The preacher's wife

Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

In the green gentle hills of southwest Tennessee, in a sweet small town at the heart of God and country, lived a handsome young minister with the gift of a golden tongue.

His name was Matthew, like the Matthew of the gospel. There was no surprise in that.  His father was a preacher, too.  And his father's father.  And his father's father's father.

And so -- who could have imagined the ugly secret so carefully hidden before what happened … happened?

Dr. Staci Turner: The cause of death is a shotgun wound to the torso.

911 Caller: We found the preacher here ... And he's dead.
911: He's dead?
Caller: Yes, that's right.

Matthew and Mary.  They were so perfectly named, so deeply steeped in the faith of their fathers.

Their family name, Winkler, was legendary in the conservative Church of Christ in southern Tennessee.

And Matthew, who was tall, handsome, and athletic, had picked up the mantle as if the ministry, as if great preaching, was built right into his DNA.

Tabatha Freeman: He's a very animated person. There was no fear of falling asleep in the sermon.

So it was natural for the charismatic young man to find a devout wife, which she certainly was.

He met Mary Carol Freeland at this Church of Christ University, and they married in 1996. He was just 21, she was 22.

Mary's father says she was an outgoing child.

Clark Freeman: Grew up a very happy girl, very involved in everything.  Friends around all the time.

And her sister says the family was pleased to see Matthew come along.

Tabitha Freeman: They fit together.  We were happy.

Mary's upbringing had been every bit as strict and church-centered as Matthew's.

Her father's word was law for her, just as Matthew's dad's had been for him.

They patterned their young marriage that way, too; it was Bible-based, said this church secretary.

Pam Killingsworth: The way we read the Bible and interpret the Bible is the—the husband is the head of the house.  Just like God is the head of the church.

Mary dropped out of college to help pay for Matthew's education.

She became a mother in 1997, naming her first child Patricia after a sister she had lost as a child.

A second daughter, Allie, was born in 1999.

And surrounded by his pretty girls, Matthew's star was rising. In 2002 he became youth minister at a Church of Christ in McMinnville, Tennessee.

“When you're in that role, you really have to walk a fine line,” Local reporter Russell Ingle. "Your kids have to look right, act right, toe the line … you know, from that perspective they looked perfect."

By then, though, Mary's family began to see less of her, the children and Matthew, who seemed, somehow, different.

Tabatha Freeman: When it was a good day and he was in a good mood, he was the best person to be around. But if at any moment, he turned, he was the very last person you wanted to be in the room with.

In February 2005, Mary gave birth to a third daughter, Brianna.

Free video Matthew Winkler's 'Stormchaser' Sermon Sermon delivered on July 10, 2005 at the 4th Street Church of Christ NBC News Web Extra

Just a month later, Matthew answered an exciting call. He was offered a position as lead minister at the 4th Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee, a fine old town about 80 miles east of Memphis.

Pam Killingsworth: He pulled everybody together. He was what we needed to the tee.
By late march of the following year, 2006, the family seemed to have settled quite nicely in Selmer.

On Sunday, March 19, Matthew preached a well received sermon.

On Tuesday, March 21, Mary worked as a substitute teacher.

That evening, Matthew rented a movie for his little girls.

On Wednesday, March 22, parishioners gathered for evening prayers.

They waited for Matthew to arrive. At first they were puzzled.

Dr. Eason: He's usually here 15, 30 minutes before service, you know, shaking hands and just talking. It was very unusual for him to—to even be late.

Ten minutes became half an hour. An hour.

Finally, a delegation of church elders went to the Winkler's house to check on the young family.

Dr. Eason: A friend of mine, member of the church here—hollered at me, said he's here on the floor in the bedroom.  My heart kind of fell to my stomach.  And went back there and we found him.

Matthew Winkler's dead body was sprawled on the bedroom floor.

911:  911, what's your emergency?
Caller:  Uh, we have an emergency.  I'm not sure of the address, uh, we need the police up here right away.

Sheriff Ricky Roten raced to the scene.  No windows were broken, no doors kicked in, but in the bedroom, on the floor, police found Matthew's body and a terrifying mystery: where was Mary?  Where were the girls? Had someone kidnapped his family?

Sheriff: Probably. And you always think about the safety of the kids. The first thing, where in the world were the kids at? That's one of the things that probably hit me too. There's three kids here. Where in the world are they at? How do you do this?

Sheriff: None of the kids rooms were torn up. Nothing was thrown. Everything was just in its normal place. Everything was just normal and then the kids were gone.

An immediate Amber Alert went out and the search was on for the victims.

At the crime scene, the details were shocking. Matthew had a massive wound in his back.

Sheriff: It wasn't a question what happened to him, it was just who done it.  Have any idea why?

He'd been shot with a 12 guage shotgun at point blank range, apparently while he was sleeping.  The phone was unplugged.  Officers faced the chilling possibility that he'd been left -- unable to call for help -- to die.

As police circulated pictures of Mary and her girls all around the country, a dreadful feeling, close to panic, ensued.

Sheriff: Maybe somebody had moved it to keep him or somebody from dialing 911 for help.
Tabatha Freeman: I knew that something tragic had happened.
Clark Freeland: I kept calling her cell phone, "Call home, Carol.  Wherever you are, call home and talk to daddy.you must do that."

Then, finally, Friday morning, there was news, and deep apprehension turned suddenly to relief. 

John Mehr [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation]: The wife and the three children are okay.

They were 400 miles from home.  They'd been found, safe, unharmed, by an alert policeman in a small beach town in Alabama.

But as Mary's family watched the newscasts, what they heard and saw made no sense.

Tabatha Freeman: All I can think was that can't be right.

There were so many questions. What happened? How did Mary and girls get to Alabama?
And, more to the point, why couldn't Mary come home?