Mark Winger seemed like a hero who saved his baby girl, but cops later found out he was actually a cold-blooded killer who fooled everyone for years.
The Perfect Couple Nobody Suspected
Mark Winger was born on November 26, 1962, and grew up to become a nuclear power plant engineer in Springfield, Illinois. He was smart, successful, and respected by pretty much everyone who knew him. He’s also a first cousin of the famous actress Debra Winger.
In 1988, he married Donna Drescher, who was born Donnah Brown in 1963. Donnah worked as an operating room technician at a local hospital. Everyone who knew them thought they were the most adorable couple ever.
Donnah’s mother, Sarah Jane Drescher, would later say they were “absolutely an adorable, model couple.” They had good jobs, a nice house, and seemed to have everything going for them.
But there was one thing missing from their perfect life. The couple really wanted to have kids and start a family. Sadly, they found out that Donnah couldn’t have children of her own. This was heartbreaking for both of them, but they didn’t give up on their dream of becoming parents. They decided to adopt a baby instead.
In June 1995, their dreams finally came true when they adopted a baby girl named Bailey. Mark Winger later described the moment by saying his heart was just pounding and he couldn’t believe it was really happening.
The whole family was super excited about the new addition. Donnah’s parents were thrilled to be grandparents. Everything seemed perfect for the Winger family.
For about three months, life was great. Mark went to work at the nuclear plant, Donnah took care of baby Bailey, and they were living the American dream. Nobody could have imagined that this happy family picture was about to be destroyed in the most horrible way possible.
The Creepy Van Ride That Started Everything
On August 23, 1995, Donnah Winger was coming home from a trip to Florida where she had visited her mother and stepfather. She had taken baby Bailey with her on the trip.
When she landed at St. Louis International Airport, she needed to get a ride back home to Springfield, which was about 90 minutes away. She booked a shuttle van service for the ride home.
The driver of that van was a 28-year-old man named Roger Harrington. He had been working for the shuttle company for about six months. What should have been a simple, boring ride home turned into something really weird and scary.
According to what Donnah told her husband later, Harrington acted super strange during the entire 90-minute drive. He was speeding way too fast, which was scary enough with a baby in the car.
But the speeding wasn’t even the worst part. Harrington started telling Donnah some really bizarre things. He talked about getting high and having orgies at his house. He told her that sometimes when he drives, a “God-like character” would come to him and pull him out of his body, and he would be flying above the trees.
This kind of talk freaked Donnah out big time. She was stuck in a van with this strange man, holding her three-month-old baby, and had no way to escape.
Detective Charlie Cox, a police officer who investigated Donnah’s death, later told ABC News, “This gentleman started opening up to Donnah about issues he was having. He had a voice in his head named Dahm… Dahm would tell him to do bad things. Recently, Dahm was telling him to hurt people.”
When Donnah finally got home safely, she was really shaken up by the whole experience. She told Mark everything about the creepy driver and his weird behavior. Mark was angry that his wife and baby daughter had been put through such a scary situation. He decided to do something about it.
He called the shuttle van company and complained about Roger Harrington’s behavior. He wanted to make sure this guy knew he couldn’t treat passengers that way. The company owner, Ray Duffy, received the complaint. This phone call would later become a very important piece of evidence in the case.
The 911 Call That Fooled Everyone
Just a few days after that creepy van ride, something terrible happened at the Winger house. Mark Winger called 911 in a panic. He told the dispatcher that he had shot an intruder who was attacking his wife with a hammer. When he made that call, he claimed he had no idea who the man was.
According to Mark’s story, he was down in the basement exercising on his treadmill when he heard a loud thump coming from upstairs. He got worried and went up to check what was going on.
When he got to the main floor, he noticed that baby Bailey was alone on the bed in the bedroom. That was strange because Donnah would never leave the baby alone like that. Then he heard weird sounds coming from the dining room area.
Mark said he grabbed his gun and started walking down the hallway toward the sounds. When he got to the dining room, he saw something horrifying. His wife Donnah was on the floor, and there was a stranger leaning over her, hitting her in the head with a hammer.
Mark didn’t hesitate. He raised his gun and shot the man in the head. The intruder fell to the floor.
When police officers arrived at the scene, they found two people bleeding on the floor. There was blood everywhere. It was on the furniture, splattered on the walls, and even on the ceiling.
