True Crime Vault: The Perfect Lie

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You're listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

It's such a bizarre story.

Sometimes I don't even believe that it happened to me.

I had everything right there.

Donna, a beautiful baby.

What would you say

to the dog?

These could be your neighbors.

Maybe you had them over for a barbecue.

Okay, we've got an ambulance and we're out and we've got police officers and we're out.

Where is the gun?

I blessed it on the table.

It's on the table.

Donna had been the victim of some strange phone calls.

Police found a note.

It was a bank deposit slip, and on the back was the time of 4.30 p.m.

Keep going.

And in comes Rebecca, this young, beautiful nanny who has a heart of gold, wants to help out this poor man.

You still had signs of life and a pulse with two gunshot wounds to the head.

I've written over 30 crime novels, but here's a real-life case that is more twisted than anything I could have dreamt of.

Their lives were shattered, and it was my purpose

to make this family whole again.

This is the first time I've sat down to tell my story.

And watch the world fall apart.

There's something going on here that we missed.

On this very special day at this very special house, a very special little baby is going to come live with us.

And who do we see but the moment?

All these movies is just, they could be yours.

They could be mine.

It could be anybody you know.

Look at these special kids.

They've waited so long for this this baby.

You are watching the birth of a family.

After six years of marriage, Mark and Donna Winger are about to adopt a baby girl.

How do you feel, Donna?

I'm overwhelmed.

And I just want her to know that it just so happens that the day she's coming home to us is the anniversary of our engagement of Mark and I.

Oh, isn't that wonderful?

Mark and Donna were sort of put on this pedestal as this beautiful young couple who had struggled to have kids and now they finally were able to adopt this three-month-old baby.

Here comes our special delivery.

Oh,

look.

He's so sweet.

You look at this beautiful mother with her beautiful child and they're just starting out the relationship.

Donna doesn't have a clue.

This is going to be one of the last times that she's able to have a moment like this with Bailey.

911 emergency was emergency.

Emergency, emergency.

This man just didn't need my wife.

I shot him.

Please help me.

He was killing my wife.

Are you Mark Wingers?

Yes, I am.

Yes, I am.

Okay, and your wife is Donna?

Yes, she is.

On August 29th, 1995, the Springfield Police Department responded to a 911 call.

Is the man still in your house?

Yes, he's laying there on the floor with a bullet in his head.

There had been a shooting at Westview Drive in Springfield.

It happened in a nice neighborhood right when people were coming home from work by a ballpark where kids played baseball.

When they arrived, they found a very grisly scene.

I could see the victims from the front door.

Donna was clinging to life.

She had been hit no less than seven times in the head with a hammer.

The second victim was an unknown white male lying on the floor.

He still had signs of life and a pulse with two gunshot wounds to the head.

It was quite chaotic.

They were working on them, putting tubes in them.

I knew that they were going to be transporting the victims soon.

So I wanted to try and get identification on the male subject.

So I went and took his wallet out of his back pocket.

And in his wallet, he had a driver's license, which identified him as Roger Arrington.

Then I proceeded to assess the crime scene itself to try and gather as much information as I could.

We have

a

hammer covered with what appears to be blood.

The husband reported that his wife was being beaten by a guy with a hammer.

We have a.45 caliber semi-automatic handgun.

On the dining room table was the weapon that was used to shoot Mr.

Harrington.

Also on that table was a yellow mug and a pack of cigarettes.

Roger Harrington's car was parked going against traffic, facing the wrong direction.

It was very out of place for that neighborhood.

Inside of the vehicle, the police found a note.

Written on there was the time of 4.30 p.m., the address, and the name Mark Winger.

I proceeded back to the master bedroom to talk with the husband, Mark Winger.

He was rocking back and forth on the end of the bed.

He was very upset, very emotional.

He kept asking, who's that man that was in my house?

And even though I knew who it was, I did not want to let him know at that point.

We got him calmed down.

Then we started getting into

what had occurred.

He was working out downstairs on his treadmill when he had heard a thump thump upstairs.

At that point, he shut the treadmill off and started walking up the steps to make sure everything was okay.

When he got to the master bedroom, he seen his three-month-old child laying on the bed, which he said Donna would have never done, which concerned him.

He then said he heard noises, which made him believe that Donna was in distress.

So at that point, he got his semi-automatic weapon out of the nightstand.

And as he walked down the hallway, he observed a man beating her with a hammer.

The male subject looked up at him and then lowered his head again to take another swing at his wife.

And that's when he shot him.

Mark had stated the man fell backwards, landing on his back, and that he began to sit up and that Mark immediately shot him a second time.

Does he have a gun?

Her planes are everywhere.

Is he dead?

I don't know.

He's making weird sounds.

Please,

man,

I don't know who he is.

He asks us many times who this gentleman was.

At one point, he said, it's that guy's name, Roger.

And at that point, I felt that I needed to answer his question.

I told him, yes, his name was Roger Harrington.

And Mark was shocked, and he said, oh, my God, that's the man who's been harassing my wife this week.

Four or five days before this incident, his wife had went down to visit her parents in Florida.

Donnie told me that Mark had a conference.

I said to her, why don't you come to Florida?

It would be so wonderful.

Looks like Grandma and Popeye have found the baby.

Donna was excited to show off her baby.

And as all of her trips, it was always very sad to see her go.

Say hi, Daddy.

Say we miss you.

I dropped her off at the airport.

And she left.

We had hired a driver to pick her up in St.

Louis and drive her right to her house.

This way she could just take care of the baby.

It was about a two-hour drive, and there was a lot of time to talk.

And so this gentleman started opening up to Donna

about issues he was having.

He had a voice in his head named Dom.

Dom would tell him to do bad things.

Recently, Dom was telling him to hurt people.

