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Oh, good, lots more posts since yesterday! I was posting to myself over and over so I thought no one was interested and there were so many new revelations to discuss. I see someone has already posted the CNN transcripts, that's good.

Here's one story for starters about the visitation last night. I'm still having a very hard time believing that anyone, especially the family of the murdered man, can just "forgive" someone the day after the murder! No way! It's a very difficult thing that has to be worked through. This is just lip service.

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Funeral today for preacher
Parents offer forgiveness to daughter-in-law

By TONYA SMITH-KING

SELMER - Though they don't understand what reason Mary Winkler would have had for killing their son, her in-laws have "assured her of their forgiveness," a longtime family friend said Monday.

Winkler, 32, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, Fourth Street Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler, 31. His body was found Wednesday at the couple's Selmer home. She fled after the shooting with their three young girls to Orange Beach, Ala., where she was arrested Thursday, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Police have said Mary Winkler confessed to shooting her husband in the back, though they haven't discussed a motive. She has since apologized to his parents, Dan and Diane Winkler, and their sons, Daniel and Jacob, according to Billy R. Smith, dean of the School of Biblical Studies at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson.

Smith has known the Winkler family for 25 years and said he and Dan Winkler have been friends for that long. Smith has talked to Dan Winkler several times since the tragedy and planned to attend visitation for Matthew Winkler on Monday night in Selmer, he said.

"They were able to visit with her in Alabama, and she expressed her great sorrow for what she'd done, and they assured her of their forgiveness," Smith said. Dan and Diane Winkler "have loved her as a daughter, not as a daughter-in-law, and if they could take her home with them right now, they would," he added.

"They're a great example of what it means to forgive," Smith said of Matthew Winkler's parents. " ... That's because of their faith, their character and their love."

Mary Winkler was arraigned Monday afternoon on the murder charge.

Meanwhile, black bows hung on the doors of Selmer's Fourth Street Church of Christ, where Matthew Winkler had been the minister for just over a year. Some members worked around the church to prepare it for the funeral today.

A 5 p.m. visitation drew 200 to 300 people to Selmer's Shackelford Funeral Directors to pay their respects.

Mary Winkler's father, Clark Freeman, attended Monday's arraignment. Smith said he spoke with Freeman on Sunday.

"He's so sorry and just distraught for what has happened," Smith said. "But the relationship between the Winklers and him is very good."

Dan Winkler is a minister at the Huntingdon Church of Christ and teaches at FHU. His father, the late Wendell Winkler, was a well-known Church of Christ preacher, Smith said.

Smith last saw Matthew and Mary Winkler during FHU's Bible Lectureship in February. They visited his office to show him their new baby, 1-year-old daughter Brianna. Matthew Winkler also informed Smith that he'd be participating in an annual FHU youth leadership training program in July, as he'd done in recent years.

"They were both just as happy as they could be and on top of the world," Smith said of the visit.

Smith taught Matthew Winkler at FHU, and his son, Scotty Smith, and Matthew Winkler were best friends, he added.

"I never saw Matthew when he was not happy and excited about his life, but especially about his wife and family," Smith said. "Matthew was being very effective in his work (at Fourth Street) and had made a lot of new friends."

Smith described Mary Winkler as "a wonderful young lady, just like we've known and loved from the day they married." The two had been married 10 years.

"This is a mystery to both sides of the family and their friends," Smith said of the shooting.

Other than family and friends, those attending Monday's visitation included people Matthew had known and touched throughout his brief life.

There was a line of about 100 to 150 people waiting outside to get in before 6:30 p.m. Monday. The line continued inside and could be seen through a large glass window in the funeral home.

Police blocked an entrance to keep out media, which included many local and national print and television outlets.

Two Freed-Hardeman University students from McMinnville, who knew the Winklers, were among those coming to offer their condolences and say goodbye to Matthew Winkler.

Tyler Boyd, 19, a marketing major, believed Matthew Winkler would also be forgiving of Mary Winkler.

"I think Wink would be the first one to forgive her after this," Boyd said referring to Matthew Winkler by a nickname many young people used for him. "I don't think he'd have to think about it."

Boyd said Matthew Winkler encouraged youth to search the Bible, find the truth and serve God with everything they had.

Matthew Winkler taught at a Christian school in McMinnville and was a youth minister at a church there. His wife worked in the mail room at Super D Drugs in McMinnville.

FHU sophomore Shane Fisher, 19, worked with Mary Winkler at the drug store. He was a clerk.

He would often tell her jokes "to crack her up," Fisher said. He described her as "very compassionate; so friendly all the time."

"I don't ever remember her having a bad day," Fisher said. "She was a good Christian lady; she really was."

Both Boyd and Fisher attended a youth seminar last week during FHU's spring break in McMinnville with other youth who knew Matthew Winkler. His death has motivated many to serve God, Boyd added.

The seminar's theme was "The Power of Faith."

"It kind of uplifted us," Fisher said. "I think if Matthew Winkler was here right now, he would tell us, 'Keep going, never give up' and put our faith in God because everything's going to work out all right in the end."