event. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and so long. monsters don't exist. i can tell you with absolute certainty that's 110% false. he's a monster. a wife and mother killed in her own home. i get a phone call from a screaming irrational point at the other end. i said is it rachel? >> what do you mean? somebody came to our house and murdered her >> police discovered rachel had a complicated loved life. she says i have fallen hopele hopelessly in love with you.

was there a bigger secret? >> we are realizing wait, there is a formal wife? the whole side of the mountains. marriage and money and murder, some say more than one. when people say i know how you feel. you have no idea how i feel. no one should ever feel this way. ♪ tonight for us. the caterpillar of trees or the moonlight was shut out. as the driver rushing and inches from yawning and desperate to safe the passenger's life.

what were they doing out here? so far from civilization, from safety? what answer do the fire consume? as one of them launched on the path is dark and twisted on the mountain road itself. one evil getting another and another until. this whole story is a mixture of murder and blood and having a god and it is real crazy. but, to begin, 2500 miles west of that trail of jageorgia is o of the civilized place on earth. napa, california. world's famous restaurants. here lived a beautiful woman. her father, a prominent artist and her husband, pharmaceutical

executive. her lover, a handyman former marine and firearm expert. her first boyfriend, the painter. she the woman of center, rachel hatfield. >> so rachel, tell me about her. >> [ bleep ]. i am sorry. we are starting huh? >> well, just whatever. >> okay, what did that do to you when i said that? >> my heart went boom. all he can do was remember like the night they first met. >> it was july 9th, party, she was dancing and i said wow, i am going to meet that girl. >> how old were you?

>> i was 18. >> they set up house together during those beauty years and rarely serious and looking like a krarkt frcharacter from the m. there is rachel unconsciously glamorous. it was all too familiar, aspiring artist waiting for their break. could she see you making a life as a painter? >> yeah, she could. >> her own fatter don hatfield made a big name painting a beach scenes. you may have seen his how to paint courses on youtube. this is called for me aiming your shot. where is the artist like don could comfortly raising four kids in the napa valley.

>> it was not happening. >> so he and rachel lower their site and hustled up any work like murals that may help cover the rent. >> we are doing murals and that's all the income that we had. >> murals does not pay well. >> she was supporting and loving and directing tim. >> don hatfield thought his daughter would out grow tim. you know graduates at the top of her class and recruited. they start her out at 80-k. no, i want to do a little business of my own. she and tim would go around and do stuff. >> paint murals? >> were they pretty good?

>> not really. >> rachel wanted to get married and have kids. >> did you want to have kids? >> i did. i was not there yet. you know what i am saying? >> well, it is an old story, is it? tim was blind sighted by what happened next. rachel met another man. todd winkler, suppofocused and discipline. tim scrambles. >> they went and bought a ring real quick to propose to her. i did. it was too late. rachel turned him down and announced her engagement to todd. >> the love of my life leaving me for some guy that had a nice job and a boat and car.

>> we were both 21. >> hard to watch says rachel's closest friend, shannon thurmon >> she called me when she broke up with him. i want to have a family and he's not ready. we are done. literally two months later, she called me and said you need to be here two days, i am getting married. oh, great, you guys made up. no, i didn't make up. >> tim didn't go to the wed. he went to a bar. >> it was hard, man. watching this big guy with her hot pink dress on and he's a guy that got it going on and she's a pretty girl and they look like a great couple. >> i can't imagine what that would be like. i just can't.

>> it is hard. >> to be the guy who gets dumped is bad. >> it is bad. >> i quit painting as soon as i found out she married todd. i just had no energy. i had no inspiration. i had given up. so, what does this brokenhearted love story had to do with a fiery mountain crash? more than you can possibly imagine. >> in my mind this was not an accident. our friend was murdered. i truly believed that. >> a married woman, complicated love life. one of rachel's lovers is gone but not for forgotten. >> i thought maybe later on down the road we can get together and share life again.

