Preacher's Wife Appears In Court
Judge Reads Mary Winkler Her Rights, First-Degree Murder Charge
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Play CBS Video Video Wife Sorry For Alleged Murder The Tennessee woman charged with murdering her minister husband has told a friend she's sorry. But so far, no one can explain why it happened. Mark Strassmann reports.
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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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Mary Winkler, the preacher's wife who police say confessed to his murder, makes her first appearance in Tennessee court March 27, 2006. (CBS)
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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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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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After Mary Winkler's arrest, a Florida judge released her children — Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 — to the custody of their paternal grandparents in Henderson.
Neither the grandparents nor the Winkler children attend the church services Sunday. No relatives of Mary Winkler attended either.
Shackelford urged the congregation to pray for the children, their grandparents and Mary Winkler. "Mary is a member of this church family," he said, adding that forgiveness is a cornerstone of their faith.
"If we don't have forgiveness, then we don't have anything," Shackelford said.
Church elder Wilburn Ashe reminded members that only a few facts about the killing were known for sure — Matthew Winkler is dead, his wife is in jail, and their children are without their parents.
"Those children have got a good home that they're in, but it's not mama and daddy," Ashe said.
The church must hold together, he said, and not be torn by speculation and loose talk about the slaying.
"We've got to do two things," Ashe said. "We've got to remain close to God and we've got to remain close to one another."
Members put up a large bulletin board in a church hallway covered with snapshots of the Winkler family.
Photos showed the older Winkler children playing basketball, posing with kittens and rolling in the snow with their father. Matthew Winkler flashed a big smile in one photo taken at a church social while balancing plates of food in each hand.
Other snapshots showed Mary Winkler laughing and holding her youngest daughter up for the camera.
"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.
Mary and Matthew Winkler were married in 1996. They met at Freed-Hardeman University, a Church of Christ-affiliated school in Henderson where Matthew's father was an adjunct professor.
Matthew Winkler's funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Selmer.
©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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