And then he started flirting with her, saying that he liked older women and he liked to have sex parties.

And he invited Donna

to join him.

And this ride, as she describes it, is really scary.

He's driving erratically, 75 miles an hour.

He's raving about demons that talk to him.

It's terrifying.

She calls me, she tells me this whole story.

And I said to her, like any, you know, supportive sister would, you had a really crazy driver, but you're home.

You're safe, you're going to be okay.

She said, I really, I am really scared.

After the harrowing ride, Donna had been the victim of some strange phone calls.

They had believed that the driver had been stalking her and was a danger.

So Mark started calling the limousine company and filing a complaint.

Roger got suspended from his job because of the complaint.

And Mark suggested that Donna write down the story, and it would be good information to be very specific, just in case they need it.

At the murder scene, one of the police officers goes over to the refrigerator and he notices this note.

written in Donna's handwriting.

We entered the van and he introduced himself to me as Roger.

He talked to me about his spirit, Dom.

He told me things like, Dom makes him do things, like said car bombs and killing people.

I felt as if my life and the life of my daughter were in the hands of a nut.

For Detective Cox, this note on the refrigerator fits in neatly with what Mark Winger is saying.

It got us up to speed on why they were worried about this guy and why this guy came to his house.

Detective Cox viewed Roger Harrington with great skepticism.

He had a history with Roger Harrington.

I knew him as a very volatile type subject.

I owned a trailer park in town and him and his wife rented a trailer from me.

Roger and his wife had had domestic disputes that I had to get involved in.

Knowing what I knew about Mr.

Harrington in the past, how quick he was to anger,

I thought that he very well could have went over there to try to get his job back.

And he snapped.

There's a hammer laying right there on the table.

He picks it up, goes into a rage.

Then the husband shoots the bad guy.

Donna died a violent death.

She was struck from behind one time from the left, and then she was struck at least six more times on the base of her skull where she was brutally beaten to death with a hammer.

I told Mark that he had done everything he could to try and and save his wife,

but we still needed to tell him that his wife had passed away.

He had called his rabbi to come to the house to help him through this.

He was a wreck, you know, and I was trying to comfort him and not knowing quite what to say because I didn't know what there was to say.

When the police examined the scene and when they listened to Mark's explanation of what happened, the detectives came to the conclusion that Mark Winger acted in self-defense and the case was closed within approximately 48 hours.

It all fit pretty good.

In fact, almost too big.

Mark Winger ran upstairs from his basement,

witnessed the beating death of his wife at the hands of Roger Harrington.

And then shot Harrington to death in self-defense.

You see this terrible tragedy and you wonder, how did they get there?

When Don and Mark got married, he received a job offer that brought him to Springfield, Illinois.

Springfield is the state capital.

We have about 115,000 people who live here.

Springfield is very much a hometown, if you will.

People here generally know each other.

Mark and Donna both were well-respected.

They had good jobs.

They lived, I would say, an upper-middle-class existence.

Nothing stood out.

Mark and Donna had a very nice married life.

He was a nuclear engineer.

Donna Winger was a technician at Memorial Medical Center.

Donna was the oldest of the three girls.

She was outgoing.

She loved life.

She lit up a room the moment she walked in.

Donna always said what was in her heart and in her mind.

She didn't mess around.

Mark's brother set Donna and Mark up on a blind date, and things moved pretty quickly.

He was smart, Jewish.

He was attractive and he was fun.

She just

felt like she had found her person.

He was good to her, and as a mother, that's all that I would care about.

He came from a very nice family, and what more can you ask for?

He was quiet, but he had a fabulous sense of humor.

This is a test of the Winger broadcasting system.

The rest is history.

We always joked about that when one sister marries, that husband marries three sisters.

We shared our lives with Mark.

We were a very close family.

Donna couldn't have been happier.

The only only thing was she would have liked to have had a child.

Donna called up and she was hysterical.

She had just found out that she could not get pregnant and that was a very hard moment for her.

Mark was unhappy for the fact that I know he wanted to have a big family.

Really all she wanted was to become a mom.

And so when this didn't happen,

it

took a toll.

There was a lot of tension in their home.

The way Bailey came into Donna's life is a really special story.

Donna was working in the operating room one afternoon.

One of the physicians walked in and said, well, I have a young teen mother who wants to put up her baby for adoption.

Is there anyone that knows somebody that wants to adopt a baby?

And this was the baby that they were going to adopt.

Tonight is Friday night and we have services tonight and tonight is her naming.

It was

the best.

Absolutely the best.

Doesn't she look pretty?

She sure does.

Hi Bailey.

Say hi Grandma Sarah.

We're gonna go to work to show her off.

Becoming a mother was probably the best thing that had ever happened in Donna's life.

Turn the video and we're gonna look at our little girl here.

Here she is.

She's being a good girl.

I remember asking her, how is it that you could get connected so quickly to a child that you didn't birth?

And she looked at me with tears and she said, Michelle, I knew it.

it the minute they put that baby into my arms.

She has always been mine.

For my mother, becoming a grandmother was something that she had waited for for quite a while.

Here's Grandma Dresser.

As a new father, Mark seemed to excitedly be videotaping his family all the time.

Mommy's feeling very comfortable these days with Bailey, and I think we've sort of fonded it a little bit.

Oh, I think we fond it a lot.

When Bailey first came home everybody wanted to see the new baby.

Say hi here's Aunt Deanne.

There's Deanne.

As you can see in the video Deanne is really a close friend of Donna's.

Donna met Deanne at the hospital that she was working at and they became fast friends.

This is my just the sweetest little niece.

So she was definitely there to help Donna with new mommy trials and tribulations that we sometimes face.

Mark was just as excited to become a dad as Donna was to become a mom.