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flonase. history is a sticky business, rarely is done with us as we choose to be with death. rachel hatfield turned her life on a dime. left her past behind and embraced the existence of old boyfriend tim. when she married todd, she married into a different lifestyle. there were private airplanes and boats and motorcycles and big house in the development east of san francisco called an air park.

tim verses todd winkler, no contest said her dad, tom hatfield. >> the guy is a graduate and successful in business and family man and seen from the midwest, got to be great. >> good solid upper middle class guy. >> he got planes and boats, all over the place. >> whtodd on the other hand -- >> i went to orlando with him to disney world and he was picking up the bills for those stuff? >> yes, most of the time. >> don had no way of knowing that tim was for a time still in rachel's life sort of. >> you didn't lose touch completely. >> no, we kept in touch. >> why did they do that? maybe her marriage was not all apple pie. she wants to share with me what's going on. >> what did she tell you?

>> she said todd took her credit card and maxed it all out and bought a plane and put her in debt of $45,000. >> whoa. >> are you freaking out? >> she says yeah, he'll take care of it. >> which sounded like complaining or boasting. tim after all could barely qualify for credit at all. eventually being on the outside looking in was just too hard. >> it is getting harder and harder, he had to move on and start painting again and forget her. though he admitted to us, he was successful. i gotten later on down the road, you know, get together and share life again. >> witch full thinking. tim failed to understand rachel's life with husband todd was getting more exciting by the day. when todd sent them to live

briefly in austria. he invited rachel's dead. >> every night we are going to cirque du soleil or comedy club and dinners. it was a six-week party down there. >> it was back home in the air park where the weaker social life blossoms. >> we had all kinds of thing from oktoberfest parties and christmas parties and easter and valentine's day parties. >> ice cream sodas. >> these were the neighbors. rich and linda johnson. and linda and marian cockrell. they love having an ex fighter pilot as a neighbor. >> todd was just a genuinely interested guy. he would make eye contact with you and always wanted to know about my job and what kind of cases are you working on or what kind of law you practice s? >> todd is kind of a guy's guy.

>> you enjoyed his company? >> we did. >> i knew her less well than i knew todd. i feel like we were both in the same place in our lives but moving different circles. >> she was not one of those people you were immediately attracted to? >> i really liked her but she seems a little distant. very polite and friendly but dista distant. >> by 2009, rachel and todd had two daughters. he always seemed involved and engaged with the kids. to me always seems to be trying to help rachel and give her a break. >> rachel talks to us, they're proactive parents, loving parents and caring parents. they seemed like the perfect

couple. >> we saw todd more on a social level with the kids than we saw with rachel. >> not everyday remind you. todd landed a lucrative job with an international pharmaceutical company whose expense accounts soft to what he calls a seize. the only catch was his office was a long drive away in san francisco bay area and not wanting to uproot his family. todd got an apartment in town returning to the air part for the weekend. rachel is now anchored home with two toddlers, monday through friday and soon quite rest less. she put her kids into daycare and got a full-time job. she was okay, i guess.

>> i tried to leave all of my children to the love of jesus christ. >> a mother should be at home with their kids. >> that was pretty frustrating. >> he had them over at daycare and she was working full-time. >> it was not the only thing he didn't like about rachel's job. there was also him. >> first was, wow, what a beautiful woman. and i saw what she was wearing and i remember the way her hair was. his name is james white. former marine, june enthusist. she's just the most perfectly nice and most beautiful woman i have ever met. i could not get her off my mind. >> intoxicated by a married woman. >> wow, no good can come of

that. coming up. >> i wanted her to get out of that marriage as soon as possible. i wanted to be with rachel. >> the attraction was mutual and the fact they were both married was just one problem. another was soon to arrive. how did she feel about carrying todd's baby? when "dateline" continues. i am royalty of racing, raise your steins to the king of speed. now, there's skyrizi. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved... ...90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections... ...and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection... ...or symptoms such as fevers,... ...sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs... ...or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine.

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service in the military as to many americans come to know. james white. >> i am a marine for life. >> once a marine and always a marine. james white loved everything about the core. >> i miss marine core very much. >> not so much as his next job as mississippi deputy sheriff. >> what was it that you don't like about it? >> i don't want to see human suffering from day to by the way bas bases. >> he moved back to northern california. that little girl katelyn is all grown up now. we are more best friend than father/daughter. we fight like siblings and we are just focused on having fun and not caring about what other people think.

