The Median Sib

You can’t miss it in the news this evening. The story is on the TV news, radio and online. After months of public silence about her motives, Mary Winkler has decided to talk - and she says that she impulsively killed her husband, Matthew Winkler, during an argument about their finances. Hmmmm…

If that’s the case, I wonder why she was so reluctant and waited for months before telling why she killed him. To me, it seems like this new information just makes her reasoning/motive even more suspicious.

Here’s the AP report. What do you think?

By WOODY BAIRD, AP - SELMER, Tenn. (June 30) - A minister’s wife charged with murdering her husband told police she shot him after they argued over family finances and then told him “I’m sorry” as he lay dying in their bedroom, according to testimony at a bond hearing Friday.Mary Winkler, 32, has been jailed without bond since March 23, accused of killing her husband, Matthew Winkler, 31, at their Church of Christ parsonage in Selmer, a small town 80 miles east of Memphis.

In court Friday, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent Brian Booth read a statement Mary Winkler gave authorities in Alabama, where she was arrested a day after her husband’s body was found by church members.

Booth testified that Winkler told police she knew her husband kept a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in the closet of the home where they lived with their three daughters. She said she didn’t remember getting the gun.

“The next thing I remember was hearing a loud boom. I remember thinking it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be,” Booth said, reading from Winkler’s statement.

She told police her husband rolled from the bed onto the floor after being shot.

“He asked me why, and I just said `I’m sorry,”‘ Booth read from the statement.

Winkler said the two had argued throughout the evening about several things, including family finances. The problems were “mostly my fault,” she said, because she was in charge of keeping the family books.

“He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things - the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped,” Booth read to the court.

The defense has asked for reasonable bond to be set for Winkler, who is charged with first-degree murder. The prosecution is seeking no bond, saying it is a capital case. Prosecutors haven’t indicated whether they plan to seek the death penalty, although they have until 30 days before the trial to announce their intentions.

Church members were expected to testify on Winkler’s behalf.

Why would she wait so long to reveal that she killed him during an argument. I will be listening and watching when the case goes to trial to see what else is ultimately revealed. It just doesn’t make sense that she’d not be willing to say immediately that she did it impulsively during a fight.

I just had a plumber give me an estimate on making the repairs necessary for me to close the house on the 11th - there were two leaks in the crawl space that had to be repaired.  His price was $850 to do what was needed - replace a cracked pipe and replace a valve. 

After I recovered from my shock at the price, I called my son who has his plumber’s license but who usually just works on irrigation systems.  He told me he could do the work for me for much less and that I shouldn’t pay that much.  So I told the plumber that I was going to have my son do the work instead.

He immediately said he’d call his boss and see if they could do it for less.  And guess what?  They can do the whole job for just $398.  LESS THAN HALF THE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE.  They are going to “throw in” a valve that was $450 in the first estimate.

I called my son.  He said he couldn’t do it for less than $398.  So, the plumber got the job and is working on it now.

Interesting sidenote:  As the plumber was writing up the work order he chatted with me about his son and raising his son right, and how he knew God would take care of things.  How just this morning he had to take money from his son’s college fund to pay the mortgage.  Was he trying to play on my sympathies?  Or maybe make me feel guilty for not paying the original quote?  I don’t know.  If so, it didn’t work.

Amazing, isn’t it?  Less than half the original estimate.  Most people would have just had them do the job and paid the $850.  Dishonest bastards!