On September 22, the defense requested a postponement of the October 30 trial date because they needed more time to discuss the case with the newly elected district attorney general. Four days later, Judge McCraw granted that request, putting the trial on the calendar for the February 2007 term without setting a specific date.
The other decision the judge announced that day did not please the defense. He denied their motion to suppress the statements Mary made in Alabama after her arrest.
Farese told the media that he planned to continue the fight to suppress evidence seized from the parsonage. He said that the police did not have the necessary search warrant when they began their investigative exploration of the Winkler home.
With a pounding heart, Mary drove with her sister Tabatha from the Thomsen home in McMinnville to Huntingdon on the other side of Nashville. She had not seen her daughters’ faces for three months. For the first time in half a year, she’d be able to touch them, kiss them, hug them.
She pulled into the parking lot of the Huntingdon Church of Christ. She went straight to the gymnasium and flung open the door, her eyes scanning the vast room, seeking sight of her little girls.
Before her arrival, Dan Winkler brought over Cokes, ice and popcorn, as well as a supply of disposable diapers for Breanna. He introduced Mary to the two family friends, Betty Pritchard and her daughter, Beth Guess, who’d be supervising the visitation. Then, he left to go next door to his home in the parsonage and pick up the children.
Dan escorted the girls to the gym and left as they ran toward their mother. Patricia and Allie immediately threw themselves into their mother’s arms, giving and receiving kisses and hugs. Breanna hung back a bit—half a year’s absence was a formidable length of time for an 18-month-old. After a little coaxing, she, too, joined in the affectionate exchange.
Patricia spotted her “Aunt Baba” on the sideline, rushed over to her for a hug. Allie knew Tabatha was her mom’s sister, but didn’t really remember her. Breanna had never met her.
They spent their time together playing and talking about everything but the event that caused their separation. The two hours passed far too quickly for Mary Winkler. After a flurry of exchanged I-love-you’s, the girls were gone. Mary made the long drive back to McMinnville with her sister, alternating between sparkling moments of recollection to somber periods of dead silence that lasted for miles.
Back in Huntingdon, Dan and Diane talked to their granddaughters about the visit with their mother. They were shocked to learn that Mary told the girls that the police were wrong—she’d had nothing to do with the death of their father. Hearing this lie, the elder Winklers’ attitude toward Mary took a dramatic negative turn. One month later, the accusations of Mary’s family would harden their hearts forever.
Mary asked for permission to travel to the Ladies Christian Retreat at Thompson’s Station in Williamson County, Tennessee, on the weekend of October 13. Her attorneys argued that she would benefit from the spiritual guidance, fellowship and support she would find there. Judge McCraw denied the request.
Mary was disappointed, but it was not her most important concern. She hungered for her next visit with her daughters. She had every reason to believe it would happen soon. Then, in mid-October, the November issue of Glamour hit mailboxes and newsstands across the country.
In the article about Mary, Clark Freeman came to his daughter’s defense. “Mary Carol could not bring pain to anyone…You know the saying, ‘She couldn’t hurt a fly’? If a fly buzzed over the table at dinnertime, Mary Carol would open the door and help it find its way out. That’s who Mary is.
“I know her finger was on that shotgun. And I know a lot of what has been described about the shooting is true. But Mary Carol didn’t do it. Not the Mary Carol I know.”
Steve Farese lashed out at Matthew Winkler. “Only Mary can talk about Matt and his temper and how controlling he was.” He claimed Matt “ruled every aspect of his wife’s life.” He told her which dresses to buy, and he told her what to eat. “Mary didn’t do anything without first checking with Matthew,” he said in the interview.
The defense attorney asserted that “a too-obedient wife and a too-controlling husband” were “a recipe for disaster.” He insisted that by the time she pulled the trigger, “Mary did not know up from down, and was literally trapped.”
Clark Freeman told the interviewer for Glamour that he knew something was wrong in the marriage but if he had believed things had gone “very wrong,” he would have talked to Mary and encouraged her to confide in him and accept his help.
But a month after the publication of Glamour, where he claimed to be pretty much clueless, Clark appeared on Good Morning America talking about the extremity of the abuse. “Physical, mental, verbal was strong. I don’t know how she took it. She’s a stronger individual than I am.”
At one point, Mary’s family claimed that they had seen Mary only twice in the last five years, but on the morning news show, Clark claimed that the abuse became obvious in the last three years of Matt and Mary’s marriage. “I saw terrible bruises, the heaviest of makeup covering facial bruises. So one day, I confronted her. I said, ‘Mary, you are coming off as a very abused wife. Very battered.’ And Mary, she would hang her head and say, ‘No, Daddy, everything is all right.’”
After this attack on the victim, clear lines of demarcation were drawn. The dispute over the custody of Patricia, Allie and Breanna Winkler escalated into all-out war.