They Were A Good Christian Family

Gosh! How often do we hear that when some of the most heinous crimes are committed? I hate to be so cynical but extreme religiosity generally means extreme demons. We knew this woman was going to be charged. The question is why she did it? I say it was long term spousal abuse. We'll have to see as the story unfolds.

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 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. 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.

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.

I feel bad for the kids and I hope that it was just abuse against her and not any kind of sexual abuse with those little girls - though, that is enough to make even the most docile mother kill. I know I'd have a hard time not killing him a few times if that were the case.