Chapter 1: What happened to Donnah Winger in 1995?
Now approaching the entranceway via the front door.
In the family dining room area, we see what appears to be a large pool of blood.
I learned, never let anyone's emotions cloud your vision when you're investigating a crime.
A hammer covered with what appears to be blood. And never jump to any conclusions. Some automatic handguns.
until you've had plenty of time to think about it. I had seen many crime scenes where there was a lot of blood and gruesome sights, but none that bad. I was at the Springfield Police Department in the major case office, and I heard the radio call.
Detective Cox, who was my partner at the time, drove.
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Chapter 2: How did Mark Winger react to the attack on his wife?
Dispatch advises that the second victim that was at the scene was actually believed to be the intruder and that the husband had shot the intruder.
He had the hammer in his hand, and he was standing over her.
And I was like, oh, my god. Donna, oh, my god.
Are you Mark Winger? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. And your wife is Donna? Yes, she is. I got to get to my wife.
Chapter 3: What were the initial findings at the crime scene?
Please, just let me get to my wife.
Springfield is a beautiful little town. It's Midwestern, it's small, the people are sweet. It's just a lovely place.
It's a very friendly and clean city with very sensitive and compassionate people.
My name is Sarah Jane Drescher and I am Donna Winger's mother. Mark and Donna were just so happy.
We don't know where she's sleeping tonight.
I mean, she was just so enthused. I mean, that's all there was to it, to be a mommy. I mean, that was the best for her.
She's beautiful.
My name is Ira Drescher, and I am Donna Winger's stepfather. Mark told the police, basically, what had transpired. Here he was 31 years old with a three-month-old child, and he had to shoot a man. My gosh, our hearts bled for him.
I don't think there was ever anyone who met her who couldn't love her. Say hi. Who would want to hurt such a beautiful person?
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Chapter 4: What led to the revelation of Mark Winger's affair?
Adorable.
She was crazy about him. ...thought they were perfect together.
They were absolutely an adorable model couple.
They were both respected and successful members of their community. Mark was a nuclear engineer for the state of Illinois. Donna was an operating room technician.
I would like to just say hello to Donna and Mark.
And both sets of in-laws were delighted when the couple got married in 1989.
Donna, Mark, we love you so much.
The Wingers were eager to start a family. But there was a problem. They learned Donna could not bear children.
She's so excited she hasn't slept for days.
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Chapter 5: How did the police initially investigate the case?
There was a stranger over her, bludgeoning her with a hammer. You can't imagine it. You can't. When I came down the hallway, I had my weapon pointed at him and I went to pull the trigger. And that's when Winger says he shot the man in the head. When police got to Winger's house, the victims were in terrible shape, but alive.
The male was taking real deep, labored breaths, and I thought his time was limited. As paramedics went to work, Officer Dave Barringer got his Polaroid camera.
So I thought, if we're going to have pictures showing where the bodies were located, I'm going to have to take these pictures now because they're going to be gone within a matter of a few minutes.
He showed us how quickly he took pictures. Three pictures. I only had three pictures left in my camera. Within minutes, both Donna and the man were rushed to the hospital. I just knew that she was in dire straits. And Mark Winger began telling police what happened that day. And I was like, oh, my God. You know, I said, Donna, oh, my God.
I've been in crime scene work a long time, and there's been very few as severe and bloody as this one was. Homicide detective Charlie Cox knew there was little hope that either Donna Winger or the man lying near her on the floor would survive their wounds. I said a prayer. I do that at all my homicides. I stand over the body and... Say a little prayer.
Yeah.
Cox grabbed the man's ID from his wallet and then he got right to work, questioning Mark Winger in the bedroom. I was in shock. I was in shock the whole time they were questioning me. I did my best. And he's more or less rocking back and forth as he's talking to us. And you can tell he's nervous and upset. So I'm trying to be as delicate as I can with my questions.
Winger told the detectives the hammer was his, left out by Donna as a reminder to hang a hat rack. And he had a question of his own. He said, who is that guy out there? Is his name Roger? At that point, I felt compelled to let him know the truth. And I said, yes, that's Roger Harrington. He says, oh, my God, that's the guy that's been harassing my wife and me. Oh, my God.
And I fell over on my side and just cried. Harrington was the van driver who drove Donna home from the airport six days before. Winger told Cox about that harrowing ride. He also told Cox about two anonymous phone calls that Winger believed were from Harrington. I thought I was going to jail because I just shot a man in the head. But Winger could not have been more wrong. I tried to console him.
