How Mark Winger Almost Got Away with Murder
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Hey guys, welcome to my channel. Happy to have you back for another true crime video. And today's case is absolutely nuts. Like I don't know what to even say about it. It is probably one of the most interesting cases out there, at least in my opinion. I think it is just mind blowing how this whole thing happened. Like it is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever heard.

So today we're going to be talking about a couple, Mark Winger and Donna Winger. Donna was born Donna Ellen Brown, and she was born on November 10th, 1963 to her parents, Sarah Jane and Robert Brown. She was raised in a very tight knit Jewish family and had always wanted to have a family of her own one day. That was something that was always important to Donna.

Growing up, she was very close with her family, very close to their mom, very close with her sisters. When she was a kid, her parents did divorce and that was very hard on her, but her family still stayed pretty close. And Donna grew up to be a really lovely woman. People said that Donna was very friendly, very outgoing, wanted to talk to pretty much anyone. She was never known for doing anything mean to anybody ever. People said that she was deeply caring.

and always was worried about others around her. She was very emotionally intelligent. She was a loyal friend, a very supportive person to everyone in her life, and was described as always being able to light up a room with her smile. She just seemed like such a good spirit.

that you would want to be friends with. So going into her adult years, Donna knew that she wanted to eventually settle down and get married. And she was in a really good point in her life. She had good family, good friends. She was going to be successful. And then in the 80s, she was set up on a blind date with a man named Mark Winger.

Mark Allen Winger. And they were actually set up by Mark's brother. And right away, she was impressed with Mark. He was a smart guy. He was handsome, successful. He had a great sense of humor. And he wanted a family one day. He also came from a really nice Jewish family and valued family. And that was really important to Donna. Both of them felt like it was a match made in heaven. And people around them said they seemed incredibly in love.

very quickly. Donna was super happy with Mark. Everyone in her life said that she was happier and they couldn't help but love him because he was making her so happy. They all said that he treated her incredibly well, that he always made her the first priority in his life. He was very devoted to her. He seemed to cherish her and really took care of her.

So eventually they got married on March 4th, 1998 in Hollywood, Florida. And as soon as they got married, their plan was to start a family right away. Donna knew that she wanted kids and for work, Mark was a nuclear engineer and eventually he was offered a job in Springfield, Illinois. So the two of them decided to move there.

They thought it seemed like a great place to start a family. It was smaller, only about 15,000 people. Springfield is a beautiful little town. It's Midwestern, it's small, the people are sweet. It's just a lovely place.

It's a very friendly and clean city with very sensitive and compassionate people. Donna ended up getting a job as an operating room technician at the Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, and the two of them were very happy with their new life. They settled into a house on Westview Drive, which is a upper middle class neighborhood and a very close-knit community.

known for being very safe. So Donna thought it was a perfect place for her to raise her kids. But unfortunately, as time went on and they kept trying, Donna was unable to get pregnant. And this was really hard on her. I'm sure so many women out there can relate to what that's like. It was totally heartbreaking for both of them. They wanted this big family. They wanted to get going with it as soon as possible. And they really did want to have their own biological children. But

With time, Donna realized that adoption would be just as fulfilling for her and felt like she was called to adopt. And at first they were just kind of thinking about it, but then things just happened for them. Actually, one day Donna was at her doctor's office and he brought up that he had this young patient who is pregnant.

and was unable to take care of the baby and wanted to find loving parents to adopt her baby. Of course, Donna was thrilled and said yes and felt like she was meant to be this child's mother. And who do we see but the mommy? We've waited so long for this baby. How do you feel, Donna? I'm overwhelmed, and I just want her to know that it just so happens that they keep coming home to us. It's the anniversary of our engagement of Mark and I. Oh!

Isn't that wonderful? The baby was born on May 27th, 1995. And this was after they had been married for six years and they had finally become parents to their beautiful baby girl. They were thrilled. There's actually a really cute clip of the day the baby came home and Donna just looks so happy, so comfortable being a mother. And she was really excited because it was actually on the anniversary of their engagement that the baby came home.

All of their family and friends were of course thrilled for Donna and Mark. They held a traditional Jewish naming ceremony and named the baby Bailey Elizabeth Winger. Are we on daddy? And here's Dan. And at this time in her life, Donna was probably the happiest she had ever been. She was finally a mother. She felt like Bailey always was meant to be hers. And she was really comfortable getting into that motherly groove.

And Mark was really excited too. He was constantly taking videos and pictures, trying to document every moment with the baby. It seemed like Mark really loved being a dad and that Bailey was the light of his life.

The first couple weeks of the baby were great for Donna. Eventually she did have to start going back to work and that's always a harder time, but she did have help of family and then one of her really close friends, Deanne Schulls. She was very close with Donna. Donna had actually met Deanne at the hospital that they worked at together and they just really connected and became very close very quick.

And Deanne even called herself or referred to herself as Bailey's aunt. She had a husband named John and John, Mark, Donna, and Deanne would all hang out. It seemed like everything in their life at this point was exactly the way they wanted it to be. It was fine.

perfect. Donna finally had her family, but only three months after Bailey was adopted, Donna was murdered in her home, beaten to death with a hammer on a Tuesday afternoon on August 29th, 1995. Yes, sir. Hold me. I just saw this man in my house. He's inside your house? He beat my wife. Is he in there right now? Yes, sir. Does he have a gun? The planes are everywhere.

