Post by Rachel2 on Mar 24, 2006 12:14:38 GMT -5
Wife a Suspect in Slaying of Pastor
Minister Found Shot to Death by Church Members
By WOODY BAIRD, AP
SELMER, Tenn. (March 24) - The wife of a charismatic Tennessee minister found slain in his parsonage was a suspect in his death after authorities found her and the couple's three daughters in Alabama after a daylong search.
Matthew Winkler, a popular minister known at the local Church of Christ, was found shot to death in his parsonage bedroom by church members searching for him after he failed to show up for a Wednesday evening service.
Late Thursday, authorities said they considered his wife, 32-year-old Mary Winkler, a suspect. She and the three girls -- Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 -- were found unharmed by police in Orange Beach, Ala., around 7:30 p.m., after an Amber Alert was issued for the children. She had last been seen Tuesday picking them up from school, authorities said.
Mary Winkler had not been arrested or charged, but Selmer police and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents were on their way to Orange Beach to question her.
"We've known from the beginning that she was either a suspect or a victim," said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the TBI.
The news of the 31-year-old minister's death and the search for his family shocked those who knew him in Selmer, a town of about 4,600 in western Tennessee.
Winkler was hired at the Fourth Street Church in February 2005, said Wilburn Ash, an elder at the church. The congregation quickly came to love his straight-by-the-Bible sermons. Church members also took to his wife, who they described as a quiet, unassuming woman who was a substitute teacher at the elementary school.
Matthew Winkler was enjoying his first position as a full minister in Selmer after working as a youth minister at churches in McMinnville and Nashville, church members said.
"They were a nice family," said former Mayor Jimmy Whittington, who said he worked with the minister collecting donations for hurricane victims last year. "They just blended in."
Members of the Selmer congregation gathered Thursday inside the one-story brick church.
Pam Killingsworth, a church member and assistant principal at Selmer Elementary, where the Winkler children went to school, said: "I can't believe this would happen."
"The kids are just precious, and she was precious," she said, her eyes red from crying and her voice cracking. "He was the one of the best ministers we've ever had -- just super charisma."
Mary and Matthew Winkler met at the Church of Christ-affiliated Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, where his father, also a minister, is an adjunct professor. Matthew Winkler later transferred and graduated from Lipscomb University in Nashville.
His grandfather also was involved with the church, with a 60-year career as an evangelist in four Southern states. Growing up, Matthew Winkler attended Austin High School in Decatur, Ala., while his father was a minister at the Beltline Church of Christ.
One of his peers in Decatur, Emily Jones White, told The Decatur Daily that he was a "great guy with a kind heart. He was one of those kind of guys you could call and talk to about your problems."
3/24/2006 03:55:34
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
I would venture to say there was probably some form of abuse going on that was unknown outside of the home.
The average female doesn't commit this type of crime unless she feels there is no other alternative, in self defense, or to protect her children.
Minister Found Shot to Death by Church Members
By WOODY BAIRD, AP
SELMER, Tenn. (March 24) - The wife of a charismatic Tennessee minister found slain in his parsonage was a suspect in his death after authorities found her and the couple's three daughters in Alabama after a daylong search.
Matthew Winkler, a popular minister known at the local Church of Christ, was found shot to death in his parsonage bedroom by church members searching for him after he failed to show up for a Wednesday evening service.
Late Thursday, authorities said they considered his wife, 32-year-old Mary Winkler, a suspect. She and the three girls -- Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 -- were found unharmed by police in Orange Beach, Ala., around 7:30 p.m., after an Amber Alert was issued for the children. She had last been seen Tuesday picking them up from school, authorities said.
Mary Winkler had not been arrested or charged, but Selmer police and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents were on their way to Orange Beach to question her.
"We've known from the beginning that she was either a suspect or a victim," said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the TBI.
The news of the 31-year-old minister's death and the search for his family shocked those who knew him in Selmer, a town of about 4,600 in western Tennessee.
Winkler was hired at the Fourth Street Church in February 2005, said Wilburn Ash, an elder at the church. The congregation quickly came to love his straight-by-the-Bible sermons. Church members also took to his wife, who they described as a quiet, unassuming woman who was a substitute teacher at the elementary school.
Matthew Winkler was enjoying his first position as a full minister in Selmer after working as a youth minister at churches in McMinnville and Nashville, church members said.
"They were a nice family," said former Mayor Jimmy Whittington, who said he worked with the minister collecting donations for hurricane victims last year. "They just blended in."
Members of the Selmer congregation gathered Thursday inside the one-story brick church.
Pam Killingsworth, a church member and assistant principal at Selmer Elementary, where the Winkler children went to school, said: "I can't believe this would happen."
"The kids are just precious, and she was precious," she said, her eyes red from crying and her voice cracking. "He was the one of the best ministers we've ever had -- just super charisma."
Mary and Matthew Winkler met at the Church of Christ-affiliated Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, where his father, also a minister, is an adjunct professor. Matthew Winkler later transferred and graduated from Lipscomb University in Nashville.
His grandfather also was involved with the church, with a 60-year career as an evangelist in four Southern states. Growing up, Matthew Winkler attended Austin High School in Decatur, Ala., while his father was a minister at the Beltline Church of Christ.
One of his peers in Decatur, Emily Jones White, told The Decatur Daily that he was a "great guy with a kind heart. He was one of those kind of guys you could call and talk to about your problems."
3/24/2006 03:55:34
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
I would venture to say there was probably some form of abuse going on that was unknown outside of the home.
The average female doesn't commit this type of crime unless she feels there is no other alternative, in self defense, or to protect her children.