Detective Charlie Cox was one of the first investigators to arrive. He later said he had been doing crime scene work for a long time, and this was one of the most severe and bloody scenes he had ever witnessed.
Steve Weinhoeft, former Sangamon County assistant state attorney, told ABC News, “Donnah was clinging to life. She had been hit no less than seven times in the head with a hammer.”
Officer Dave Barringer, who was one of the first cops on the scene, pulled out his Polaroid camera. He only had three pictures left, so he quickly snapped three photos of the crime scene before the paramedics moved the bodies.
Nobody knew it at the time, but those three quick Polaroid pictures would eventually become the most important evidence in the entire case.
Mark Winger Becomes a Local Hero
When Detective Charlie Cox questioned Mark Winger in the bedroom that night, Mark asked him a question: who was the man he had just shot? Cox told him it was Roger Harrington, the creepy van driver.
Mark acted completely shocked. He said something like “Oh my God, that’s the guy that’s been harassing my wife and me.” Then he fell over on his side and started crying. He seemed terrified that he was going to be arrested for killing someone.
But Mark couldn’t have been more wrong about getting in trouble. The police weren’t treating him like a suspect at all. They were treating him like a victim and a hero.
Detective Cox actually told Mark that he had killed the person who was killing his wife. The cops felt sorry for him. Here was this poor guy who had just lost his wife and had to shoot a man to try to save her.
The police investigation seemed to support Mark’s story completely. Roger Harrington did have a history of mental problems. He had been a psychiatric patient before.
Detective Cox even knew Harrington personally because he had once broken up a fight between Harrington and his own wife. So the idea that Harrington was a violent, unstable person who could snap and kill someone didn’t seem crazy at all.
Donnah Winger and Roger Harrington both died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Donnah never woke up or regained consciousness. She never got to tell anyone what really happened that day.
The very next day after the murders, the prosecutor made an announcement. He said that Mark Winger had acted in self-defense, and no charges would be filed against him. Just like that, the case was closed. Mark was free to go.
The whole investigation was wrapped up by the time the 10:30 news aired that night. It seemed like the fastest murder investigation ever.
The Detective Who Wouldn’t Give Up
While most people in Springfield accepted the official story, not everyone was convinced. Detective Doug Williamson had some serious doubts about Mark Winger’s version of events. He noticed things that didn’t add up right from the beginning.
First of all, there was no forced entry into the Winger house. Roger Harrington didn’t break in through a window or kick down a door. Somebody had let him inside.
Williamson wondered why Donnah would open the door for Harrington if she was supposedly scared of him. Why would she leave her baby alone on the bed and go answer the door for a man who had terrified her just days before? It didn’t make any sense.
Then there was the note found in Harrington’s car. It had Mark Winger’s name, his address, and “4:30 PM” written on it. This looked like Harrington had an appointment to meet with the Wingers that afternoon.
But Mark claimed he had never met Harrington and didn’t know who he was until after shooting him. If that was true, why did Harrington have what looked like a scheduled meeting written down?
Williamson wanted to investigate further, but his bosses said no. The case was closed, and they didn’t want to reopen it. The Harrington family was devastated.
Roger’s sister, Barbara Howell, begged Detective Cox to look into the case more, but nothing happened. Roger’s mother, Helen, had to live with the shame of everyone in the city believing she had raised a psychotic killer.
Meanwhile, life went on for Mark Winger. He hired a nanny named Rebecca Simic to help take care of baby Bailey. Just five months after Donnah’s death, Mark started a relationship with Rebecca. They eventually got married.
“I remember asking him how he could move on so quickly,” Simic later recalled, “and he explained to me that when you have a good marriage it’s natural for you just to want that again.”
The new couple adopted more children and built a new family together. Mark even sued the shuttle van company where Harrington had worked, and he won money from the lawsuit.
Cracks in the Perfect Story
Even though the case was officially closed, Detective Charlie Cox started having his own doubts. What made him suspicious was Mark Winger’s strange behavior after the murders.
A few months after everything happened, Winger showed up at the police station asking for his gun back. Cox gave him the gun, and they sat and talked for about half an hour. Winger kept asking how the case was going.
Cox thought this was weird. The case was closed. Why would Winger care about how it was going? He should have just accepted that it was over and moved on with his life.
But Winger came back again. This time, he wanted to tell Cox that he was getting remarried to his daughter’s new nanny. Cox couldn’t figure out why Winger felt the need to share this information with the police.
