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Tennessee minister's wife charged in husband's death

Investigators say Mary Winkler has admitted she shot her husband to death in their home. They aren't saying what her motive might have been.

SELMER, Tenn. - A minister's wife was charged Friday with murder, accused of shooting her husband to death in the church parsonage in a crime that shocked the congregation and shattered the couple's happy and 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.

Mehr said police do not believe the motive was infidelity, but would not comment on 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 31-year-old Church of Christ pastor, 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 the couple's daughters were at the house when their father was shot and said authorities had found the weapon used to kill him. Mehr would not give any further details.

Judy Woodlee, a member of a church in McMinnville where Matthew Winkler was 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 Mary Winkler had rented a condo on the beach after the slaying.

She agreed to be returned to Tennessee. McNairy County sheriff's deputies were driving her back to Tennessee on Friday evening, said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. They were expected to arrive today.

A judge sent the three girls - Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 - back to Tennessee to live with their paternal grandparents, said David Whetstone, the district attorney in Baldwin County.

Matthew Winkler's father, Dan Winkler, attended the hearing and spoke to reporters later.

"Thank you for your love, support and prayers," he said. "Now we want to turn our attention to remembering our son and to the care of three young children."

Mary Winkler was led into the hearing but did not respond to questions from reporters.

Members of the Fourth Street Church of Christ found Matthew Winkler's body after he missed a Wednesday evening service.

The slaying of the third-generation minister shocked those who knew him.

Winkler became pastor of the 200-member church in February 2005. The congregation quickly came to love his by-the-book sermons, said Wilburn Ash, a church member.

Church members also took to his wife, whom they described as a quiet, unassuming woman who was a substitute teacher at an elementary school.

Eva Ferrell, principal of a Christian school in McMinnville where Winkler taught Bible classes before moving to Selmer, said Winkler was a good teacher and seemed to have a "strong, solid Christian marriage."

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. Mary took education classes, and Matthew took Bible classes. Neither graduated.

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 01:51:17]