Where is the man at? He's laying on the floor. Is he dead? I don't know. He's making weird sounds. Sir, sir. Sir, slow down. I can't understand you. Slow down. Is the man... Yes, he's laying on the floor with a bullet in his head. Did you shoot him? Yes, I shot him. He was killing my wife. My baby's crying. My baby's crying. I gotta go. I'll call you right back.

As you can hear, Mark is hysterical in the call and it was pretty hard for the dispatcher to even understand what had happened. He explains to the dispatcher that a man was attacking his wife, so he shot him in self-defense and the guy now had a bullet in his head. And when Mark made this call, they were actually both still alive.

but barely, and he actually hung up on dispatch. So they actually call him back and they tell him that help is on the way. And during the whole call, he's just saying, let me help my wife, let me help my wife, but he promises he's not gonna hang up again.

I know.

I don't know who he is. He's still inside the house? Yes, he's laying on the floor. I've got to hold my wife. I've got to get to my wife. Okay, are you Mark Winger? Yes, I am. Okay, and your wife is Donna? Yes, she is. When did the man come to you?

So when police get to the scene, it looks pretty clear what happened, right? There's two bodies on the floor. There's an intruder who has a gunshot wound. There's a gun, which obviously gave him that wound. There is a hammer and...

There's Donna who's on the ground face down covered in blood who had been clearly beaten to death with a hammer. It definitely looked like this man may have broken into the house, attacked Donna. Maybe it was something personal and that Mark had come out and shot him in self-defense. Exactly what Mark said.

The man who was laying on the ground had actually been shot twice in the head and he did not look like he was going to make it. The officer who was on the scene said he actually did a little prayer over his body and Donna's because it looked like they were both going to pass. Now, one detective in this case is absolutely crucial and that's Detective Charlie Cox.

He was one of the first officers on the scene, and even though it was a very chaotic scene and Mark was hysterical, he felt like right away he had a good idea of what probably happened. And then he walked over to this man who was laying on the ground with two bullet wounds in his head.

He took out his wallet to identify him and found out that this was a man named Roger Lee Harrington. He's 27 years old, and Charlie Cox actually knew this guy, Roger. Not only was he a detective, he also owned a trailer park, and Roger was one of his tenants, and he knew...

some stuff about Roger. Roger actually had a history of domestic disputes. And so he wasn't totally shocked to see him there. And as soon as he figured out it was Roger, the whole thing kind of made sense for him. He knew that Roger had a quick temper, that he could be aggressive. And he said that he definitely felt like he could be capable of violence, that sometimes his behavior was erratic. But he didn't know that he was capable of doing something this horrific. I mean, this scene was really, really bad. Blood everywhere. The attack was brutal.

The hammer was on the ground covered with blood and it was actually Mark's hammer. They pulled Mark aside to talk to him in a bedroom, tried to kind of get an idea. He was very frazzled, but try to understand from his perspective what had happened. Mark said that he was actually working out on the treadmill when he heard a loud thud upstairs. So he ran upstairs and he went past a bedroom and Bailey,

was just sitting on the bed alone and he knew that Donna would never leave the baby by herself on a bed. So he knew something was wrong. After seeing the baby, he ran down the hallway into the dining room where Donna was being attacked with the hammer. He said that the man turned around, looked at him, then looked back at Donna and just kept beating her. And then he decided to shoot the man in the head.

He said this kind of blew the man back onto his back and then he went around and shot him a second time. Police found a 45 caliber automatic handgun sitting on the dining room table, along with a pack of cigarettes and this yellow travel mug, which is kind of a strange thing to bring into a crime scene with you. These items did not belong to the Wingers, but the hammer did. And Mark said that he had actually left the hammer out as a reminder for Donna to hang up this hat

rack. So just completely by chance that this murder weapon was out. So if this was a planned thing, it'd be very convenient that this was just sitting there waiting for him. They found Roger's car outside parked the wrong way on the street. And when they looked in the car, they actually found this little note that said Mark Winger. And then it had their address and 4 30 PM.

So at this point, they're kind of wondering if Mark knew who this guy was. And Mark at this point is still sitting on the bed. He's trying to calm down and detective Cox asks him if he knew this man. And that's when Mark said, is his name Roger? They said, yes, his name is Roger. And he said, oh my God,

That's the guy who's been harassing us all week. It turns out that about a week before, Donna had actually taken Bailey on a trip with her to visit her mother and stepfather in Hollywood, Florida. - And as all of her trips, it was always very sad to see her go. - Say hi, Daddy.

I dropped her off at the airport and she left. They had a really great time, but of course Donna was a bit nervous traveling by herself with the baby. And so her mom wanted to make the experience as easy as possible for her. So she hired a pickup service to take them home from the airport. They hired a shuttle service called BART transportation and their driver was Roger. Donna and the baby had a two hour drive from the airport back

home. And she had a really weird experience with Roger. He made her very uncomfortable and upset the entire drive. Not only that, Donna felt very unsafe because Roger was driving way over the speed limit and making quick jerks and slamming on his brakes. So the whole drive, she was just stressed out that her and the baby wouldn't even make it home.

Then he started saying some really weird shit to her. He started talking about how he hears voices in his head, that he hears a spirit in his head named Dom. And he told her that this spirit would tell him to do bad things like kill people or set car bombs. He also started telling her about all these wild sex parties that he would have. And he even invited her to come. So she was truly terrified. She was worried that the two of them wouldn't even make it home. So when they finally did, she said,

you know, was relieved. She got into the house and called her sister because she was actually worried that this guy was going to just come show up at the house. Her sister, Michelle, tried to assure her that everything was fine. She just had some whack ass driver, just relax. Like everything's okay now, you're home safe. So then Donna told Mark what happened.