Jay with just a model American couple.

Look at that face.

Looking back on those videos, no one can imagine

what happened.

We got a phone call.

I've got some very bad news to tell you.

I remember screaming, Ira, tell me, tell me what is wrong.

What are you talking about?

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It was around 11:03 on a Tuesday evening when all of a sudden we got a phone call.

And it was Mike Datz.

And Mike Datz said to me, I've got some very bad news to tell you.

I remember screaming, Ira, tell me, tell me what is wrong.

And finally he said to me, Sarah Jane,

Donna was murdered.

And I said to him, murder, what are you talking about?

And then I finally said to him, we have to tell the girls.

and I have to break their hearts.

It was four o'clock in the morning, and I said, Jenny, it's mom.

Something terrible has happened.

My mother begins to sob and says, Donna's dead.

Donna's dead.

I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't understand.

And we sat there in my room,

the four of us,

just crying at this unimaginable loss.

And Wednesday morning, we were on an eight o'clock plane to Springfield.

We went right to the rabbi's house.

The first night in the Jewish religion, you have a prayer service in the evening, and the rabbi was just ready to start the service when Mark walked in with the baby in his hand, and everybody cried.

We had heard

right away that it was Roger.

I couldn't imagine what an evil person he was and why he would do such a horrendous thing.

Springfield's a small town and a small community.

And a case like this is shocking to everyone in the area.

The details, when they came out, then people started imagining how someone at random could take a hammer and kill this woman.

I kept thinking to myself, oh my goodness, how awful

this evil man was so close to my brother-in-law.

How horrific that he had to go through this experience and watch his wife being murdered.

My mother and I started to go to Illinois.

We were taking turns in taking care of the baby.

In the beginning, it was fine.

But as I think back, Mark was quiet.

He was off in his own little world.

And I spent a lot of time with Mark.

And I'm observing these odd behaviors.

He was drinking a lot.

He would go to bars.

He would watch movies like pulp fiction.

And you will know my name is the Lord

when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

This movie is violent after what he just went through.

Why did he pick this movie?

But if this is the way that Mark grieves, then I will have to accept that.

You really can't judge anybody by how they grieve.

When you lose somebody close to you, it's devastating, and you never know how somebody's going to react.

I didn't understand it, but I loved him because he loved Donna, and that's what was important to me.

But I had to be very careful because I did not want to ruin my relationship with him because I did not want to ruin my relationship with the baby.

I wanted to be a grandma, and she made me a grandma.

We tried very hard to make sure that Bailey had everything that she needed.

We couldn't keep going up there and taking care of Bailey, and we needed to get him some help.

So I suggested to Mark that he hire a nanny.

And in comes Rebecca, this young, beautiful, tall, blonde nanny who

has a heart of gold, wants to help out this poor man.

She was just adorable, which made me a little nervous because she was really cute.

This is Rebecca Interview Take One, Saw Sticks.

This is the first time I've sat down to tell my story.

Mark just had a way of being extremely influential in that I needed to accept this position.

I was going to become her nanny or governess.

Can you say hi?

I would move into the home and take care of her basic needs and I just felt like she deserved the best.

Piccolo!

Mark asked me to train her, to show her all the things about the baby, and I felt really good about that.

Say hi.

Can you say hi to grandma?

I think deep down I didn't want to like Rebecca, but it was hard to not like her.

And seeing her with Bailey, there was really

nothing bad we could say about her.

Stand up here, show grandma how you stand in your crib.

I was blown away at what this little girl had been through in her life in such a short time.

She lost two mothers by the time she was three months old and she was so smiling.

Can you say hi?

I wanted to get in there and say I'm gonna help and I'm gonna make this little girl's life better.

There she is standing at her crib.

It was a big responsibility but I was ready for her like Bailey made me a mom and sometimes a child has to appear for the mom to be created.

Failey's kind of the start of great things for Rebecca.

There she is, most beautiful girl in the world.

There she is.

Mark called up one day and he said to me, I just want to tell you some good news.

The nanny was pregnant, and I thought, oh my god, what is happening here?

When I first met Mark, he was just crushed, you know, when she was gone.

That was never supposed to happen.

The name you've chosen for her means blessing.

And it was just a little bit uncomfortable for me because I just felt like I was in the middle of this crime scene, you know.

There were times I would

play on the floor and Bailey would be down there with their toys.

Bailey, Elizabeth.

I kind of wondered like we were just in the same spots and the same areas, you know, that all this happened.

Bailey had no idea the chaos that had gone on around her, and I just wanted to protect her from that.

Mark, he wanted nothing but the best for her.

Happy Father's Day, dear daddy.

He was just a provider and a protector and just a stand-up guy.

She picked up the bottle and put it in her mouth all by herself.

Because

you are hungry.

I say I know.

I don't think I'm good.

There was nights where we would sit up talking and having wine and he would tell his stories and he would explain things.

Rebecca felt welcome in her new environment.

There was only one person who made her feel uneasy, made her feel uncomfortable.

That was Donna's best friend, Deanne.

Deanne pushed to be involved in a part of Bailey's life.

I just had the feeling that she wanted to step and take over where Donna was.

This is my just the sweetest little niece that I've ever seen.

In this home video, Deanne seems to be so close to the whole family, so close to the baby.

I mentioned something to Mark about it and he just said that she's really hurting from Donna being gone.

Say hi daddy.

So Mark Winger starts to return to his regular life.

But then he decides to sue Bark Transportation for Donna's death in a wrongful death suit.

Mark Winger filed a civil suit against Bark Transportation.

The allegation is that Bart Transportation should not have hired Roger Harrington.

I remember him saying that he was so angry with them, that they hired somebody, that something was wrong with him.

Bailey's first meeting from her mom.