>> james and katelyn set here at the foothills a few miles from rachel and todd's air park. james started a handyman picnic and got some jobs at the airport. he started a website called amosmith.com. it is about the crafted create g ammunitions. >> now, that was his life in the spring of 2010. second marriage was not going terribly well. oh, and he had a secret mad crush on the beautiful young woman who managed the air pod, rachel winkly. one day she called me into her office, this is beginning of june or 2010. have a seat. okay. i thought i was in trouble. >> she leaned over and she got

my hands. james, i got something i need to tell you. no, i have fallen hopelessly in love with you and i don't know what to do about it. >> it was a huge relief. >> yeah. >> because i was in love with her at the time. i could not tell her. i would not how she would react. i will definitely have her as my friend than having her as nothing at all. rachel now launched into an affair with ex-marine james. this by the way was not one of those snaek off into a closet. with todd working in the san francisco bay area. james and rachel were together

almost constantly. >> we try to spend as much time as possible. it felt like we are a family and it felt like we were one heartbeat. >> our hearts are intertwine together like i can't describe it. i never loved someone so intensely in my life. >> you can be talking to her like we are talking and she would make you feel like the most important human being on this earth. >> what does it make you feel? >> special, loved. i could open up to her. if todd suspected anything, he didn't led on. rachel's dad don began to get a queasy feeling during his visits to the airport. >> he came across as this christian guy. he's helping rachel. he's helping her around the airport and okay, fine.

i asked her of the second time. you know this guy is trying to bed you or what's going on? >> he says he like to but it is not happening. >> people do notice things. i think we suspected it. >> suspected what? >> something was going on because you saw the two of them together a lot. >> i didn't see them as a couple. you know even though you see them together. rachel and james had more. >> you were married to somebody else. >> i was. >> what did you think about that and how troublesome it was for you. >> i wanted to get out of that marriage as soon as possible. i want to be with rachel. >> did you tell your wife? >> no. >> we separated. >> to hear that james' wife angry and betrayed made a phone

call to todd winkler who begged rachel ended with james. she in a rush of guilt and shame adpreeed. agreed. >> she tried to call it off and i tried to call it off. >> how would you call it off? >> what would you do? >> i need to work it out with my husband and wife. we can't talk to each other. two days later she texted me saying i love you and miss you. >>. >> we had a strong bond. >> they sneak off to' each other or leaving long messages on the phone. >> one of the great things when you are in love with somebody that feelings come to surface more. >> you fear about everything.

we can share those and help each other, okay? and, i love you, take care. >> during their heart to heart. rachel complains that her todd is not so perfect as people think. did she lay on a little bit for the sake of other men? would not be surprising. james relayed to us what she said she told him that todd was stingy. he was so devious, he faked having cancer twice to avoid deadlines add work and on a business to samsterdam, todd talked about staking a series of car break-in and collecting a big settlement. all this may have just been trash talk about the husband

whose mere assistance. >> they get began talking about it running away from it all. it was just a bt a year to their affair. >> uh-oh. she was pregnant with todd's baby. so did rachel and james ended then? why no. they did not. what did they do to your relationship? >> brought us closer. >> she said to me who in the right mind want to take on a woman with two toddlers and an infant. i said i would would hesitation. he started crying and so did i. >> she said the life in her was a gift from god. no matter who the father is, she's going to love the baby no

matter what. i toll her i will love that boy. >> it was after all a husband, todd was not about to take this lying down and sewer enough, he recruited a powerful ally. >> they braced themselves and set out to confront his wife's lover. and james's wife was ready for them. >> i had a 9 millimeters around me and i know how to use it extremely well. coming up. quickness to a show down between an angry husband and his wife crystal attacking each other. >> i see these two men walking in the drive way and i was like oh, my god. what are they doing here? and what was about to happen when "dateline" continues. from an infection, human papillomavirus i knew that hpv could lead to certain cancers.