And he was really upset, obviously did not like to hear that his wife and baby were treated this way. Mark felt like they needed to file a report. He wanted Donna to write down everything that he had said to her, everything that had happened. So they had a record of it all. And then the two of them started getting phone calls to the house.

from a strange man who wouldn't say who he was and he kept asking for Donna. They were convinced that this was Roger and that he was now stalking Donna and both of them were really, really scared. When they called BART Transportation and told them what was happening and that they thought he was continuing to call them after this, they actually took it really seriously and suspended him immediately as a driver.

So as soon as Detective Cox hears about this, it all makes sense. Roger clearly had some type of obsession with Donna. He stalked her for the last week and then he finally came in and attacked. He thought, you know, maybe getting suspended from his job caused him to snap. Maybe he was angry at Donna.

because he lost his job. I mean, it made sense. He had the address written down in his car. It looked like he sought her out. And as they're continuing to process the crime scene, they see a note on the fridge that detailed everything that Mark was talking about. Donna had written it herself.

talking about Roger and their whole experience. So like I said, Donna and Roger were both still barely alive at this point, and they were brought to the hospital. Roger actually died on the way to the hospital, and Donna was worked on for about an hour once she got to the hospital before doctors decided to pronounce her dead. Donna was only 31 years old and had just become a mother. When Donna's family found out they were...

absolutely devastated and shocked. They couldn't imagine anyone would want to kill Donna. Hearing that she was murdered almost didn't even register with them at first. 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." I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't understand. And we sat there in my room

Just crying at this unimaginable loss. And what had happened to her was just so brutal. She'd been hit on the back of the head at least six times with that hammer. And after looking over all of the evidence that they had, they concluded that Mark had acted in self-defense and that he was a hero for trying to save his wife.

All of the pieces for this case seemed to fit. Roger definitely seemed like someone who would do this when they knew his history, when they knew about their interaction the week before it all made sense. And so the case was closed in less than 48 hours. Mr. Winger acted in self-defense, uh,

when he shot Mr. Harrington. And therefore, at this time, no charges will be filed against him. And I anticipate that there will never be any charges filed against Mr. Winger. Everyone was heartbroken over the loss of Donna, especially Mark. And now he had to raise a baby by himself. He was terrified.

He called his rabbi to come over to his house and help him process the loss. And as soon as they could, all of Donna's family hopped on a flight and headed out to Springfield so that they could mourn in the traditional Jewish way. In Judaism, the whole family normally gathers together for a prayer service on the night after a death. Mark said that he just could not believe that this had happened.

The day that Donna was murdered, he had her bring the baby into his office and was kind of showing her and the baby off to all of his coworkers and was just beaming with pride. All his friends said he looked so genuinely happy. And then just hours later, he has to watch his wife die on the floor, covered in blood in their own homes.

And not only that, he also had to shoot a man, which is not something he had ever done. And his family and her family felt so bad for him that he had gone through all of that trauma and they couldn't believe that he was even able to hold the baby and function at all. Her family knew that he was going to need as much help as possible with the baby, especially in the first couple of months without him.

Donna. So they all took turns flying into Springfield and helping take care of the baby and just making him food, comforting him, being there for him. And Mark seemed very depressed after all of this, understandably. His family said he was just much more quiet than normal.

and that he also started drinking. Several of them noticed that he did not seem like himself, that he was just acting a little bit off, and he even started going out to bars and drinking there, which they thought was really odd, it was never something that he did, but they just felt like he was coping, and how can you even judge a father who has just lost his wife and...

you know, has this new baby. It was a lot going on. So everyone kind of felt like his behavior was understandable. But one thing that her family noticed was really weird is during this time, it seemed like Mark liked watching really violent movies, which made them really upset. And one movie that he put on in one night in particular was Pulp Fiction. This movie, if you've seen it, is...

pretty violent. I mean, it's an older movie, but there's a lot of shooting and blood and it didn't seem like something that someone who had just been through something like this would want to watch. But they felt like, you know, to each their own. We can't judge. Let's just support him. But they noted it was weird. Marvin, what do you make all this?

Donna's mom, Sarah, said that she continued to love Mark, that she supported him through this hard time because she couldn't imagine what it was like for him. And she felt like it was really important that she stay as close to Mark as possible so that she would always be in Bailey's life. She loved being a grandma and she wanted to make sure their bond always stayed as strong as possible, even though Donna was gone. So four months after Donna was killed in December of 1994,

Sarah explained to Mark that he probably was going to need to hire some permanent help because, you know, the family couldn't keep flying out and they felt like it was just gonna be too much for him to parent on his own. He agreed and he ended up hiring a live in nanny and her name was Rebecca Schultz. Now Rebecca was young and beautiful and great with kids. She was incredibly caring and nurturing with Bailey and absolutely adored her.

And she felt like she really had the opportunity to help this family. She felt so bad for Mark being this new father and grieving the loss of his wife and trying to raise their baby by himself. And she felt like she could really make a big difference for them. Donna's mom, Sarah stayed in town for a little bit and kind of trained her and said that she couldn't help but love Rebecca, that she was just like the nicest girl. And she could tell that she would take great care of Bailey.

Rebecca said that she bonded with Bailey immediately and she felt like Bailey made her a mom in a lot of ways. In interviews, she talks about how she felt like this poor baby had been through so much, already lost two mothers, and she just wanted to give her the best possible childhood that she could and be kind of a mom figure for her. And I just felt like she deserved the best.

