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Facing murder charges, wife of minister returns to Tennessee
2006/03/27
 SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- Members of the congregation planted flowers Saturday outside the Fourth Street Church of Christ as they waited for their minister's wife to be brought home to face first-degree murder charges in the death of her husband.
The gardening project and a spring cleanup had been planned weeks ago by Matthew Winkler, the 31-year-old minister who was shot to death at the parsonage he shared with his wife Mary and their three young children.
"We're doing this because Matthew wanted us to," church member James Turner said as he dug a spade into the dark soil of a flower bed.
"It keeps us busy," said Jimmie Smith, a retired counselor.
"Listen, the Mary we knew didn't do this," Anita Whirley said as she planted purple, yellow and red pansies. "She was a wonderful person. We just don't understand."
Police found Mary Winkler, 32, and her daughters late Thursday about 340 miles from home in Orange Beach, Alabama, where she had rented a condo.
She did not resist extradition, and McNairy County sheriff's deputies brought her Saturday afternoon to a jail in Selmer, a west Tennessee town about 80 miles east of Memphis.
Mary Winkler said nothing and kept her head down as she was taken from an unmarked police car into the building.
Police said she confessed to the killing and she was charged Friday with first-degree murder, a crime that requires premeditation. (Watch authorities discuss the murder confession -- 5:49)
Authorities refused to disclose a motive.
She did not resist extradition, and McNairy County sheriff's deputies picked her up Saturday at the Baldwin County jail in Alabama.
Matthew Winkler was found dead in a bedroom at the couple's home in Selmer after church members went looking for him because he did not appear for a service. The parsonage is about two miles from the church in a quiet, heavily wooded neighborhood.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent John Mehr has said police know why she shot her husband, but he would not disclose the motive except to say police did not believe it was infidelity. He would not comment on whether Mary Winkler had accused her husband of abuse. Court papers offered no hint of a motive.
An Alabama judge released the Winkler children -- Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8 -- to the custody of their paternal grandparents. Mary Winkler was at the custody hearing Friday in handcuffs.
The family had moved to Selmer a year ago when Matthew Winkler was hired for his first job as the lead minister of a Church of Christ congregation. Church members described them as a devoted couple, good parents and good friends.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Gunman kills six, self after party
2006/03/27
 SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A gunman opened fire early Saturday inside a home, killing six partygoers and critically injuring at least one other before committing suicide when confronted by police.
Five victims' bodies were found in several places in the rented home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood east of downtown, police said. One of three other people taken to a hospital died and the third was in stable condition, a nursing supervisor said.
"It's one of the largest crime scenes the city has ever had," said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. (Watch as police describe the hectic scene inside the house -- 4:38)
Dozens of rounds were fired in the house, where about 20 people ranging in age from early and mid- teens to mid-20s had gathered after a larger party nearby at which some of the guests wore makeup "to look as if they were dead," Kerlikowske said.
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McCain urges Iraq to form government
2006/03/26
 Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was joined by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, as he said that he was "guardedly optimistic" that Iraqi leaders could form a government "within weeks."
"I come away with the impression that the Iraqi leaders understand the sense of urgency that we have conveyed to them," McCain said. "We all know the polls show declining support amongst the American people, and we feel that it would be important to have a government, not only for American public opinion, but for the Iraqi people to have a government they can identify with and rely on."
Earlier in the day, nine people were killed in a trio of attacks that included the fatal shooting of a Sunni imam who was driving in Baghdad, police said.
Sheikh Abed Farhan was imam of the Aqtab Arba'a mosque in the Bayaa neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.
South of Baghdad, in the Babil province town of Mahmoudiya, four people were killed and 13 others were wounded when six mortar rounds crashed into a residential neighborhood.
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