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survivors lined up in the bahamas on sunday with the evacuation from the island after losing everything. the storm claims the lives of 44 people. president trump faced backlashes from both sides of the isle after announced his cancelled meeting with afghan officials and taliban leaders at camp david. the 9/11 attack 9/11 anniversary around the corner. many saw the timing of his tweet is inappropriate. >> back to "dateline ". todd winkler, todd found an unlikely ally as he prepares to confront her lover, james white. in this case, rachel's dad don hatfield was only too happy to help. he did not approve of his daughter's behavior. it was too much like his once

was. >> i tried to leave all my children to the love of jesus christ. there were only one major obstacle to that every occur ng a way that i would be happy with was that my hypocrisy. >> what do you mean? >> your hypocrisy? >> at chasing women and blowing my marriage. women found his role as a descending artist quite a few. he was a married father of four. that kind of thing destroyed my family. by the time rachel was in middle school. don's string of affairs led to shattering divorce. i think the obliteration of the family had a profound effect on rachel. >> no, he feared. the apple have not fallen far from the trees. >> his daughter rachel was in

the middle of the affair herself. >> todd had been calling me. what am i going to do? todd, if y said well, you thoug about that. well, not right now. sounds liking a good idea. will you come with me? >> yeah, i will go wu. >> and so we drove over there. james's daughter, katelyn, sounded the alarmed. as rachel's worried father and betrayed husband. >> he just got done shooting. i hear this car role optics. man, that sounds like rachel. and i see these two men walking up the drive way. oh my gosh. what happened? what are they doing here? i ran out, my dad taught here so is don. he says all right. let's get this over with.

i grabbed the m-4. >> katelyn was talking about the gun she had ready. a nine millimeter pistol and an m-4 rifle and james? he had a ballistic missile as he walked out to reach todd's daughter. >> i had a 9 millimeters around me and i know how to use it extremely well. here is james's memory of a confrontation that's so tent, it sounded surreal. >> they hid behind todd and rachel's children. >> he had ariel on his arm and don had alex? his arms. >> we are afraid you are going to shoot them. >> perhaps. i can't remember whether or not todd went to the door with the kids or i went to the door. he was a human shield, she was going to stop the bullets,

right? >> todd came up and he looked like a wreck. >> todd confronted me and said rachel is still not divorced yet. i would appreciate it if you stayed with her. >> there was a pause if something were going to happen. this would be the moment. >> he turns to me and he goes high katelyn. i was like get off this property. >> dwhat was the feeling like a this was going on? >> the feelings for me was i hope that's as clear as the air. he's asking to stay awake so maybe he'll stay away and maybe they can figure out what to do ochlt. >> was it a civil conversation? >> yes. here is a marriage trouble and

guys prey ay on that. you know he didn't. no, apparently nothing can keep the lovers apart. >> james e-mailed rachel. hey, my love, i miss you, something awfully bad. i have been crying on and off since sunday. i am dying inside. my heart is shattered i love you endlessly. my sweet love. this was not over. not the affair tch. not the marriage either and not the confrontations. something was coming. watch out. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> calling to report a fatality. >> where did this occur? >> coming up: >> i was in my yard when we saw the sheriff's department pulling into it.

the neighbor taking kind of tactical positions. don is pulling ar 15. >> i gate phone call from a screaming irrational point from the other end. who was the killer when "dateline" continues. more minerals enter deep into the enamel's surface. you have an opportunity to repair what's already been damaged-it's amazing. the way you triumph over adversity. and live your lives. that's why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you. now there's less pain immediately following injection. we've reduced the size of the needle and removed the citrate buffers. and it has the same effectiveness you know and trust. humira citrate-free is here. a little change can make a big difference.

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park, february, 2012. todd and rachel winkler's issue did not surface of normal suburban life. a neighbor bumped into todd this afternoon. he stopped and talked to us for a couple of minutes and wished us well. he's pushing two strollers with all three kids. he didn't look particularly cheerful. >> todd had no way of doing that sunday afternoon that rachel was back. double checking her divorce application. >> she finished the paper work and i am going to file it and fax them the next morning. >> he's trying to block her. she's determined to do it. >> you know what, whether you are in a picture or not, i am divorcing todd, i want out. >> whether you are in the picture or not, was there some doubt about that? >> the reason why she wants to be with me because she wanted to me with me and not because she had to be with me.

