Posted on 06/30/2006 9:54:04 AM PDT by LouAvul
SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- For three months, the 4,500 souls of this God-fearing town have been left to wonder if a demure preacher's wife shot her husband in the back and ran off to the beach with their three girls.
.......
Here, third-generation preacher Matthew Winkler, a strapping 31-year-old with a booming voice and charisma to burn, was beginning to make his mark after little more than a year. He had a knack for connecting with younger members, who called him "Wink."
On March 22, four church members -- including a doctor and the town undertaker -- let themselves in to the tidy brick parsonage on Mollie Street when Winkler didn't show up for Wednesday evening services.
They found him in the master bedroom. He had been shot in the back with a shotgun.
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Across the street from where the Winklers lived, Sharon Everitt has no problem with Mary Winkler going free.
"She could come in here, she could sleep in my bed, live in my house," Everitt said. "She is not a danger to anybody." At the time of the slaying, Everitt recalled, the Winklers were portrayed as the perfect couple. The day he died, she said, Matthew Winkler "got elevated to sainthood."
Everitt and her husband, Dan, said they saw another side to Matthew Winkler that troubled them. After their rottweiler, Madison, wandered into the Winklers' yard, the preacher threatened to shoot the dog.
They found his behavior rude and aggressive, they said. Mary Winkler stepped back as her husband spoke, as if to signal she did not agree with his approach, Sharon Everitt recalled.
"I remember saying to myself, 'This is not new neighbor behavior. This is not preacher behavior. What is this aggression?' Boy, I betcha he's fun to live with," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Dunno about the lady and preacher, but guaranteed there's more to this than meets the eye.
This case will involve child and spousal abuse. Just a gut feeling.
This case has been very low-key and not leaked all over with "facts" in the media. There must be some really strange circumstances involved here..........
If a wife shoots you, there is usually a good reason.
I believe that the wife's lawyer has already hinted at this.
Buford Pusser's town.
yep I think mom killed her husband after many years of abuse. Thing is when this happens you call the authorities and turn the man in and send him to jail, not kill him.
Before the wife's lawyer ever appeared, the facial expressions on the children in their family pictures spoke volumes.
Very convenient to have the undertaker there to discover the body.I bet the dollars signs went off in his head.
something didn't feel right about this case when it happened.
I wonder what will come out, if anything....
A rottweiler named Madison. Nice.
"What would cause a godly woman to do such a thing?" asked neighbor Sharon Everitt, echoing the question that has hung over the rural town since late March. "Christians don't shoot Christians."
I guess it is OK to shoot everyone else. Although, the media does have a tendency to miquote people.
If this truly was a case of abuse their are a million safe houses for abused women and children to hide out in in America. It is not like the guy was in the mafia. Even the wives of mafioso's have been protected from abusive husbands in safe houses.
There is just no excuse for this sort of behavior. The only one I can think of is if a spouse (male or female) had a gun to that person's head or one of the children's and needed to be taken out in self defense. Poor children, never poor wife--she's a murderer plain and simple.
In all probability, one of them wasn't...........
well....they can shoot muslims if Gods asks them too.
If the husband had been abusing his daughters and wife, he wasn't a good Christian. He is now taking a dirt nap.
You may be right.
But, IF there was any sexual or any severe abuse, than I'm glad she shot him.
"There is just no excuse for this sort of behavior."
In one sense of the word, there is. An abused spouse has a totally different mindset. There can be all the safehouses and help in the world but in the mind of the abused, they don't deserve it or they are so filled with fear that killing the abuser is the only way out. It's a complicated world that abuse victims live in. A little compassion and understanding would be in order for this woman.
i'm still waiting for the boyfriend to show up.
Sad case, and I would agree...McNairy County, BTW, is terribly corrupt. My mother's family is from that area, and I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
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