Whatever he asked for, it was worth it.

Donna lost her life.

It was necessary that they be held accountable.

Normally, when you close a case and it's done, especially when he's the hero in this case, you never hear anything else from him.

But Mark Winger called me on the phone and asked if he could get his gun back.

So he comes down to the station and he's asking how the case was going, if it was still open, if we're doing any more interviewing.

I just had an uneasy feeling about it.

So the police have a few things that are making them wonder.

Roger Harrington's car was parked facing the wrong way.

They have Roger's coffee mug.

Why would somebody bring a mug if they're going in to commit a murder?

They have Roger's cigarettes.

Again, why?

Roger Harrington's family insisted from the beginning that their son was harmless.

He was no troublemaker.

He was a good kid, you know, he wouldn't even strike at anybody.

In the newspaper and all the reports come out saying that this Dom character was telling him to kill people.

I was thinking, man, you've really got this wrong.

Dom.

Dom was a rubber mask that he had.

And he had told my oldest son, it's just a mask.

It's there to scare people.

I don't think he would hurt anybody, and I don't think he was crazy.

Then again, can you trust the word of the family?

Even though there's still a few pieces of the puzzle that didn't quite fit, the case was closed and Mark Winger was going on with his life.

Someone's here, baby.

Someone's here.

Hey!

Good afternoon!

When you live with someone and you're taking care of a child together.

Knock him down.

She only does that with me.

It's very easy to kind of play house.

You're already put in those roles.

So clean, cleaner, love.

Mark made me feel like I was like an angel sent to him from God or Donna.

And it was my purpose to make this family whole again.

The relationship between Rebecca and Mark grew from a business relationship to a romantic relationship.

Here's this young, smart, attractive woman coming into their lives, taking care of the child.

She sees a caring husband who had been a hero trying to save his wife.

It's easy to see why they were drawn to each other.

And I remember asking him how he could move on so quickly.

And he explained to me that when you have a good marriage, it's natural for you just to want that again.

My first interaction with him, it was just kind of an awkward meeting.

He starts telling me the story.

It just didn't seem right.

It was more about the way he used his gun than it was emotional for him to lose his wife.

So it did make me feel uncomfortable when Rebecca started to become more romantically romantically involved with Mark.

Cookie.

Grab the cookie.

As the romance continued, Mark kept capturing moments with Rebecca front and center.

Look at Daddy.

Say hi, Daddy.

Bailey's been walking for about a week.

Go see him.

Hi, sweetheart.

Mark had always told me that he was not capable of having children.

I was very surprised to find out I was pregnant.

Obviously, I wasn't careful, but it was just kind of a shock.

He was thrilled.

He was absolutely thrilled.

I felt like it was a victory to him.

Mark put pressure on me to marry him and have children with him.

Immediately, he started going to church with me to persuade me that we could have that life.

He writes to me, I love you, you love me, and you're pregnant with our child.

I believe that you and I together can raise a family in a truly Christian home.

I would be honored to be your husband and blessed if you were my wife.

I said, Yeah, Mark, I don't understand you.

You've always claimed to be such a loyal Jew.

Why are you changing your faith?

Elisha is one of our prophets who's with us through thick and thin.

He said,

Judaism is just too difficult and unforgiving.

I said, Mark, I don't know what you're talking about.

What do you need forgiveness for?

Here's our view on our balcony.

And Prince Charming is cooking breakfast.

So it's very easy to understand why I'm going to marry this man.

Mark and I eloped.

We went to Maui and it was kind of a secret and a surprise and I didn't even tell my own family.

Here's Mrs.

Winger.

I'm filming for the first time.

It was just

so hurtful in knowing that

in his life, Donna could be replaced so easily.

I said to myself, what?

Now Rebecca's pregnant?

Now they're going to Hawaii and getting married?

Like, seriously, can I say it on camera?

What the f ⁇ ?

I'm sorry, but seriously,

who does this?

I remember when Mark told me that he was going to sell the house and buy a house in the country.

It was my dream home and my marriage and I just think when we built that home I had so many ideas of what would happen at that home.

And then we had Anna

and then a year later we had Maggie.

Look at the little teddy bear.

Home videos show their growing family filling the house in the country.

Where's Anna?

I was so busy with wife and kids.

We were just living our best lives.

There's mommy and Anna and Bailey and

the end.

This is Bailey's interview tape one.

My name is Bailey Elizabeth Summick.

We had a pond in our backyard and we would all go like play out and that together while my dad would fish.

I think for Donna's family they were probably torn.

They wanted Mark and Bailey to have normalcy but as Mark then with Rebecca started to pull away from the family it was really very painful for Donna's sisters and her mother.

Sometimes when Sarah Jane would be around Bailey She would just cry because she would see Bailey and she would just want so badly to share that with Donna and she would just get emotional.

That bothered Mark because he didn't want her to cry around Bailey.

I remember visiting the new house.

Sarah Jane had the baby in her arms and she had a necklace that had Donna's significance on it.

She wanted to put it on Bailey and it upset Mark.

Mark said, Mom, could you please take the necklace off?

It makes me feel bad.

That was the first instance where we felt that Mark said something that was inappropriate.

That was kind of the beginning of the end.

I received a letter from Mark one day saying to me, I could not be called grandma.

So I wrote him back and I begged him, please let her call me grandma.

And he said, I'm sorry, there's no way that I am going to allow her to call you grandma.

And that's the way it is.

We really all decided together that we just couldn't continue enduring this type of pain and Mark was somebody that we just no longer knew.

I mourned that for a long time and I really felt then that when this child is old enough she will want to know

about the first three months of her life

and about

her mom.

Every year for my birthday, they would always send a birthday card.

And I always remember asking my mom, who's Sarah, Jane, and Ireland?