>> i am trying to imagine how you are feel sing. >> i was elated. we talked about it for so long. rachel headed home to tell todd that she was leaving him. evening fail. . it was sunday night. come monday morning. it was the day unlike any other, the air park community ever seen. >> 911 what's your emergency. >> i am call to report a fatality. >> when does it occur? >> it was just so surreal. it almost seemed like a dream. >> what was going on? the neighbors watching anxiously from their windows did not know. >> i was in my yard when we saw the sheriff's department pulling in the next door between our house and winkler's house.

done in black jackets and air 15. there were five sheriffs in the backyard with their guns drawing, facing todd's house. >> what happened next? >> marian cockrell. >> i saw todd walking backward across the street. >> stop right there. turn around. put your hands-on top of your head. >> drop down your knees. # he said nobody else is inside there. >> my wife is dead. >> how could it be? rachel winkly was just 37 years old with those three little girl with whom meant the whole world. >> where is your wife? >> she's in when you enter the h house, you turn to the right. >> you are sure she's dead? >> i am positive. >> how are you sure? >> no pulse and no breathing.

>> frantic call. one of the neighbors reached rachel's father. i get a phone call from a screening irrational voice on thor end. i said is it rachel? yeah, it is rachel. i have a question for you. is there a yellow ribbon around the property. don was in the middle of moving. the movers tried to come him down. we don't know that he's dead. count on it, he killed her. >> rachel was dead. the horrific news spread. >> i got to from a friend. i said that can't be. the next thing i knew i woke up on the floor. >> you fainted? >> i completely blacked out. >> i hit the floor. >> i called td sherihe sheriff' department and asked him if he knew what is going on.

>> katelyn got a message at school. >> i walked outside and i called family friend and he goes are you sitting down. i think you need to sit down katelyn. i said what's going on? >> and all i remember was just dropping to the ground. >> rachel's friend shannon could not believe what she read online. i found out through facebook. >> i was scrolling and saw someone posted something. i called her younger brother, somebody came to her house and murdered her. >> what do you mean? >> somebody came into our house and murdered her? >> coming up. what had happened in that house? an eye witness account from todd. >> oh my god. what does this box had to do

with a long ago fire and death on a dark mountains. w when "dateline" continues. patients want something that works faster for them. they want to get rid of their pain as quickly as possible. why would somebody want to suffer if there is options that they don't need to. i think dentists will want to recommend sensodyne rapid relief. sensodyne rapid relief builds a layer fast on the tooth's surface over those sensitive areas, which means patients are going to get fast relief from their sensitivity. sensodyne rapid relief is clinically proven to work in 3 days. i think dentists will want to recommend this product because it's going to help their patients and that's what we are trying to do is help patients.

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february 2012 grew more bizarre. neighbors watched the police surrounding todd, he saw something quite in comprehensible. >> we doiidn't know what was gog on. todd under arrest and charged with murder for killing rachel? what about her lover the man with all the guns? >> no, it was todd in handcuffs. the investigation disappears into the house and found a bloody crime scene and rachel

winkler dead. in her baby's bedroom. they found the couple's three young children safe and sound across the street in their neighbor's house. todd dropped them off there before the police arrive. todd himself was sitting in an interview where he admitted yes, he killed rachel but he said he had no choice and then he told the police a harrowing story of rage and violence and self-defense. the trouble began the night before sunday night, he says as he was preparing to leave early next morning for work. rachel told him straight out, she was leaving him for james. >> a few hours later, 3:30 monday morning. when todd went into the baby's room where rachel had taken to sleeping. they argued vividly of custody of the children. >> i said i am not going to figure -- i am going to find it

on this. >> she say her boyfriend, the gun collector. >> as todd told us. when rachel said that. she threatened to get rid of him. he over reacted and punched rachel. todd said he tried to apologize. but then he said rachel turned around and attacked him with a deadly weapon. >> she turned around and i got a

hold of them during the struggle and rolled off the bed and a done deal. i took some powder on my hands and trying to get it awa from her. they wrestled in the bedroom floor he says. a couple of feet from the creek were seven month old was sleeping and over weight and out of shape, said todd. he was fighting for his life with his much fitter wife. >> it was a long struggle. she's very strong. and she had me at the bottom and back the forth. then he says he finally over powered her and got control over those scissors. >> i was able to get her soon.