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? There she is, standing at her crib. It was a big responsibility, but I was ready for her. Bailey made me a mom. There she is, most beautiful girl in the world. There she is.

So it was a perfect fit. Sarah felt like Bailey was in good hands, so did Mark, and Sarah felt like she could go back home. The case is closed. The man who did it is dead. It seems like their family is starting to kind of get back on track a little bit and feel like there was some closure to the situation. But a couple months later, Jane gets a call from Mark with some exciting news. Turns out that Bailey was gonna have a sibling soon. Rebecca, the nanny, was pregnant.

That's right, guys. Mark started a relationship with his nanny, Rebecca, and got her pregnant very, very quickly after losing his wife. Turns out that their relationship had developed very quickly. They would drink together after putting the baby to bed and have deep conversation. And Mark kind of felt like Rebecca was...

sent to him by Donna, that she was an angel here to help save him and his daughter, save his family. He said that Rebecca really helped him grieve the loss of Donna, helped him come to terms with everything. He felt like Rebecca was the missing piece of their puzzle and Rebecca felt the same way. She actually felt this natural motherly connection to Bailey. She felt like the three of them were a family already and now she was pregnant. So they were really going to be

family. Of course Donna's family was pretty shocked to hear this but tried to be supportive. They did really like Rebecca and they wanted Mark to be happy but there was one person who did not like Rebecca and did not want her in Mark's life and that was Deanne Schultz. Now if you remember Deanne is Donna's close friend from work, the one who referred to herself as Bailey's aunt and she was very

very sus of Rebecca. She thought it was a little too weird how easily she slid into their life. And Rebecca even noticed the tension. She felt like the closer she would get to Mark, the closer Deanne would want to be to them and to the baby. Deanne really tried to remain close to the baby and Rebecca felt like she was kind of overstepping. Like she wanted to be her mom. Rebecca felt like Deanne was jealous of her, that she was intimidated by her.

During this time, Mark had applied for financial aid under the Crime Victims Compensation Act and got $25,000, which is the maximum amount, and he also received $150,000 in life insurance. He also filed a civil suit against BART Transportation. They felt like he was clearly unstable and should have never been hired in the first place, and that he put...

his family at risk and he was angry and wanted to make them pay whatever he could. During this time, the community continued to support him. They felt so bad for Mark after everything he had been through. He was even given a big promotion at work, which who knows if that was based on hard work or if that was because they felt bad for him. It kind of seemed like they felt bad for him. I mean, everyone felt bad for Mark.

And then five months after Donna's murder, Mark actually called Detective Cox and asked him for his gun back. Now, right away, Detective Cox thought that was a little strange. Something that most people who had been through a situation like that would be confused.

that concerned about, especially only five months into the investigation, getting your gun back seemed a little weird. But he told him, "You can have it. Just come into the station and we'll talk and I'll give it to you." And while they talked, it was clear that Mark wanted to know if they were investigating him.

He wanted to know if there was any movement still in the case or anything they were still looking into. - He was wanting to know how the case was going and as far as I was concerned, he should have just accepted it was closed. And he kept coming in, I kept feeling like he was trying to find out if we were checking into anything. And I went back to Doug and said, "Something's wrong here, big time." - And they confirmed to him that the case was closed

all loose ends had been tied up. But Detective Cox said something about the whole interaction just gave him a really bad feeling. So during this time, Rebecca and Mark are getting closer. Their baby is going to be coming soon. They're really bonding with Bailey. They really feel like a little family. - Back him down. - She only does that with me.

And there actually was one other person that was really uncomfortable with the idea of Mark and Rebecca being together. And that was actually Rebecca's brother. And he said that when he first talked to Mark, he had a really strange conversation with him. He very nonchalantly told him about how Donna died, like all the details of that day, but had no emotion when talking about her death at all.

which he thought was really odd. He said that he seemed to be more focused on talking about how he used the gun and how he shot the bad guy and was the hero. And it was all kind of played out like a movie, the way he would describe it to people. Of course, eventually Mark insisted that they get married since they were going to be having a baby. But Rebecca was a bit hesitant

hesitant about it. She was very religious and Mark was in a different faith than her. So to convince her to marry him, he actually started going to church with her. And after a little while of that, he told her that he would be perfectly fine with giving up Judaism and converting to Christianity so that they could raise their children as Christians. She really liked this and felt like it was a big commitment from him, but she was still hesitant because she felt like it hadn't been that long since Donna died.

But he explained to her that having such a good marriage with Donna just made him want to get married again. And that that's what Donna would want and that she was sent to him like an angel. And so eventually she agreed to marry him. So when his family and his rabbi found out that he was going to be switching faiths, they were pretty shocked because he was always very strong-minded.

and devoted to his faith. So his rabbi actually asked him, you know, why are you converting? And he said, because Judaism is too difficult and too unforgiving, which he thought was strange. So 14 months after losing Donna, Mark and Rebecca went to Maui to elope. They got married in a private ceremony in October 1996, and they didn't even tell their families that they were doing it.

They had a family party the following month so everyone else could celebrate as well, but there was definitely a bit of tension in the air. The whole thing was off. Even though Donna's family really liked Rebecca and felt like she was, you know, good to Bailey, good to Mark, they still just felt weird that she had come in so quickly after Donna had died and that Mark was able to move on so fast.