And my mom would always explain, like, those are Donna's parents, and they just, you know, want to let you know that, like, they love you and that they remember you.

Happy birthday to

you.

Mark wanted to go and be checked out at the emergency room because he wasn't feeling well.

And I looked over in the waiting room and I saw Deanne.

And she glared at me like she was just very angry to see us again.

And it sort of triggered Deanne.

After Donna's death, her life went one direction and Mark's went an entirely different direction.

Mark told me that we're probably going to be hearing from her again.

My life and the home that I had built was completely shattered.

Deanne Schultz's statements were an absolute bombshell.

Now that this woman came forward, hello, there's your motor.

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It's such a bizarre story.

Sometimes I don't even believe that it happened to me.

Watch the pieces fall apart.

This is the case of really kind of the ordinary man, the ordinary family.

And watch the whole world fall apart.

I had everything right there.

Donna, a beautiful baby.

That's what's so tragic.

A disturbed person had been stalking Donna Winger before her murder.

The driver was really crazy.

This man comes and destroys everything that they have.

Winger said he found Harrington beating his wife with a hammer, and to save her, he shot Harrington twice in the head.

He was an innocent victim.

And then he finds out this dark, deep secret.

I can't breathe.

I don't understand what's going on.

This one Polaroid picture pretty much opened the case up completely.

The police department had turned a blind eye to some red flags.

What would you say?

He is like a chameleon.

To the dark.

His past affected my whole future.

That collision of these lives, I don't think you could really script that.

I see here on the bottom of the stairs the Winger Inn established 1996, which was the year that we got married.

Everything was supposed to be perfect, just like in this picture.

I had this beautiful, wonderful, perfect, untouchable family.

But I have learned that things just aren't always what they seem.

It's been three and a half years since Donna was murdered and people have moved forward.

Mark's married and has a couple kids and Donna's family is still sort of dealing with their grief.

And then Deanne Schultz, who had been Donna's best friend and was close with her family, comes forward to the police with a secret that breaks the case wide open.

Deanne Schultz explained to the police that she had been having an affair with Mark Wener prior to the murder of Donna Wener.

Mark was having a romantic relationship with Deanne.

One of our sisters as we considered her and that was something that we never ever suspected.

In this home video, Deanne seems to be really a member of the family.

Here's Deanne.

Say hi.

Here's Aunt Dean.

And yet we know that she's very, very close to one of the great betrayals.

The last week that Donna was at our house, she told me that Deanne and her husband were having marital problems.

And she said that Mark

was helping to guide them.

He was going to help be the mediator that brought this marriage back together again.

Or so Donna thought.

Deanne Schultz also stated that prior to the murders, Mark made a number of incriminating statements.

She tells them that he said things like, it would be easier for us to be together if Donna just died.

All you'd have to do is come in and find the body.

Deanne stated that she declined to participate in that.

After Mark learned about the trip that Donna took with Roger Harrington, he told Deanne, I've got to get that driver in my house.

Deanne said the day of the murder, he called and said, Will you love me no matter what?

To which she replied, yes, I would.

Mark and Deanne continued their affair for about six months after the murder, and of course, at which point he had already hired Rebecca as the nanny.

Her behavior was just very flirtatious in front of Mark

and it was uncomfortable around myself, but she was also married at the time.

Deanne struggled to make sense of the information that only she knew.

It weighed on her and left her in a fragile state.

Deanne Schultz, after the murders, her life went on a downward spiral to the point to where she had engaged in multiple suicide attempts.

She never came forward until that chance encounter at that local hospital.

That was a catalyst that caused her for the first time to reach out to someone other than her physician to discuss the case.

Now that this woman came forward, hello, there's your motive.

Deanne Schultz's statements were an absolute bombshell.

Now the police were able to look at that case through an entirely different perspective.

Through the eyes of a man who was unhappy in his marriage, was resentful of his wife.

Now we have a motive.

The first step when you reopen a closed case is to go back and look at what you already have.

We got down to the evidence room and to our surprise, it's gone.

And so we got over to the evidence officer and I asked him, where's our evidence?

He says, well, it was released to the Winger's attorney for a civil lawsuit against barred transportation for wrongful death.

I worked as a law firm investigator for the civil attorney who represented Mark Winger.

And for many years, that evidence remained in the law office.

And it was technically the property of Mark Winger.

They were approaching the entranceway via the front door.

There are several pieces of evidence that they're looking at that just don't sit well with the detectives as they're re-examining everything.

First of all, Roger Harrington's car was parked facing the wrong way.

He also brought his cigarettes and his coffee mug.

But who would do that if they were planning on killing someone?

45

terrible rounds.

There was no signs of forced entry.

Not only that, but but Roger Harrington left what was clearly could be used as weapons inside the vehicle.

There was a tire iron.

It had black electrical tape wrapped around the handles.

They also found a knife inside of his vehicle.

We have what appears to be a large metal hammer.

Why would Roger come into the house with mayhem on his mind and just happen to find a hammer?

on the table.

Mark Wener wanted to kill his wife.

And then opportunity presented when Roger Harrington drove Donna Winger, and he told Deanne that he needed to get that man into his house, and that's exactly what he did.

What if Roger Harrington had not picked up Donna Winger Dearborough?

What if another driver had taken her and there had been no complaint?

Was this the moment when Mark went from thinking about murder and realized, oh my goodness,

I can maybe pull it off.

While we're leaving the attorney's office with our evidence, we're getting ready to walk out his door and he says, hey, do you want these three Polaroids?

And I didn't remember any Polaroids at all.

I hadn't seen any.

But instead of looking stupid, I said, sure, we need those two.

One of the first officers to arrive at the scene had a Polaroid in his vehicle, and he happened to take three photos of the scene.

