Minister's Wife Jailed Near Home
Authorities Say Mary Winkler Admitted To Killing Husband, Fleeing
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Play CBS Video Video Cops: Not Crime of Passion Police in Selmer, Tenn., say there is no evidence that Matthew Winkler's murder was a crime of passion. Authorities say Winkler's wife has confessed to killing her husband. Alison Harmelin reports.
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Video Cops: Wife Killed Minister CBS News RAW: Authorities announced that the wife of a slain Tennessee minister admitted to shooting him at their church parsonage.
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Tennessee Bureau of Investigation photos of Mary Winkler, who has been charged with first-degree murder for killing her minister husband. (Courtesy of CBS affiliate WTVF-TV) (AP/Balwin County Sheriff Office)
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Sheriff's deputies lead Mary Winkler into the Baldwin County Satellite Courthouse in Foley, Ala., for a child custody hearing Friday, March 24, 2006, after Tennessee officals filed first-degree murder charges against her for the death of her husband. (AP)
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This undated family photo provided by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows the Winkler family of Selmer, Tenn. (AP/Tenn. Bureau of Investigations)
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Police tape surrounds the Winkler home in Selmer, Tenn., Thursday morning, March 23, 2006. (AP)
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Orange Beach Assistant Police Chief Greg Duck, left, briefs members of the media on the whereabouts of the family of slain Tennessee minister Matthew Winkler, Thursday, March 23, 2006, in Orange Beach, Ala. (AP Photot/Mobile Register)
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Photo Essay Minister Shot A popular Tennessee minister is shot to death in his home and his wife is charged with murder.
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An Alabama judge released the Winkler children — Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 — to the custody of their paternal grandparents. Mary Winkler was at the custody hearing Friday in handcuffs.
The family had moved to Selmer a year ago when Matthew Winkler was hired for his first job as the lead minister of a Church of Christ congregation. Church members described them as a devoted couple, good parents and good friends.
"They were a good Christian family. They always seemed happy," she said.
"Everything we saw belies what has happened," said Janet Sparks, a member of Church of Christ in Selmer. "It just doesn't go together. Something is amiss, and we don't know what it is."
Tired of the reporters and photographers who descended on this small west Tennessee town, church members locked the church doors and hung up a handwritten sign: "No more interviews today."
"We're grieving," Church of Christ member Judy Turner said. "This was a perfect family."
"It's a pretty hard thing to fathom, you know. Just because you're used to seeing a smile and seeing him around and seeing him having fun," a teenage boy told CBS correspondent Alison Harmelin.
Eva Ferrell, principal of a Christian school in McMinnville where Winkler taught Bible classes before moving to Selmer, said Winkler was a good teacher and seemed to have a "strong, solid Christian marriage."
Mary and Matthew Winkler were married in 1996. They had met at Freed-Hardeman University, a Church of Christ-affiliated school in Henderson where Matthew's father was an adjunct professor. Mary took education classes, and Matthew took Bible classes. Neither graduated.
Churches of Christ do not consider themselves a denomination since every congregation is independently governed by a group of church elders. They generally believe the Bible should be interpreted literally and that baptism is essential for salvation. The church is also noted for its prohibition on using musical instruments during services.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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