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Funeral today for preacher
Parents offer forgiveness to daughter-in-law

By TONYA SMITH-KING

SELMER - Though they don't understand what reason Mary Winkler would have had for killing their son, her in-laws have "assured her of their forgiveness," a longtime family friend said Monday.

Winkler, 32, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, Fourth Street Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler, 31. His body was found Wednesday at the couple's Selmer home. She fled after the shooting with their three young girls to Orange Beach, Ala., where she was arrested Thursday, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Police have said Mary Winkler confessed to shooting her husband in the back, though they haven't discussed a motive. She has since apologized to his parents, Dan and Diane Winkler, and their sons, Daniel and Jacob, according to Billy R. Smith, dean of the School of Biblical Studies at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson.
Smith has known the Winkler family for 25 years and said he and Dan Winkler have been friends for that long. Smith has talked to Dan Winkler several times since the tragedy and planned to attend visitation for Matthew Winkler on Monday night in Selmer, he said.

"They were able to visit with her in Alabama, and she expressed her great sorrow for what she'd done, and they assured her of their forgiveness," Smith said. Dan and Diane Winkler "have loved her as a daughter, not as a daughter-in-law, and if they could take her home with them right now, they would," he added.

"They're a great example of what it means to forgive," Smith said of Matthew Winkler's parents. "... That's because of their faith, their character and their love."

Mary Winkler was arraigned Monday afternoon on the murder charge.

Meanwhile, black bows hung on the doors of Selmer's Fourth Street Church of Christ, where Matthew Winkler had been the minister for just over a year. Some members worked around the church to prepare it for the funeral today.

A 5 p.m. visitation drew 200 to 300 people to Selmer's Shackelford Funeral Directors to pay their respects.

Mary Winkler's father, Clark Freeman, attended Monday's arraignment. Smith said he spoke with Freeman on Sunday.

"He's so sorry and just distraught for what has happened," Smith said. "But the relationship between the Winklers and him is very good."

Dan Winkler is a minister at the Huntingdon Church of Christ and teaches at FHU. His father, the late Wendell Winkler, was a well-known Church of Christ preacher, Smith said.

Smith last saw Matthew and Mary Winkler during FHU's Bible Lectureship in February. They visited his office to show him their new baby, 1-year-old daughter Brianna. Matthew Winkler also informed Smith that he'd be participating in an annual FHU youth leadership training program in July, as he'd done in recent years.

"They were both just as happy as they could be and on top of the world," Smith said of the visit.

Smith taught Matthew Winkler at FHU, and his son, Scotty Smith, and Matthew Winkler were best friends, he added.

"I never saw Matthew when he was not happy and excited about his life, but especially about his wife and family," Smith said. "Matthew was being very effective in his work (at Fourth Street) and had made a lot of new friends."

Smith described Mary Winkler as "a wonderful young lady, just like we've known and loved from the day they married." The two had been married 10 years.

"This is a mystery to both sides of the family and their friends," Smith said of the shooting.

Other than family and friends, those attending Monday's visitation included people Matthew had known and touched throughout his brief life.

There was a line of about 100 to 150 people waiting outside to get in before 6:30 p.m. Monday. The line continued inside and could be seen through a large glass window in the funeral home.

Police blocked an entrance to keep out media, which included many local and national print and television outlets.

Two Freed-Hardeman University students from McMinnville, who knew the Winklers, were among those coming to offer their condolences and say goodbye to Matthew Winkler.

Tyler Boyd, 19, a marketing major, believed Matthew Winkler would also be forgiving of Mary Winkler.

"I think Wink would be the first one to forgive her after this," Boyd said referring to Matthew Winkler by a nickname many young people used for him. "I don't think he'd have to think about it."

Boyd said Matthew Winkler encouraged youth to search the Bible, find the truth and serve God with everything they had.

Matthew Winkler taught at a Christian school in McMinnville and was a youth minister at a church there. His wife worked in the mail room at Super D Drugs in McMinnville.

FHU sophomore Shane Fisher, 19, worked with Mary Winkler at the drug store. He was a clerk.

He would often tell her jokes "to crack her up," Fisher said. He described her as "very compassionate; so friendly all the time."

"I don't ever remember her having a bad day," Fisher said. "She was a good Christian lady; she really was."

Both Boyd and Fisher attended a youth seminar last week during FHU's spring break in McMinnville with other youth who knew Matthew Winkler. His death has motivated many to serve God, Boyd added.

The seminar's theme was "The Power of Faith."

"It kind of uplifted us," Fisher said. "I think if Matthew Winkler was here right now, he would tell us, 'Keep going, never give up' and put our faith in God because everything's going to work out all right in the end."

Funeral today for preacher (http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/NEWS01/603280312/1002)

Friend says pastor's wife apologizes to worshippers

By WOODY BAIRD
The Associated Press



SELMER, Tenn. — The preacher's wife charged with murder in the death of her husband wanted his congregation to know "she was sorry for everything she has done," said a friend who visited her in jail Sunday.

Church member Pam Killingsworth visited Mary Winkler after Sunday services and said Winkler gave no indication why her husband of 10 years was shot.

"She just said she was sorry and for me to write a note to the church saying that she was sorry for everything she had done," said Killingsworth as she walked away from the jail in tears.

Winkler, 32, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Matthew Winkler, the preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in this small town 80 miles east of Memphis.

Her initial court appearance is scheduled for today.

The congregation held its first Sunday services since the shooting and were warned by elder Robert Shackelford not to speculate about why their popular young minister was killed.

Friends have described the Winklers as a happy couple with no outward signs of discord. Authorities have refused to talk about a motive for the murder.

"Perhaps over time, we will better understand why this has happened," Shackelford said at an adult Sunday school class. "Be very cautious about what you say or even what you think."

Mary Winkler was locked up at the McNairy County jail after being returned Saturday from the Alabama coast, where she and her three young daughters were found by police after a multistate search.

Church members found Matthew Winkler, 31, dead in a bedroom of the couple's parsonage Wednesday night after his family missed a church service. His wife and the children were nowhere to be found.

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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has refused to discuss a motive but said investigators did not believe it was because of infidelity.

The agency refused to comment on whether Matthew Winkler had been accused of domestic abuse. Court papers offered no hint on a motive.

After Mary Winkler's arrest, an Alabama judge released her children — Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 — to the custody of their paternal grandparents in Henderson, Tenn.

Neither the grandparents nor the Winkler children attended the church services Sunday. No relatives of Mary Winkler attended, either.

Shackelford urged the congregation to pray for the children, their grandparents and Mary Winkler. "Mary is a member of this church family," he said, adding that forgiveness is a cornerstone of their faith. "If we don't have forgiveness, then we don't have anything," he said.

Church elder Wilburn Ashe reminded members that only a few facts were known for sure: Matthew Winkler is dead, his wife is in jail, and their children don't have their parents.

"Those children have got a good home that they're in, but it's not mama and daddy," Ashe said.

Friend says pastor's wife apologizes to worshippers (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002891911_pastor27.html)