They showed the positions of the bodies before the bodies were rushed to the hospital.

These three Polaroids are not seen by the police for years.

This one over here, especially, is troubled.

The way the bodies are lying does not fit in to the story that Mark Winger told.

Mark Winger had stated that Roger Harrington was kneeling down right next to Donna Winger's head and he was beating her with a hammer.

He stated that he shot him and that the man fell backwards so that his feet remained near Donna's head.

In reality, the Polaroid photographs showed the exact opposite.

These photographs actually showed Mr.

Harrington and Donna Winger basically laying in the same direction.

And as such, there's no way this murder could have happened the way Mark Winger described.

The physical evidence, along with the fact of the affair, it was clear that this was a staged domestic homicide.

The detective said to me, I just wanted to tell you that we now suspect Mark to be the murderer of Donna.

And I said to him, what are you saying?

That's not possible.

I was flabbergasted, to say the least.

I couldn't believe what he said.

And I said, you've got to be kidding.

We thought it was about time the truth came out.

Roger's name would be cleared.

That was one of the biggest reliefs I had, just knowing that

people would not think

that my little brother was a killer.

More than four years later, the newspaper ran an article based on allegations in the civil suit that Mark had arranged the murder himself and had killed Roger and his wife.

Everything kind of came to a head.

It changed everything.

I mean,

it went from Winger as a hero who was defending his wife, this noble stand-up guy that every man wanted to pat on the back to

manipulative, deviant murderers.

Harrington's roommate, Susan Collins, said Winger invited Harrington to his home.

She said she saw Harrington write down Winger's name and address.

Susan Collins had been briefly spoken to initially and she had claimed that she was present when Roger Harrington fielded a phone call from someone asking to meet him the day of the murders.

Police found a note inside of the vehicle.

It was a bank deposit slip and on the back was the time of 4.30 p.m., the address,

and the name Mark Wener.

Why did he leave the baby and her upstairs, the house unlocked, and him go down and play on the treadmill?

Roger Harrington was not an intruder, but rather he was lured into that home by Mark Winger.

Attorneys for Roger Harrington's family say two new court documents in a civil case indicate Winger planned the murders of his wife and Harrington.

Mr.

Winger

made some comments about

perhaps it would be easier if his wife were dead.

Dean Schultz's cooperation with police, the fact that there was evidence that raised questions about Mark Winger's story.

All of that came out prompting the voluntary dismissal of the civil suit.

I didn't see it coming.

I didn't know that this whole investigation was brewing.

I never thought the whole time that they thought my husband was a diabolical murderer.

Here she comes.

Here comes the world's best daddy.

I remember making it to 2001 and thinking, I think we're okay.

They must not have the evidence against him.

It's been a whole year and then they still haven't arrested him.

They must not have a case.

We were conducting an exhaustive investigation.

During that same time frame, Mark Winger was a free man.

He was still working for the Department of Nuclear Safety.

It had three more children of their own.

You don't blow a kiss to daddy, blow a daddy kiss.

While the police are closing in, we see home videos.

And Mark just looks like a normal suburban father raising four kids.

People still wanted to give Mark the benefit of the doubt.

These were just allegations.

They weren't anything that had been proven in court yet.

We knew the stakes of this case.

This was a big case, and it was one that on the front end, some mistakes had been made.

So we knew that on the second go-around, we had to have it right.

As the investigation continued, my partner and I started to conduct surveillance on Mark Winger's home.

I remember walking Bailey to the end of the driveway to put her on the bus, and we saw a police car near the cornfield, and we just thought it was odd.

When Mark Winger left that day, instead of turning right to go towards work, he turns left towards me.

I put the car in drive and started heading to town.

Well Mark turned around and started following me.

And I, of course, call my supervisor and say, this is just taking a turn for the surreal.

Mark ended up following that police car

and seeing who it was and he confronted that police officer.

He'd said something to the effect of leave me and my family alone, don't bother me.

And I said, I won't follow you anymore.

And Mark went on to work and then at that time the grand jury was meeting.

The grand jury was out for a very short period of time deliberating on the case.

Then they indicted him for the murder of Roger Harrington and Donna Winger.

And once the indictment was returned, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

We weren't sure if Mark was going to fight back or if he was going to run or what.

We had every belief that he was at his work.

As we make entry, I yelled, Mark Winger, Springfield Police here, where are you at?

And he said something in a low voice like, I'm in here.

And we ordered him out.

I had made plans to go to McDonald's Playland.

And I got a phone call, and it was Mark's secretary.

And she told me that Mark had just been arrested.

I mean, I just...

was sick.

Like my whole body just kind of went numb and I just couldn't believe it.

And physically just gathering my stuff and getting these kids in the car seats and I was shaking so badly and I just remember feeling so

scared.

I just didn't feel like anybody really cared about the kids and I because we were a part of him.

You look at Rebecca, this young woman who stepped in.

built an entire life around this man and this family.

And then all of a sudden, Mark gets arrested arrested and this whole life is just blown up.

I didn't feel relief the day that Mark got arrested.

I still wanted to believe was innocent.

To see him finally get arrested and indicted I think people were just absolutely shocked.

I was six years old when my dad was arrested.

It was really scary just coming home and then now your dad's not here And I just remember like everyone just trying to remain calm and kind of at the time be like, Dad's just going away for a while and that he'll be back soon.

The moment he was indicted, we move from the investigative phase into the next chapter, which was prosecution.

All I wanted was for my brother-in-law to look at me and tell me he didn't do this.

Bailey is resting very comfortably in her daddy's arms.

Bailey, I remember the very first time I ever held you in my arms.

You were so small, but I fell in love with you immediately, Bailey, and my love for you has never stopped growing.

