The overchurched use of the word “special” may be innocent, but the sentence “began to act in a special way towards her daddy” made me shiver. Probably it’s a contrived way of writing to a church audience, but to my admittedly jaded mind, it was a red flag. I might be paranoid, too.
3.) He refers to himself as “daddy” or “her daddy” consistently in the third person, which frankly creeps me out, as it’s something i have seen a lot of in the psych unit from pedophiles writing incest porn. It’s almost a hallmark of the incestuous father that they love to be called “daddy”, love to hear the word said, love to write it. They don’t say “I did it”, they say “she did special things for her daddy because she loves him.” EW. Just EWWWWWW.
Again, I am not suggesting that Mr. Winkler abused his children. I may be drawing a point in my own brain that people with degrees in theology can be trite, contrived writers, or maybe it just felt somewhat false or odd to me. It was a nice little article, once I got past the ICK feeling. And that ick feeling might just be me, coming from one of those all too common families where abuse was often perpetrated under the cover of God and religion and avoiding the appearance of evil, but enjoying the evil itself.
So, just my thought. Ew.
And no, i’m not saying it was okay for Mary to shoot Matthew on the basis of a sappy article written five years ago with weird phrasing and usage. I still don’t think it was okay for Mary to shoot Matthew at all."
Thanks for the info. I have been reading hundreds and hundreds of articles and forum posts about this case and there is so much disparate info, it's unbelievable. Much of it is totally conflicting in details, so I am having trouble putting it all together here.
The latest thing I saw was that a friend of Mary's, Pam Killingsworth, had been to visit her in jail after church services today. Mary had asked her to send a note to the congregation apologizing for her actions!
"... She just said she was sorry and for me to write a note to the church saying that she was sorry for everything she had done," said Killingsworth as she walked away from the jail in tears. ..."
Also, others saw a piece on Fox News a little while ago with Mary's attorney speaking. He was hired by her father. He reportedly said that if the case were tried in the court of public opinion, Mary would win. No indication why he said that or Mary's alleged motive.
The lawyer also said that she doesn't seem to realize the gravity of her situation. Also that he doesn't want to say anything against Matthew Winkler because he hasn't been laid to rest yet.
Which brings me to the announcement of the visitation and funeral services, which had originally been announced as being planned for yesterday, Saturday, but didn't happen. Instead, the church members planted pansies in his honor in the churchyard, which was what Matthew had already been working on.
The new schedule:
Services for Matthew Winkler will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the 4th Street Church of Christ in Selmer. Visitation will be held at Shackelford’s Funeral Home in Selmer from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. on Monday. A graveside service will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Carroll County Memorial Gardens in Huntingdon, Tenn
Meanwhile, for Mary:
Mrs. Winkler will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Monday in McNairy County General Sessions Court in front of Judge Bob Gray.