>> he was -- she was injured a little bit. probably not seriously. but, i poked her really hard. >> he retrieved it as quick as he could. >> i ran to my car then i know oh my god, his t. >> his two daughters were in the room. standing there in the garage, he made a decision. he had to protect his children. he'll go back in. >> i grabbed my motorcycle jacket and put it on. it got calves. >> she must have been waiting

said todd to pounce. she was. he told the police soon in the fight to the death to save his own life. >> four women brushed into the room and she kicked me in the the face and we got into another struggle on the floor. and one time you know, i started to get tupper hand. >> i pushed her as far as i could. >> where was that, do you recall? >> why didn't you hold her there? >> i knew if i left alone

alone, -- coming up, what really happened? that bedroom? investigation reveals someone was keeping secrets. we are realizing wait, there was a formal wife? that's just the beginning when "dateline" continues.

meant a duel to the death. >> it was probably kill or be killed kind of situation.

back inside the house, in the master bedroom, in a night

stand, they found something else, too. something quite unexpected. this blue box. inside? ashes. what? at the bottom of the box was a label that simply said, "cremated remains of catherine lynn winkler." and now, suddenly, there were two mysteries to solve. what really happened in the winkler baby's blood-stained bedroom? >> we're realizing, "wait, there was a former wife?" >> reporter: oh yes there was. todd winkler had been married before. and clearly, his ex-wife was dead. so, what happened to her? no choice, decided prosecutor suder, she would have to find out and that's when she set out to follow a trail that led to a man in georgia, named gerald johnson. a judge now, but back in 1999, a rookie detective. >> it really shocked me that i was getting a call from california about a case that i

had worked in our little gentle town there in white county. >> reporter: had you forgotten all about that case? >> no, sir. i actually -- over the years, i've thought about that case many times. >> reporter: the case, an auto accident in the fall of 99. an accident that killed the first mrs. winkler, cathy. >> it was my father who called me that night and told me that -- that cathy was no longer with us. >> reporter: what was that like for you? >> it hurts. it still hurts. >> reporter: so many years later, charles carlisle still smarts from the loss of his big sister cathy, just never got over it. but then, cathy was also his mentor, his protector perhaps his only true friend. they grew up on mcdill airforce base near tampa, florida charles painfully shy, cathy, outgoing, strikingly attractive, popular. tanya vanatter and julie lynn cox were school chums.

they remember what a knock-out she was but that there was more to her than just that. >> she could have her choice of young men. she was beautiful. >> inside and out. >> it wasn't just her exterior beauty. she was a beautiful girl, but she just had such a sweet, kind, caring personality that it was attractive to everybody. >> reporter: it was a small miracle, perhaps, that she turned out so well, given what was demanded of her, said her friends. >> her mother left when they were young. her grandmother lived with her for a while, but she was the caretaker of her siblings. she had a younger sister and a younger brother, and cathy pretty much mothered them and cared for them. >> she definitely was the mom. >> reporter: except on weekends, when the school chums remember sneaking around the base to get a glimpse of the true stars among the young men there, no suprise, the macho fighter pilots. >> the man in the uniform. >> yes, that uniform.

definitely, the jumpersuit. very hot. >> cathy and i would always joke and say, "do you think you're gonna marry a pilot? wouldn't that be so cool? it's like "top gun," marry a pilot." and of course, she ended up marrying one, so. >> reporter: wasn't a direct route, mind you. first, in her early 20s cathy struck up a serious relationship with a pilot who in the end just couldn't seem to commit. and so, just like rachel, years later in napa, california, cathy was a young woman on the rebound when she met fighter pilot todd. >> where the first one didn't work out or perhaps maybe it didn't work to the way that you wanted it to. and maybe she felt like this was what she needed to do. and todd came into the picture. i think having that pilot probably maybe is what caused

her to marry todd. >> reporter: patterns. that time, too, todd was ready to commit. right away. how long did they date before they got married? >> i wouldn't say it was a very long time at all. >> they got married within weeks of dating. she appeared to be happy, so i didn't question that. she had married her pilot. and so i thought, you know, her fairytale was coming true. >> reporter: the airforce sent todd to japan soon after the wedding. it was an exhilarating time for cathy, getting married, heading off to live in an exotic place. >> cathy was excited to move to japan. and she was going to be an english teacher. >> reporter: and later, after todd left the airforce cathy's friends remember how she was there for him as he tried to figure out what to do next. >> she was very nurturing in the fact that she was supporting him in whatever different career he was going to choose. >> reporter: it was a difficult time for todd. >> we did spend thanksgiving with them one year, and todd had put on a lot of weight. and i know that he wasn't working and he was depressed. >> reporter: but, todd had always had a knack for making money and he figured it out, got into the booming wi-fi businessand pretty soon cathy and todd moved into a big lakeside house in georgia with a