Winger kept showing up at the station. Cox got the feeling that Winger was trying to find out if the police were checking into anything. It was almost like he was nervous about something.
Cox went back to his partner, Detective Williamson, and told him that something was very wrong. Now both detectives believed that Mark Winger might be a murderer.
For three long years, the detectives tried to get their bosses to reopen the case. They kept getting turned down. But then something amazing happened. DeAnn Schultz, who had been one of Donnah’s best friends, came forward with shocking new information.
She had been keeping a terrible secret for four years, and it was making her sick. She couldn’t hold it in anymore.
The Truth Finally Comes Out
DeAnn Schultz dropped a bombshell on the investigators. She told them that she and Mark Winger had been having an affair. The affair started about a month before Donnah was killed and continued for several months after her death. But that wasn’t even the worst part of what she had to say.
Schultz told police that Mark had talked about wanting out of his marriage. He had mentioned that things would be easier if Donnah just died. He had even suggested that Schultz could play a role in making that happen.
Mark had talked to her about the van driver, Roger Harrington, and how he might be useful. Schultz said she was given immunity for her testimony, which means she couldn’t get in trouble for not coming forward sooner, the CBS News reports.
Now the case was finally reopened. The detectives went back through all the old evidence, and they found something they had missed before.
Those three Polaroid pictures that Officer Barringer took at the crime scene had somehow been overlooked during the original investigation. When the detectives finally looked at them carefully, they realized the photos destroyed Mark Winger’s story completely.
Mark had told police that he shot Harrington while Harrington was leaning over Donnah, attacking her. He said Harrington then fell off of Donnah and rolled back. But the photos showed that Harrington’s head and feet were positioned the opposite way from what Mark described.
The bodies weren’t where they should have been if Mark’s story was true. Detective Williamson said it was over at that point. The evidence proved Mark was lying.
“Mark Winger had stated that Roger Harrington was kneeling down right next to Donnah Winger’s head, and he was beating her with a hammer,” Weinhoeft explained.
“He stated that he shot him and that the man fell backwards, so that his feet remained near Donnah’s head. In reality, the Polaroids photographs show the exact opposite.” Blood spatter experts agreed.
Police now believed they understood what really happened. Mark had used Donnah’s scary van ride as an opportunity. He contacted Harrington, pretending he wanted to work things out. He set up a meeting for 4:30 PM.
When Harrington arrived, Mark killed both him and Donnah, then made up the story about catching an intruder.
Justice After Seven Long Years
In 2001, six and a half years after the murders, Mark Winger was finally arrested. By this time, he and Rebecca had four children together, including Bailey. The trial began, and the prosecution laid out all the evidence against him.
The jury heard testimony from Ray Duffy, the owner of the van company. He said that when Winger complained about Harrington, he wanted to talk directly with the driver. This was unusual because most people just complained to the office and left it at that.
Duffy said Harrington was eager to work things out and told Duffy to give Winger his phone number. This showed that Winger had set up the meeting himself.
The prosecution pointed out that Harrington had a tire iron in his car that could have been used as a weapon.
If he was planning to kill someone, why would he leave his weapon in the car and use a hammer from inside the house that he wouldn’t have known was there? It only made sense if Mark Winger was the one who grabbed the hammer.
DeAnn Schultz testified about the affair and about Mark talking about killing his wife. The defense tried to make her look unreliable because she had attempted suicide four times and had electroshock therapy.
But the jury found her believable. They thought her troubled past actually made her more credible because she had nothing to gain from telling the truth.
On May 29, 2002, after three weeks of testimony and 13 hours of deliberation, the jury found Mark Winger guilty of first-degree murder. He was convicted of beating his wife Donnah to death and shooting Roger Harrington. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, per WHAS11.
The Harrington family finally had justice. Roger’s name was cleared after seven years of everyone thinking he was a murderer. Detective Cox admitted that he had hurt the Harrington family a lot by closing the case so quickly. But the story wasn’t over yet.
Cox told ABC, “I was ashamed of the way the investigation went. I hurt Roger Harrington’s family. I ran his name through hell for no reason. I mean, he was an innocent victim.”
In 2006, while in prison, Winger was caught trying to hire a fellow inmate to murder DeAnn Schultz and a wealthy friend named Jeffrey Gelman. He was convicted of solicitation to commit murder in 2007 and got an additional 35 years added to his sentence.