After dad was arrested, he was always writing us letters.

So something that I was always really, really excited about to get in the mail.

He would always like draw this circle at the end of those letters and then he would kiss it and then we would kiss it.

And it was like he was giving us a kiss.

I felt that I owed it to him and to my kids to just stand by him.

Nobody wants to go through a murder trial.

It's very surreal.

I just had to tell myself walk, sit down, don't fall, don't cry.

Mark would come in on the left-hand door right next to me.

He walked in like he owned the place.

And I thought to myself, how could he be so confident and so cocky?

In my mind, Mark was innocent before.

He was innocent from the start.

That's what everybody thought.

First time I saw Rebecca was at the trial.

I wanted to love Rebecca.

She adored Bailey.

But, you know, I also wanted to hate Rebecca because Rebecca took my sister's husband, married him, adopted her child.

You're almost there.

And then had three more children that my sister wasn't able to do.

Winger said he found Harrington beating his wife with a hammer, and to save her, he shot Harrington twice in the head.

Well, I don't think that Roger would have ever done what they accused him of doing.

All we wanted was his name cleared,

you know.

So, one of the keys for the prosecution was to prove that Roger had come to the house for a meeting and not to commit murder.

Walking through the entry hallway.

So, what did they have?

They had

the cigarettes,

they had his coffee mug.

Why would somebody bring a mug to commit a crime of murder?

The way he parked, they had the weapons that were still in the car.

This is sort of huge.

In Roger's car was this note in his handwriting saying Mark Winger the address and the time.

In other words, when this meeting was going to take place.

And for us, it was very simple.

If it's a meeting, it's a murder.

Mark's attorney argued that Roger was mentally ill.

He had this mask that he sort of worshipped.

That he had had other erratic behavior, and that he was capable of this.

They put on their own experts to verify this.

Mark's defense was that everything occurred just the way he said, and the Polaroids, he tried to explain away

that perhaps the paramedics moved the bodies.

It is physically impossible where Roger Roger Harrington was and where my sister was to believe Mark's story.

There was no way that Roger would have fallen off Donna

in the fashion that Mark said that.

And so from then, my mind was really racing.

Here we are at the ceremony of studying loser.

The story wasn't what he said it was.

It's our belief that Roger comes to the house, he is allowed into the home, and there was no signs of forced entry,

and he was executed at that time.

Hearing the gunshot, Donna Winger then comes from the bedroom to investigate.

He then beats his wife to death with a hammer.

Mark then calls 911.

the man still in your house?

Yes, he's laying there on the floor with a bullet in his head.

Did you shoot him?

Yes, I shot him.

He was killing my wife.

The 911 call, to most people, I think, showed that Mark was very upset and very worried about his wife.

I don't know who he is.

In the 911 call, you can actually hear Roger Harrington moaning in the background.

Is he dead?

I don't know.

He's making weird sounds.

It's our belief that Roger is not dead at the time.

He told the 911 operator that he could hear his baby crying.

My baby is crying.

I'm going to go.

I'll call you right back.

Your baby's crying, so you hang up on 911?

I've listened pretty closely to that tape.

Did you hear a baby crying?

I heard a man moaning.

He realized that maybe he'd called 911 too soon.

Maybe he had to make sure that Roger was silenced.

He had already said that he had shot the man and there was a bullet in his head.

When police arrive,

there's two bullets in his head.

Trials never go the way you expect.

That's part of being in a trial.

But everybody was hotly anticipating Deanne's testimony.

When Deanne got up to testify, her voice was shaking.

She just didn't seem together whatsoever.

He said that, you know, it would be easier if Donna just died.

I thought it was crazy talk.

Deanne testified to some of the statements that Mark had made after the chance meeting at Doctor's Hospital where they run into each other.

I just said, you know, how do do you live with yourself?

He said that he had found Jesus Christ and that he was forgiven.

He, well, he told me that if I told anybody, our gooses will be cooked.

I didn't think that anybody would believe her and I just thought if that was truly the case and Mark truly did that, she would have come forward right away.

The defense had answers to Deanne's testimony that she was emotionally unstable, could have been a woman scorn.

Deanne Schultz's testimony was able to demonstrate that in reality, Mark was obviously unhappy, was unfaithful, and who had specifically talked about wanting to kill his wife.

Do I think that Deanne Schultz is partly responsible?

Absolutely.

The guilt that I'm sure she lives with every single day is worse than sitting in a jail cell.

Deanne Schultz was granted immunity for her testimony.

There was no direct evidence that linked Deanne to actively participating in this crime, but at the end, she was such a valuable witness as it relates to presenting the motive.

When the case went to the jury, I was sort of thinking, you never know.

You just had to wait it out.

And, you know, it was really nerve-wracking.

I really believe that at the end of that trial, he was going to walk out and walk home with us.

When I heard the judge read the verdict, it was like insanity.

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When we found out that the jury had come up with a verdict, our hearts were racing.

We had pits in our stomach.

I know I was sitting next to my husband when I heard the judge

say that the verdict was guilty.

I mean, it's just one word, but

what a word that is.

It just kind of rings in your head and echoes guilty, guilty, guilty.

I wanted the

the earth to open up and swallow me.

It is so devastating.

It was surreal

and it was almost it was like insanity because I know I'm innocent.

Mark turned in his chair and Rebecca was sitting right next to him and said, I love you.

I know Rebecca couldn't believe it.

She was still defensive even though she was devastated by the verdict.

I didn't understand how 12 jurors could be so certain that that's how it went down when I had so many questions.

My daughters were with me, and the three of us just embraced and cried.

I instinctively just wailed out loud.

When you find out

that

Somebody is now going to be held accountable for the brutal death of your sister.

You well.

Heartbreak came first.

