murder investigations are based on more than just witness statements. the csi team rushed other to todd and rachel s house. the house is well-manicured. minus the fact that there s this yellow crime scene tape up. and then you walk through that and you walk into the doors and the house is in complete disarray. kitchen is completely undone. baseboards missing all over the place.
the bug bite? he didn t know where the bug bite was. didn t know what bit him. reporter: didn t know where it was? no, sir. reporter: something serious enough to give him an allergic reaction that doesn t present anywhere is a bit odd. that was a big question in my mind. reporter: todd told the cops back then that he had a history of allergic reactions. always carried an epi-pen for emergencies. yet didn t take that to the wilderness that weekend. did that seem strange to you that he d go camping without an epipen if he was subject to this sort of thing? it seemed strange to me that we were spendin so much time talkin about bug bites. it was almost as if we were tryin to steer away from the real issue, which was a fatality crash involving his wife. reporter: it also seem strange he said that by the time the campers saw todd, he displayed no evidence of an allergic reaction. of course, lisette suder and her people interviewed mike and woody too. and they told her, as
no. reporter: just the same, woody and mike climbed down the steep incline as far as they could. i don t see how anybody could ve survived that wreck. the cliff, the fire, but i m still hopeful, okay? i got to do something. yeah. reporter: but there was no getting near the truck and no sign of a survivor. and then the firefighters came and the emts and, of course, the cops. they too heard the husband s bizarre tale. and they also learned his name was todd winkler. in their report they wrote that when they encountered todd, he was calling out for his wife cathy over and over. cathy, cathy, as if he was hoping she d come walking out of that burning forest. the patrol deputies called in the investigators, which is how gerald johnson, a brand new detective at the time, found himself deep in the georgia woods early that autumn morning. what happened up there on the hill was well, you you can
on a shelf right above the computer. and three, prosecutor suder i believe he took a pair of scissors and he went in that room with the intent to kill her. he attacked her while she was sleeping, stabbed her repeatedly in the face and the neck area. and i believe, at that point, he thought he had killed her, and he left her for dead. reporter: then, said the prosecutor, as todd prepared to leave the house, he saw a light had been turned on in the baby s room. so that s when he then goes, gets his motorcycle jacket on for padding, for protection, bangs in the door, finds her in that corner. reporter: cowering? cowering. reporter: trying to save her own life? correct. reporter: they knew that rachel spent some time after the first attack holding her baby. from prosecution closings
baby alex s onesie was examined. and you know that there are drip blood, like being droplet blood, up on top of that onesie. that s how we know that rachel was holding that baby. reporter: then todd came back. she s in the corner there. she kicks at him. reporter: didn t stop him. he bear crawls up her body. he takes those scissors, and this ex-fighter pilot jams them into her neck, and he sits there and lays there on top of her while she slowly dies. reporter: after that, for seven hours, todd cleaned up, said the prosecutor, then took his kids to the neighbor s house. and then, after dropping the kids at the neighbor s, but before the cops arrived, he took the time to cut his hands, to make it look as if he d been attacked by rachel. how did they know the cuts were self-inflicted? the neighbor said his hands weren t cut when he dropped off