That December, Mark decided to sell the home that he and Donna owned so that he and Rebecca could have a new start somewhere else. And so they bought a farmhouse on 4.4 acres of land out in the country and they renovated it into their dream home. This property was really beautiful. It had a cornfield and a pond in the backyard where the kids could play and Mark could also farm.

fish. They were really living the dream. And eventually they had three more kids, Anna, Maggie, and Ben. They raised their kids in their dream house. Rebecca was really happy with their marriage, really happy with all the kids, happy with how Mark was as a father. Rebecca was able to stay home with the kids because Mark was able to support them financially and they really had it made. They were living the perfect life.

But as their family grew and time went on, Mark started to distance himself more and more from Donna's family. Donna's mother, Sarah, really tried as much as she could to stay in Bailey's life. She came and visited the new house. She tried to, you know, be friendly to all the other kids. And of course it was always kind of a confusing dynamic to explain to Bailey who Sarah was and

Sarah was always desperate to keep that connection with Bailey as strong as she could, but it was hard. At one point, she wanted to give Bailey this necklace that had a charm on it that looked like Donna, and she put it on her, and Mark got really upset by this, and he actually told her to take it off because it made him feel bad.

He said it was just too upsetting for him, which made Sarah really mad because she wanted Bailey to remember who her mom was. And that was kind of the beginning of the end of Sarah's relationship with Mark. Things just continued to go downhill after that. Eventually Mark actually wrote Sarah a letter telling her that he did not want Bailey to call her grandma, which

really upset her. She wrote him back and was practically begging him to reconsider, but he was absolutely adamant that she could not be called grandma. 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. So eventually Donna's family made the decision to step back from

from Mark and his new family. He was a different person now. They felt like he was nothing like the guy that Donna had married. They were fighting with him a lot and they felt like it was doing more damage to Bailey than good. So they felt like it was best to kind of just step out of the equation, which was really heartbreaking for them. And it's especially sad for Bailey and for Donna, because obviously that's not what Donna would want at all. They would continue over time to send Bailey birthday cards, gifts, things like that.

but Bailey didn't really get to know them much as she was getting older. So Donna's case at this point has been closed for years. Mark has a new family. He's got four kids and a wife living on his dream house with his dream job. Life's pretty good. But all that time, that gut feeling that Detective Cox had about Mark is just really bugging him. There were several details about the case that

that made him feel like something was off, but he couldn't put a finger on what it was. There was another officer that was there the day that Donna was murdered, Sergeant Doug Williamson. And he was skeptical from the beginning that Mark was telling the truth about how everything happened. One thing that detectives couldn't shake

was that Mark didn't have any blood on him at the crime scene. And there was blood and brain matter all over the place. The chances of Mark not having any on him were very small. Also, they realized that Mark had told them that he shot Roger in the front of the head.

but it turns out that when he was shot at first, he was shot in the back of the head. Donna's father was also really skeptical of Mark. He told detectives that on the day of Donna's funeral, that they took a walk together and that Mark had told him, you know, his whole version of how everything had happened.

He said the same thing that Rebecca's brother said, that Mark told the whole story with absolutely no emotion. While he was sitting there sobbing, hearing the details about his daughter's death, Mark just had no reaction. Also, one thing that never sat right with him is that he knew his daughter...

was very safe. And she was especially on edge lately with everything going on with Roger. So she wouldn't have just left the door open or let someone in, especially someone who she felt like was stalking her. There is no way that she would let him in the house. Now Roger's family actually believed that he was innocent from day one. They never believed he was capable of committing a murder like this.

They said that they never knew Roger to be a violent person, that the media had really drummed everything up and made Roger look like some type of lunatic. They were able to confirm some of the things that Donna had reported were true. Like his sister did know about that spirit Dom that Roger would talk about. He confided in his sister that that really was happening.

And she explained that he actually owned this Halloween mask and he named it Dom. And he would use it to prank people and scare people on Halloween, stuff like that. But when the media reported it, it sounded very scary. And she said it just wasn't in reality. But there was nothing that they could do. The case was closed and the public and the police believed that Roger was the one who killed Donna. And it definitely seemed like

His family felt like he did not get a fair investigation, that he could have been a victim in all of this, and that he was portrayed to be someone that he wasn't in the media. But there was nothing they can do. I mean, the case was closed, and it looked pretty obvious that Roger was the one who did it. But then everything changed in October of 1998.

Mark was feeling sick that day. So he went to the emergency room and Rebecca went with him. And when they got there, they actually ran into Deanne Schultz in the waiting room. She glared at them and they had some type of altercation. And Mark told her that that was the last time he was ever going to talk to her or see her ever again until the following year. In February of 1999, Deanne went to the police and she had a secret that she had been keeping since Donna died.

which at this point it had been three and a half years since her death. Police were really surprised when Deanne came in to give them information on Donna's case years after. They did not expect this at all, but it turns out that Deanne was having some issues with her husband three months before Donna died.

Donna knew that Dan was having these problems and she actually told her mom about it when she was visiting her the week before she died. She told her mom that Mark was really doing a great thing. He was helping John and Deanne through their marriage, kind of counseling them through some of their issues, being a mediator,

but that could not have been further from the truth. It turns out that Deanne and Mark were actually having an affair behind Donna's back. Now, obviously this information alone was super shocking to their whole family. I mean, Deanne was like literally family to them. She was Donna's best friend. They never thought she would betray her like that. I mean, it was really a betrayal to their whole family. But then Deanne claimed something really wild.