Anger

came second.

Acceptance

came third

and sadness never ends.

My First thought was to turn around and give Mr.

and Mrs.

Harrington a hug

because they buried a son who the whole city of Springfield felt was a murderer.

We knew that Roger was innocent and it finally got proven.

He was branded a murderer at the time, but then all this came to an end.

I was ashamed of the way the investigation went.

I hurt Roger Harrington's family.

I

run this kid through his name to hell for no reason.

I mean, he was an innocent victim.

I knew that finally my brother could rest in peace.

Donna could rest in peace.

They got him.

The police department had too hastily closed the case and turned a blind eye to some red flags.

And to right such a wrong,

it felt great.

Say bye-bye.

Bye, Daddy.

We were so convinced that, you know, our dad was was going to come home and now he's not.

And it was kind of

difficult to put those pieces together in your head of, you know, now it's just us and mom.

If you think about it, you really can't have light without shadow.

I think the Mark Winger case is kind of proof of that.

We see a loving father, or so we seem.

But underneath that, what is he really thinking?

We can't ever know.

I think Mark was a master manipulator.

So much so that Donna never even saw it.

He is like a chameleon, that he

appears to be sweet and kind and wonderful.

When in reality, I believe that Mark is a monster.

If I didn't love Donna, I would have just gotten a divorce.

You don't murder somebody because you're unhappy being in that relationship.

I think Mark believed that he was smarter than everybody else, that he could get away with it.

He changed the lives

of everybody

by one

selfish

action.

When we lose someone,

We gather, we have a funeral,

but

when someone goes to prison, what do you do?

You can't really have closure with that.

The final chapter of the Mark Winger murder trial comes to a close as Winger is given his sentencing.

Mark was sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

He had two counts against him, one for Donna, one for Roger.

It wasn't just him being sentenced to life.

We were sentenced to a life of a father in prison.

Those children that Mark were raising were going to be without their father.

There's a consequence to those children that they certainly didn't deserve.

But at the end, justice has to matter.

And Mark Winger is where he belongs.

Oh, I'm happy.

I'm happy.

I really missed him.

And it was really hard seeing all the other kids like have their dads in that relationship.

And now suddenly I couldn't just like go to my dad's room or have him pick us up from school or anything like that.

I do feel that that whole time, Mark was giving a grand performance.

I could never come back and say, Oh, he got angry at me, or he was rough with the kids.

I had nothing.

I had nothing.

He was perfect.

Do you love mommy?

Yeah.

Okay, let me see a kiss.

Close-up kiss.

Close-up kiss.

Give daddy a kiss.

Say I love you.

Can have a hug.

That's a kiss.

Can I hug?

The first thought I thought when I was watching that was how much more, Bailey, this has affected you.

And you just remember so much more about Mark and that family unit and that house.

Looking at like the pictures in the videos, it's...

Like it just all feels so fake to me.

Like I find myself like analyzing every single thing he does and every move he makes and like trying to figure out was he my dad or was he just like

this

guy who used us for pity or whatever he needed to maintain his innocence.

I was one when my dad went to prison.

I can look at the pictures and look at myself and say That kid had no idea what, you know, he was way too young to know anything that was going on.

I just learned him as this evil character.

So, like, even though it looks like a genuine smile here, it's just like, in my head, it's like, oh, that's all fiction.

They could go their whole lives and never reach out to me, and I will still love them and pray for them every night.

Mark Winger has been sentenced to prison.

And just when you think this is all over, a reunion no one saw coming.

About three years later, Mark would get in trouble again for a murder for hire plot where he wanted to put a hit on Deanne Schultz and also a childhood friend who refused to pay his bail.

The murder for hire plot, which he wrote in a 19-page scenario, he said that was just his fantasy.

I can certainly say that I've fantasized about people

coming forward and confessing that they lied.

Now, killing, I think that's a little far-fetched.

Mark was subsequently tried again and convicted of solicitation of murder for hire.

Mark was sentenced to an additional 35 years in prison for those crimes.

I was married to a murderer.

Then after he was convicted, I went from being a stay-home mom to being homeless overnight.

Our home was foreclosed.

You file bankruptcy.

You don't have good credit.

You know, you have to find a job.

And it is hard.

I didn't have anything to give my kids.

Everything had been taken away.

All I had was love.

Rebecca felt that it might be helpful for Bailey to come meet us, that it was time.

I think the last time they saw Bailey was when she was three, maybe.

I thought they could teach her about Donna and her love in a way that I couldn't.

And we went down on Memorial Day weekend to meet them and kind of revive that relationship that we had.

I couldn't wait to wrap Bailey in my arms and give her these big gigantic hugs and butterfly kisses that my sister loved to give.

We knew that this would have been Donna's wish.

that Bailey would continue to be a part of our lives and that we would look after her baby.

It was so incredible to see that there's this whole big family that loves me, and Sarah Jane still has my baby picture on her kitchen counter with all of her other grandkids.

You still

consider me and love me as one of your grandchildren, even though we've been gone for so long.

We'd been hurt

a lot by the same person, but it didn't break us.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't.

I think about him.

I miss him.

If I seen him right now, I would just tell him, though, you know,

I truly love you.

There is never

closure.

when somebody murders your daughter.

Never.

I think of Donna every day of my life.

I think her legacy will live on through the beautiful memories that we have of her.

Doesn't she look pretty?

She sure does.

Hi Bailey, say hi Grandma Sarah.

She was so beautiful and you could

like see how much she loved me and how much she really

wanted me.

So we'll say bye-bye for now.

Okay, catch you guys guys later.

I miss hearing her voice.

Nothing that we've done or will do in the future

will ever replace her.

You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

Friday nights at 9 on ABC.

You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

Thanks for listening.

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