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Chapter 6: What new evidence emerged years after the murder?
I said... You said he was a hero? Yes. Cox's partner, Doug Williamson, helped to calm Winger. I was trying to let him know what we were going to do, how the police were going to help him. After Donna and Harrington were taken away, Winger managed to give the detectives a detailed statement. He told them that Donna was on her knees when he took aim at Harrington. Harrington looks up at him. Yes.
And he shoots him. Because he's getting ready to go down and hit her again. And then Harrington... From what the position he was in, he said at that point he fell off of his wife and rolled back. Like that. Cox's investigation of the crime scene backed up Mark's story. Basic evidence in here where the crime occurred matched up with what he was saying. Everything matched up.
There was blood where Donna was killed. There was blood where Harrington's head landed. And the bullet was still on the table as he said it was from when he called 911. What's more, Harrington had been a psychiatric patient with a history of delusions. And Cox knew him. He once broke up a fight between Harrington and his wife.
He had her bent over the couch getting ready to hit her again when I grabbed him. Harrington seems to fit the profile of a murder suspect pretty well. Very well. Harrington died shortly after arriving at the hospital, and Donna died minutes later. She never regained consciousness. Oh, God. I felt deeply for him. I'm a very religious person. He seemed to be that as well.
Donna's mother and stepfather, Sarah Jane and Ira Drescher, were inconsolable when they heard about her murder. I had to hold her because she was wailing, howling, wailing. They were shocked to hear that Donna's ride from the airport had escalated into a homicide.
She's a good girl.
Was she scared by this driver?
She wasn't scared. No, she wasn't scared. She was just disturbed in a way, you know, that this was such a crazy conversation.
Ira and Sarah Jane rushed to their son-in-law's side.
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Chapter 7: How did the jurors perceive the evidence against Mark Winger?
Case was closed before then. There was an outpouring of support for Mark here in Springfield. Almost everyone believed he was a good family man whose life had been shattered by a madman. But one family wasn't buying that story at all. Roger Harrington's family.
What were you trying to tell the police? I was trying to tell them there is no way. You guys are so wrong. I knew he was not capable.
Harrington's sister, Barbara Howell, pleaded with Detective Cox.
He was very rude, very, very rude. He was rude? Oh, very rude. He said, ma'am, anytime you want to know how your kid brother walked in that home, snapped, and killed that woman, come to my office and I'll show you step by step.
Roger's mother, Helen, felt the shame of a city that believed she had raised a psychotic killer.
Just felt branded like, who are we, you know?
You felt branded.
How would anybody feel if their son was called a murderer?
The Harringtons bore their grief quietly, believing they were alone. They didn't realize that someone else doubted Winger's story, someone close to the investigation. How convincing was Mark Winger that night and the night after? It was very convincing. Detective Doug Williamson. Were you convinced? Williamson had a lot of questions.
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Chapter 8: What was the outcome of Mark Winger's trial?
I was argumentative. I pointed out what we call red flags, pieces that don't seem to fit. At first, Williamson couldn't even convince his own partner, Charlie Cox, that Winger was a murderer. But Cox says he started getting suspicious when Winger kept showing up here at the police station. A few months after the murder, Winger came by. to ask for his gun back.
I released the gun back to Mark, and we sat and talked for about a half hour. What did you talk to him about? Just things in general. He was wanting to know how the case was going, and as far as I was concerned, he should have just accepted it was closed.
Winger denies it, but Cox remembers him dropping by a second time, this time to say he was getting remarried to his daughter's new nanny, whom he had hired just five months after Donna's murder. And he kept coming in. I kept feeling like he was trying to find out if we were checking into anything. And I went back to Doug and said, something's wrong here, big time.
Winger's behavior was making Cox believe that his partner had been right all along. He thought about the problems in the case, like that note in Harrington's car. And now Cox also wanted the case reopened, fearing that Mark Winger had duped the police. And the boss has said, no way.
We're not going to open a case of this magnitude with your gut feeling and embarrass the department and embarrass Mr. Winger. As the years passed, Mark's new wife adopted his child and they had two other children. And then, all of a sudden, the whole case got turned on its head. We got a lucky break. What was that? Deanne Schultz. Deanne Schultz was Donna's best friend. Here's Aunt Deanne.
And she was deeply troubled.
I was hospitalized. I started drinking. I tried to overdose. I wanted to die.
For three and a half years, Deanne had kept a secret, and what she was finally ready to say would change everything.
I know the police think that he didn't do it, but maybe if they knew just a little bit that I knew, there could be an investigation.
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