She said that Mark actually told her once that everything could be easier and they could be together if Donna just died. And not only that, he tried to convince Deanne to have a part in it. He told her that all she would have to do is show up and find her dead and report it to the police. He mentioned that it would be

Easier if Donna just died. He had said that he would be out of town and he mentioned me coming and finding Donna. That was the gist of the conversation. Finding her body. Yes. And I said, you're crazy. She said she would never want to actually hurt Donna and she never thought Mark would actually do anything either. And as she starts explaining all of this to detectives, it all starts to click. When Mark found out about Donna's horrors,

horrible ride home from the airport with this guy, Roger, he saw it as the perfect opportunity, the perfect Patsy. He told Deanne about it. He actually told her that he had a plan to frame him and that all he needed to do was get this guy to his house. Not only that, Deanne also told them that on the day of Donna's murder, Mark

called her and said, would you love me no matter what? And she said, yes. And that was Mark's signal to put the plan in motion. And when Donna was murdered, when everyone was gathered at the house to do the service, Mark actually pulled Deanna aside and told her, I think the police believe me. I did this for us. And of course she started to freak out, but he warned her that she could not say anything. She couldn't even tell anyone that they were together or else their gooses would be cooked.

were his exact words. So all that time, Deanne had been holding this secret and watching Mark go on and end up with Rebecca. Anyway, after all of that, he literally chose Rebecca over Deanne in the end, but their affair had not ended. After Donna had died, they had actually exchanged rings privately. And Deanne said that Mark committed to her for life. And so all

All of that was happening at the same time. And so that's why Deanne was so jealous of Rebecca all of that time, because she felt like she was stealing her place. Eventually when Mark chose Rebecca, Deanne's life completely spiraled.

She felt immense amounts of guilt for keeping this secret. She felt ashamed that she knew something ahead of time that maybe she could have prevented this. And the guilt really got to her. She got very, very depressed and she tried to take her own life multiple times. I wish that she would have lived and I would have died. I would have traded places. She didn't deserve to die.

She shouldn't have died. I started drinking, tried to overdose. I wanted to die. But something about seeing Mark and Rebecca in the emergency room that day in 98 really set her off. And that's when she decided to come forward and tell police what really happened. Her behavior was just very...

flirtatious in front of Mark. It was uncomfortable around myself, but she was also married at the time. So of course detectives were blown away, but a few of them who had already had these suspicions brewing were not shocked. In fact, all of this made more sense now. So now of course they can open the case and they can look at all the evidence again, everything that they questioned

quickly shut down in 48 hours. The first thing that police did was try to cooperate, you know, Deanne's story and make sure that they really did have this affair. And that was easy. They were able to see that they were seeing each other for at least a month before Donna died, just via phone calls and stuff. And as they started re-looking at the crime scene, it was pretty obvious that what

Mark had described happening could not have happened. First of all, there was no sign of forced entry at all. So how did this guy get in the house? Because we all know Donna did not let him in. There's no way she just left the door unlocked. Also, like I said earlier, Roger had brought a yellow travel mug and a pack of cigarettes, which is kind of a weird thing to bring in with you to a murder. Plus he didn't have a murder weapon.

with him. He just happened to find that hammer. What if there was no weapon for him to use out readily available? What would he have done? What was his plan? Not only that, there were several items in his car that totally could have been used to commit a murder, like a knife, a tire iron, but he didn't bring either of those in the house. He brought his coffee mug and just picked up a hammer and used that, which seemed very odd. And then they re-examined the phone call.

And in the call, you can hear Mark say that he shot the guy once, but he had two bullet wounds. Now, if you remember in the call, it sounded like Roger was like trying to talk or he was moaning. I mean, he was clearly still alive.

And then Mark hung up the phone. Detectives think at that point he walked over to him and then shot him a second time in order to make sure he died. And this made sense because a neighbor said that they heard the gunshots and they heard them five minutes apart. So the detectives decided to go over to the evidence room and pull out all of the files on this case to relook at them again. But it

But it turns out that everything they had was gone. Everything had been given to Mark's lawyer when he was fighting that lawsuit with Bark Transportation. So Detective Cox went over and picked up the file. And when he was there, someone asked him if he also wanted these three Polaroid pictures that they had.

and he hands them over to him. And there are three pictures of the crime scene, extremely important Polaroids that had been completely missed in the initial investigation. Charlie had never even seen these. - It didn't take but 10 seconds. It was a smoking gun. Roger Harrington's body.

The placement of that body in that photo blew Mark's story out of the water. It was over. Roger Harrington's head and feet were in the opposite way of what Mark told us happened. These Polaroids ended up being the most important evidence in this case. And they had just been sitting in some file, never seen by the police. Now, these photos actually show the positions of Roger and Donna on the floor, which had not been documented anywhere else. And this is when they realized that Mark's story made absolutely

Absolutely no sense. Mark said that Roger was standing over Donna hitting her when he shot him. He said when he shot him, he fell backwards, feet facing Donna, but these photos do not match that story. So that's when the police knew that Mark definitely did not tell the truth about what actually happened that day.

They realized that it was a huge mistake that they closed the case so fast. And it turns out that in response to the lawsuit, BART Transportation had hired their own blood spatter expert to analyze the scene. And they already claimed that the blood evidence did not match Mark's story and that there's no way it would hold up in court. So the police had their own blood spatter analysis, look over everything, and he came to the same conclusion. It could not have occurred the way that Mark said it did.

Then it turns out that police had actually interviewed Roger's roommate, Susan Collins, who had told them that the day before Donna's murder, a man called Roger and told him to meet him somewhere and that, you know, he had written it down on a piece of paper.

