love-drunk teens. they set up house together. that s tim during those giddy years, rarely serious. looking like a character from the movie dazed and confused . and there s rachel, unconsciously glamorous. like some movie star in her own romantic comedy, with a plot that was all too familiar. aspiring artists waiting for their break. reporter: could she see making a life as a painter? yeah, she could. rachel could picture it because she had seen it happen. her own father, don hatfield, made a big name for himself painting the romantic, bucolic beach scenes that for years have graced living rooms around the country. you may have seen his how to paint courses on youtube. this is called, for me. it s called, aiming your shot. rare is the artist who, like don, could comfortably raise four kids in the napa valley. but, though many are called, few are chosen. tim s artistic hopes were
as james white s daughter, katelyn, told us i was told that monsters don t exist. my parents always told me that. and after going through that trial and seeing what i had to see, i can tell you with absolute certainty that that is 110% false. he is a monster. reporter: and rachel s men? we weren t surprised to hear that james has his own idea of what justice might be. did you have any thought about what would happen if the justice system didn t look after todd in a way that seemed reasonable to you? he would have been dealt with. reporter: by whom? me. reporter: you know, they could have put you in prison for life. it would have been a one-way mission. he and i are both goig to go down together. i m not going to shoot him. i m going to kill him with my two bare hands. i m going to do to him what he did to rachel. reporter: tim cherrington,
ex-marine and firearms expert. and her first boyfriend, the would-be impressionist painter. his name is tim cherrington. and she the woman at the center of all that happened, was rachel. rachel hatfield. reporter: so rachel. tell me about her. what what kind of person oh, [beep]. i m sorry. we re starting, huh? reporter: well. just whatever. hmm start again. reporter: what d that do to you when i said that? my heart just went, boom. the subject of rachel, as you can plainly see, is painful for tim cherrington. a pain that might lessen if he d only learn to forget. but all he can do is remember. like the night they first met. it was a july night, a party. and she was dancing. and i said, wow, i m gonna meet that girl. reporter: how old were you? i was 18 and i think she was 17. reporter: oh. wow.
disappointed. it wasn t happening. it wasn t happening. so he and rachel lowered their sights and hustled up any work-like murals that might help cover the rent. we were, you know, doing murals, and that s all the income we had. reporter: murals doesn t pay all that well. no, it doesn t pay much at all. she was under-girding and supporting, loving, and directing tim. don hatfield thought his daughter would outgrow tim. after all, rachel, unlike tim, buckled down and went to college. you know, graduates at top of her class at sonoma state, recruited by deloitte and touche and they started her out at $80k. we want you not, i wanna do a little business of my own, you know? and she and tim would run around and do stuff. reporter: paint murals and so forth? yeah. reporter: were they any good? not really. but she loved him nonetheless. fourteen years this went on. rachel wanted to get married and have kids.
the man who failed to commit and then watched the love of his life go on to her terrible end, has his own way of taking revenge, mostly on himself. kind of a tragic love story from your point of view? it is, it is. reporter: i mean, this is a woman you could ve spent the rest of your life with. very, very easily could, yes. i should have pulled the trigger when i had that chance, you know. i blew it. i didn t, you know, give her the ring earlier. reporter: well, you re still paying for it, aren t you? yeah. yes, i am, yeah. that s a tough one. reporter: different kind of thinking across the country, among the friends of that other mrs. winkler, the one whose death on a lonely mountain road, is still officially labelled, accident. i mean, this is a beautiful woman who gave so much, was so nurturing and caring. i don t feel like there s been justice for cathy. i think about cathy s death all the time. reporter: about whether she could somehow have done more to prevent