Tenn. Minister's Wife Charged With Murder

[cynatnite]

Mary Winkler, 32, was arrested on murder charges and confessed to the slaying after fleeing to Alabama in the family's minivan with the couple's three young daughters, authorities said.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent John Mehr said authorities know the motive for the killing, but he would not disclose it. When asked whether police believed the motive was infidelity, Mehr said no. But he would not comment when asked whether Mary Winkler had accused her husband of abuse. Court papers offered no hint of a motive.

Her husband of 10 years, Matthew Winkler, a popular and charismatic 31-year-old preacher at a fundamentalist Christian church, was found dead in a bedroom at the couple's home Wednesday night in Selmer, a town of about 4,600 in western Tennessee.

Mehr said that the couple's daughters were at the house when their father was shot and that authorities had found the weapon used to kill him. Mehr would not give any further details.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_re_us/pastor_slain

Why not say what the motive was? What's going on here?

[Charlie Brown]

1. sounds like they're trying to salvage the minister's reputation

for the sake of his family and the church, maybe. What else could it be besides abuse?

[Der Blaue Engel]

2. Well, he commented on one, and then gave no comment on the second

That seems telling. If abuse was not a motive, it seems he would have said so, since he had no problem answering the first question.

[Erika]

3. A Christian couple who should have "cared about the children"

Do they just toss the Bible out the window?

Not picking on the good people from that state, but there seems to be a sickness going on there lately.

[politicat]

4. A combination of abuse and money, perhaps?

Ministers don't make very much, and if he was domineering and they had any amount of debt, the life insurance would take care of that...

Okay, now hope that my husband doesn't get hit by a speeding car....

[Kailassa]

5. Can't be the money she was after.

It doesn't sound preplanned at all, there is no evidence she made any attempt to do it covertly.
Taking the kids and running sounds like a panic reaction after you've done something you didn't intend.

I bet well find she'd been abused until she just couldn't take it any more.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Reminds me of a lady I used to work with

She was the unit secretary at our hospital while she was going to college.
Her husband was a fundamental preacher (early 90's).
She worked the 3-11 shift and had a little boy that was 2-3 at the time, and every single night her husband brought her little boy to the hospital in his jammies to say goodnight to his mother.
It was the sweetest thing. They seemed to be the perfect family. Cute little house, picket fence, etc.
The church at the time was growing large and he was very popular.
Susan graduated from school and started teaching and I lost track of her.
The next time I heard about her, she had been murdered.
Her husband was in Dallas at a preacher convention (or whatever you call them) and someone broke in her house and shot her while her little boy slept in another room.
Nobody could figure out what happened to this beautiful family and of course a man-hunt was initiated for the murder in a small Texas town.
Apparently, as the truth came to light, the husband's alibi didn't completely check out. He apparently wasn't at a function he was supposed to attend. The police asked him to come in for a polygraph.
Instead, he got in his car and drove to Dallas and jumped off the mixmaster during drive time traffic.
I always felt sad for the little boy who on the outside, looked like he had a perfect family.:cry:

[nonconformist]

7. I saw this on my local news tonight.

I agree, it's strange.