But it didn't go with their narrative at the time. So this statement was completely dismissed. But knowing this now, it confirmed that Mark had asked Roger to come to their house that day. Roger wasn't an intruder. He wasn't a stalker, as far as we know. He was invited to their house that day as a guest to be murdered.

My impression was that he was going to give him a hard time, make sure he never messed with his family again. Friends of Roger said that he was actually really excited to meet up with Mark and clear things up. He felt really bad about the whole thing. Maybe he thought he could get his job back. So all of this started to slowly trickle out to the media and people were shocked. Everyone started rethinking this whole story. Roger's family was surprised that

It had finally come to light, but they said that they knew that he didn't do this all along. They knew he was innocent, that he wasn't capable of murder. I was trying to tell him, there is no way. You guys are so wrong. I knew he was not capable. Just felt branded like, who are we? You know. You felt branded? Oh, yeah.

How would anybody feel if their son was called a murderer? And when Donna's family found out, they were shocked. They could not believe Mark could have had something to do with Donna's death. After all this time, after everyone had felt so bad for him, they felt like there was just no way

way that Mark could have done this to Donna. Beat her to death with a fucking hammer while their baby was in the house. It just didn't seem like a possibility to them. And when Rebecca found out, she was also devastated and shocked and felt like there was just no way. Like she couldn't wrap her mind around it. She said he was such a good dad. She never could point to a single moment in their marriage where something was off or he did something violent or seemed scary to her in any way. She never ever suspected he'd have anything

anything to do with Donna's death. To her, he was a devoted father who had lost his wife in a horrific murder and was a hero for trying to save her. So her world was instantly flipped upside down. Of course, during this whole time while they were investigating, they were surveilling Mark's whole house. And then on the morning of August 24th, Mark

went to leave his house for work, but one of the detectives noticed that he turned the wrong way. An officer was actually watching him from his police car, and Mark did this on purpose to kind of coax the guy to come over to him, and he followed him. And when the officer pulled up next to him, Mark actually rolled down his window and threatened the officer, told him to leave him and his family alone. After threatening the officer, he just went on to work like a normal day. And the officer, of course, reported what happened to the rest of the bureau. And that's

And that's when they decided that today was probably a good day for his arrest. So, a couple hours later, they arrested Mark Winger. They arrested him at his work at 11am. He was in his office. They ordered him to come out with his hands up. After Mark was arrested, his secretary called Rebecca to let her know and she was very upset.

that this was happening to her. Bailey, their oldest, was six at this time. Their youngest was one. It felt like she was gonna lose her husband, they were all gonna lose their dad, and she was still trying to understand and wrap her mind around the idea that he was a possible killer. A lot of people just did not wanna believe that Mark did this. It was too hard to accept. Even Donna's family was holding out hope that Mark would be found innocent in his trial.

The trial started in May of 2002, which was nearly seven years after the murders. During the whole thing, Rebecca was an absolute wreck. She was terrified, but she felt like she owed it to her family and Mark to stand by him during all this because she, of course, didn't know if he really did it or not.

Roger and Donna's families both were at the trial, but they were hoping for different outcomes. Roger's family, of course, wanted his name cleared. They wanted Mark to be found guilty, but Donna's family was hoping he would be found innocent. They just could not accept a reality where he murdered Donna with a hammer.

hammer. So the defense argued that Roger had a history of mental illness and domestic disputes. They said that he had showed erotic, violent behavior just in that car ride just by things that he was saying. They made the case that he felt like Donna cost him his job and that he wanted to seek revenge on her. They argued that maybe he was just gonna come in and confront her, that they were just gonna talk, but at one point he just got so enraged that he picked up a

hammer and killed her as kind of a spur of the moment thing. And of course the Polaroid pictures were brought up that the positioning of the bodies did not align with what Mark explained had happened. But Mark's lawyer said that these photos really didn't hold up because it was possible the paramedics moved the bodies before the photos were taken and there was no way to prove if they were or not before the photos were taken. The prosecution said that it happened like this. Mark

wanted Donna dead. Obviously he told Deanne that he wanted her dead and he wanted to plan the perfect murder. He needed someone to take the fall. So when this whole incident happened with this driver, he thought, perfect, I'll get him to my house, lure him in, and then

I'll kill him. They argued that Mark was likely talking to Roger at the dining room table. Donna was in another room cause she probably didn't want to see Roger. And when she heard the gunshots, she came out and was freaking out. And at that point, Mark picked up the hammer and started attacking Donna.

That would explain why Bailey was just left on the bed. She probably just ran out for a second when she heard the gunshots and had no idea what she was walking into. So after they explained how Mark killed Roger and Donna, they had to explain why. And so of course they needed to bring up Deanne Schultz to the witness stand. And even though she did know about this and kept this information hidden for all these years, she was granted immunity for coming forward with her testimony.

And Deanne spilled it all. She talked about their affair and how Mark wanted Donna dead. Deanne did a pretty good job on this stand, but it was clear that she had been through a lot and had suffered a lot of emotional trauma over all this and had a lot of shame and guilt that she was carrying around.

So the defense decided to use that to their advantage and make her look as unstable as possible. They tried to discredit her as much as they could, make her look like the unstable, jealous, scorned ex who just wanted to ruin Mark's life. But all of the physical evidence was pretty strong. Finding the note in the car, I mean, that really did it.

