SELMER, Tenn. – A minister’s wife was charged Friday with shooting her husband to death in the parsonage in a crime that shocked the congregation and shattered the couple’s loving image.
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.
Her husband of 10 years, Matthew Winkler, a popular and charismatic 31-year-old preacher at the fundamentalist Fourth Street Church of Christ, 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.
Judy Woodlee, a member of a church in McMinnville where Matthew Winkler had been a youth minister before moving to Selmer, said Mary Winkler’s arrest was a shock.
“They were a good Christian family. They always seemed happy,” she said.
After a daylong search, Mary Winkler and her daughters were found Thursday night leaving a restaurant in Orange Beach, Ala., about 340 miles from home. Orange Beach Police Chief Billy Wilkins said she had rented a condo on the beach after the slaying.
She agreed to be returned to Tennessee and was expected to arrive today.
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.
Associated Press
Mary Winkler is led into court Friday in Foley, Ala., for a child-custody hearing after being charged with murder.
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