airpark that last sunday of february 2012. todd and rachel winkler s marital issues did not noticeably ruffle the surface of normal suburban life. a neighbor bumped into todd that afternoon. he stopped and talked to us for, you know, a couple a minutes and, you know, wished us well and kept going. he was pushing the two strollers with all three kids and he didn t look particularly cheerful. todd had no way of knowing that sunday afternoon that rachel was back at james mountain house, double-checking her divorce application. she finished the paperwork and she says i m going fax him the next morning. you re continuing the relationship. she is filling out divorce papers. he s trying to block her. she s determined to do it. uh-huh. she turned to me that day, she say, you know what, james? whether you re in the picture or not, i m divorcing todd. i want out. whether you re in the picture or not? but was there some doubt about that? no. she said the reason why she wants to b
said, was fakery. todd winkler may have had, or feigned, some disorder that got him out of the air force, she said, but he killed rachel. and it was murder, deliberate and planned, she said, committed by a man practiced at getting away with things. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. this is the case about a master mind, a manipulator. a murderer. this is a case about todd winkler and how he brutally murdered rachel marie winkler, his wife, mother of his three small children. todd winkler did not have to fend off a scissor-wielding wife, said prosecutor suder, so it wasn t self-defense. and rachel s death could not be blamed on any mental condition either, any more than the death of another mrs. winkler in those dark woods so long ago. but as she began to tell that part of the story, watch what happened. she s found burned to death
why did it look like the fire had been burning for a long time? it was the whole side of the mountain. it was a big mountain. it had to have been burnin an hour or two. yeah, probably. i would think. closer to two. curiosities. why would he bring her up here to the very top of the mountain to go camping it s an hour s drive over a rutted track to the other campers farther down the hill. according to cathy s family she didn t like camping at all. so why would he bring her to the most remote possible place? no one camps up there. unless you want to be really secluded. and that, said cathy s brother, was not something she would have wanted. did she like to go camping? no. she d rather be in a hotel any day over a tent, knowin my sister. puzzled cathy s friends too. i was like, camping? cathy was not a camper. and there was this i recall him at some point, mr. winkler
we were finally going to be able to start the life together we ve talked about and dreamed about and wanted together for so long. rachel headed home to tell todd they were history, that she was leaving him for the man she loved. evening fell. it was sunday night. no one who drove past the winkler s home in the gathering dark would have noticed anything untoward. but come monday morning it was a day unlike any the airpark community had ever seen. 911, what s your emergency? i m calling to report a fatality. where did this occur? it s in the cameron park air park. my understanding, it was a domestic it was just so surreal. it almost it seemed like a dream. what was going on? the neighbors watching anxiously from their windows didn t know, of course. i was in my yard and saw the sheriff s department pulling into the neighbor next door, between our house and the winkler s house, and taking kind
numerous times. and after about a month of calling it repeatedly, the phone number was disconnected. she didn t get anywhere. no. but sometimes, maybe, with a little help from curious prosecutor, you get a do-over. so, as the years went by, you thought about it? oh, yes, sir. it bothered you? yes. so, that must have made that call that you got from california all the more remarkable. when when i realized what they were asking me about, yes, sir. i thought, oh, my goodness, what in the world is going on with this case? coming up. so many questions about that long-ago case, starting with why was cathy even camping? i said camping? cathy was not a camper. the more we read, the more rerealized this was not an accident. it was some horrible acting going on. it wasn t believable. i recall him at some point mr. winkler saying, do you