Polaroids, it wasn't gonna be enough for them to just make Dan look like the crazy jealous ex. But now it was up to the jury. They had heard everything. And after everything was said and done, Rebecca still felt like Mark was innocent. She thought that he was for sure gonna be let off and be going home to be a father to her kids. And Donna and Roger's families both felt like after hearing all the evidence that it really could go either way. But finally the jury came back with their decision.

And they decided that Mark Winger was guilty on all counts. Everyone was shocked in different ways. And immediately Donna's family felt so bad for Roger's family, for everything that he had been through, for his name being dragged through the mud for all these years, letting people think that he was innocent.

a violent murderer when in fact he was murdered himself. Detective Cox felt really bad about this. And I feel like you don't often see detectives owning up to mistakes like this, but he is very open about the fact that he made a huge mistake. He has apologized over and over to their family. - I was ashamed of the way the investigation went. I hurt Roger Harrington's family. I run this kid through his name through 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. And he really was one of the ones who got the ball rolling again and ended up getting Mark, you know, the guilty verdict at the end of the day. So definitely some mistakes were made, but it's interesting how they were corrected after all that time. But finally, Mark was going to pay the price. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole and was sent to the Western Illinois Correctional Center. And Rebecca said that she was stunned.

She couldn't wrap her head around the idea that he really did this. 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. She had to go home and tell her kids that their dad was never coming home.

As time has gone on, Rebecca has definitely changed her thoughts on all of this. She's really come to terms with it and realized that she and her kids were also a victim in this situation. She, of course, no longer supports Mark, although to this day, Mark claims that he's innocent.

and that Roger really was the one who murdered Donna that day. It was surreal. It was like insanity because I know I'm innocent. 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. Why were you so eager for him to prove that he didn't do it? Because we loved him. Because he was part of our family. Because Donna loved him. Because they appeared to have such an incredibly wonderful marriage. Did you kill Donna with that hammer? No, I did not. She was very emotional up there.

She loved Mark at the time. I think she was sincerely telling us the truth.

I feel free. I didn't realize just how powerful secrets can be. But any doubts that people have had that Mark is a killer were really squashed in 2006 when it turns out he was trying to plan another murder from prison. Mark had actually written out a 19-page document talking about a murder-for-hire plot. He wanted to hire a hitman to kill Deanne Schultz.

because he felt like it was her fault that his perfect plan fell apart in the end. He also wanted to kidnap a man named Jeffrey Gelman, who was a childhood friend who had refused to post his $1 million bail, and Mark was pissed about it. He planned to collect ransom for Jeffrey's release, but then have him killed too. So clearly Mark had some big plans. When they found this document, he tried to claim that it was all just...

a fantasy of his, just some creative writing, you know. But when they interviewed other inmates that he was with, he had been talking to everyone about hiring a hitman. - I can certainly say that I fantasized about people coming forward and confessing that they lied, not killing,

I think that's a little far-fetched. So he was brought to trial again and found guilty of solicitation of murder. He was given an additional 35 years, which Donna's family was really happy about because in the end, of course, after hearing all the information, Donna's family realized that

Mark really did kill their daughter brutally. They were always scared that because he was such a master manipulator, he would find some way to get out of jail. So having this extra amount of years put on his sentence kind of helped them to sleep better at night. They knew he would never ever be getting out.

I have no idea why he did it. I will never understand why he did it. And I think it's a question that will never be answered in my mind. Rebecca went on to raise all four kids without Mark, and she's a great mom to them. They have no relation to Mark anymore. And she has really, like I said, come to terms with everything that happened and what she went through. You know, it's just so shocking at the time to face reality of the man that she had been raising kids with for years. All

of the kids hate Mark. I mean, they have nothing to do with him and they all changed their last names. No one wanted to be called Winger anymore. So they are now Simic. And what's really cool is in 2019, Rebecca felt like

It was time that Bailey really got to know and spend some time with Donna's family after all these years, after Mark had tried to keep them away from her. And at this point, they hadn't seen her since she was three years old. So they all went to Florida over Memorial Day weekend, and she also got to meet her cousins and her aunts. And at this time, Bailey was 24 years old. And now they spend birthdays together to make up for all of the birthdays that they had missed over the years. 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. - Donna's family will obviously never get over the heartbreak

of what they went through and losing Donna so young, but they did create an amazing fund in her honor. It's called Donna's Fund at Women in Distress, which is a domestic violence center that serves women in Broward County, Florida. This fund helps survivors and their children make sure that they have support that they need to be safe and happy. I think it's really cool that their family did this. I think it's like

great way to honor Donna's memory. I will be making a donation. I'll have it linked below if you guys would like to make one as well. But man, I have just been so blown away by this case the last couple of days. It just makes me think about how many closed cases out there that are just like this. Like how many marks are there out there who committed the perfect murder and pinned it on the perfect person and no one batted an eyelash because it all made sense at the

at the time. People like Mark are truly the scariest people in the world. For him to still claim that he's innocent after years of living his life free while Roger was dead and Donna's family was just suffering with no answers. For him to be such a narcissist that he's still claiming that he's innocent after

after all this time, truly just blows my mind. And he so easily could have gotten away with this. If Deanne decided to just keep her mouth shut or God forbid she had killed herself, he would probably still be free to this day. And

Rebecca would have no idea that she was married to a murderer. All those kids now have to grow up knowing that their father was a murderer. And the fact that Bailey has to live with the fact that her father, who she loved and was raised by all those years, killed her mother. I truly can't imagine what that would be like or how you would even begin to process something like that. But I think this story is really one of the most bizarre I've ever heard.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.