By David J. Krajicek
March 27, 2006
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (Crime Library) — As the killer minister's wife was due in court in Tennesee today for arraignment, authorities in two states continued to keep the best-kept secret in American law enforcement: Why she did it.
"I'm not at liberty to say," Greg Duck, the Orange Beach assistant police chief, told the Crime Library Monday. "It's up to Selmer police and the Tennessee Bureau of investigation ... I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here."
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| Mary Winkler |
Officials with those two Tennessee agencies have said that Mary Winkler, 32, confessed to the murder of Matthew Winkler, 31. But they have steadfastly declined to say why she did it — which, some argue, has served to heighten the rampant national interest in the case.
The woman's attorney, Steve Farese, also was circumspect about her motive following their first jailhouse conversation.
"I think the accumulations of the pressures of life in and of itself certainly would have some factor in the case," Farese told WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Ala.
Mrs. Winkler was arraigned today in Selmer, Tenn. General Sessions Court Judge Bob Gray explained the first-degree murder charge and entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. He delayed any decision on bail until Thursday, when a preliminary hearing is scheduled.
The woman spoke only two words in court, answering "No, sir" when Gray asked if she had any questions about the charges.
She shuffled into the courtroom wearing ankle shackles and an orange prison uniform, holding the hand of another of her attorneys, Leslie Ballin. Later, the attorney declined to answer reporters' questions about motive but indicated he would seek a psychiatric examination of the woman.
The courtroom was packed with reporters, and about 10 women from Winkler's church, Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, were there in support of the woman.
After the brief arraignment, church member Janet Sparks asked a law enforcement officer to tell Winkler "We love her," according to press accounts.
Mary Winkler's father, Clark Freeman, of Knoxville, Tenn., attended the hearing. (Her mother died of cancer not long ago.) He was allowed to speak with his daughter. Later, reporters asked how she was doing. He replied, "As well as she can be."
She was extradited over the weekend from the Gulf Coast of Alabama, where she was arrested after a day on the lam.
Investigators allege that the petite, demure woman shot her husband in a premeditated murder last Tuesday then fled to Orange Beach with the couple's three young daughters. She was arrested in this Gulf Coast resort town on Thursday by an Orange Beach police officer acting on an Amber Alert.
The couple's three daughters, ages 8, 6 and 1, were turned over to the custody of Matthew Winkler's parents, Dan and Diane, of Huntingdon, Tenn.
Attorney Farese said media speculation that the case hinged on a "dangerous situation" at the Winkler home was misguided.
"It was taken out of context," he said. "It was only a theory that something was going on in the home that in and of itself was dangerous."
He declined to clear up the confusion by simply revealing the woman's motive.
In Orange Beach, Chief Duck told the Crime Library that Mrs. Winkler had a very specific motivation in killing her husband, and he said the reason she snapped had not yet appeared in the media.
Tennessee authorities have ruled out only one motive: infidelity.
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