Murder of Donnah Winger

Donnah Ellen Winger, born Donnah Brown in 1963, worked as an operating room technician before marrying Mark Winger on March 4, 1989, in Hollywood, Florida. The couple later settled in Springfield, Illinois, and adopted a daughter on June 1, 1995.

On August 23, 1995, Donnah was driven home from St. Louis International Airport by shuttle driver Roger Harrington. The Wingers had reportedly complained to Harrington's employer that he made Donnah uncomfortable during the ride by discussing drug use and orgies. Six days later, on August 29, 1995, Mark Winger called 911 and reported that he had shot Harrington to death after Harrington attacked and killed Donnah with a hammer inside their home. Police initially accepted this account, theorizing that Harrington had broken in to retaliate for the employer complaint.

Suspicion toward Mark Winger grew over time. A detective noted that Winger repeatedly returned to ask about the case even after it had been closed. Further scrutiny followed when Winger married his daughter's nanny, Rebecca Simic, whom he had hired five months after Donnah's death; the couple went on to have three children together.

Four years after the killings, Donnah's best friend, DeAnn Shultz, came forward and told police she had been having an affair with Mark Winger around the time of Donnah's death. Shultz said Winger ended the affair shortly after Donnah died and married the nanny instead, leaving her feeling jilted and suspicious that he had killed Donnah. Upon reexamining the evidence, investigators determined that the positions of Donnah's and Harrington's bodies were inconsistent with Winger's account of a struggle. They also found evidence in Harrington's car indicating that Mark Winger had invited Harrington to the house. Investigators developed a new theory: that Donnah's unsettling ride with Harrington gave Winger the idea to kill her with a hammer and shoot Harrington, using a fabricated account of an attack as cover. Winger was charged with murder in 2001.

At trial, prosecutors introduced recorded conversations between Winger and Harrington arranging a meeting on the day of the killings. Paramedics testified that they found Donnah lying face down, contradicting Winger's claim that he had been holding her before their arrival. Shultz testified that Winger had tried to involve her in the plot and told her it would be better if Donnah died. In May 2002, a jury convicted Mark Winger of the first-degree murders of Donnah Winger and Roger Harrington, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 2006, while incarcerated, Winger was indicted for soliciting a fellow inmate to arrange the murders of DeAnn Shultz and a childhood friend who had refused to post his bail. He was convicted of solicitation of murder in June 2007 and received an additional 35-year sentence.