boat, fancy cars, and of course an airplane. cathy, always so nurturing, told her friends she was ready to take the next step. >> i remember cathy calling me and telling me that they were living in georgia and that she was excited about it, and that she wanted to have children. so i was excited for her, because i can see her with little kids. >> reporter: but nine years into what looked like a happy marriage children had yet to arrive. and now we know, because of what was in that blue box they never would. time to find out what happened. who knew the discovery in that box would bring investigators all the way across the county to the blue ridge mountains of north georgia, to a campsite, high on a hill. here was a lonely place. that had kept it's secret long enough.

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>> reporter: white county, georgia. >> it's beautiful, just nature at its best. >> reporter: this is where the blue ridge mountains begin. >> and it's sweet here. it's quite lovely. >> beautiful. >> reporter: a person can find what really matters up here,

said mike hodnett and woody depew. up here so far from the raucous urban world are weekends steeped in the peace and beauty of a natural cathedral. >> we'd ride our mountain bikes, go sit in the river, hike, go rappelling. >> most of the time you're just -- you're out there by yourself. and you make your own rules. >> reporter: and at night? >> you can go up to the top of the mountain and you can see a lot of stars you didn't know were there. >> reporter: but down the sides of the mountain, under a thick canopy of leaves -- >> many, many nights it's just pitch black. >> reporter: this is the place, these are the conditions that california prosecutor lisette suder needed to understand. it was september, 26th 1999, one of those pitch black nights, the night mike and woody lived through one of the strangest experiences of their lives. mike and woody were asleep in separate tents around a common campfire. and both, same moment, were suddenly startled awake. >> i was sleeping in my tent and i heard somebody shouting from

the road about 100 yards away, "help, help, help, my wife is dead." >> this is the middle of the night. >> it's the middle of the night. >> and then i kind of was like -- just laid there and i was like, "nah, nah, i didn't just hear that." and then i heard it again. >> reporter: they got up fast and out of the black night. >> some strange man come walking into their campsite going, "oh, help. help me. my wife is dead." >> reporter: the stranger was emotional, distraught, told them he and his wife had been camping a few miles farther up the narrow mountain road. >> he said that he had been stung by a bee and that his wife was rushing him to the hospital. and he was laying in the back of the truck. he then told us that his wife lost control of the vehicle. >> reporter: and then the pick up went over the edge and tumbled down the ridge, he told them. >> and then, he was thrown out of the back bed of the truck. it just threw him out. and then he was able to walk away. >> reporter: he said it crashed at the bottom and burst into

flames with his wife still inside. the man looked disheveled but okay. he wanted to call 9-1-1 but didn't have a cell phone with him. and he wanted to try to find his wife he told them. woody and mike told the stranger he could ride in the bed of their truck, while they drove up the twisting track, looking for the accident site. >> i -- i kept asking, like, "where's the wreck? where's the wreck?" and then after that went on, you know, 20 or 30, 40 seconds, you know, going around different turns and stuff, we finally come around this turn and the whole side of the mountain's on fire. obviously, we knew we were there. >> reporter: it looked like several acres of forest were on fire. >> did it look like it was possible anybody could be alive down there? >> no. >> no. >> reporter: just the same, woody and mike climbed down the steep incline as far as they could. >> i don't see how anybody could've survived that wreck. the cliff, the fire, but i'm still hopeful, okay?

i got to do something. >> yeah. >> reporter: but there was no getting near the truck and no sign of a survivor. and then the firefighters came and the emts and, of course, the cops. they too heard the husband's bizarre tale. and they also learned his name was todd winkler. in their report they wrote that when they encountered todd, he was calling out for his wife cathy over and over. cathy, cathy, as if he was hoping she'd come walking out of that burning forest. the patrol deputies called in the investigators, which is how gerald johnson, a brand new detective at the time, found himself deep in the georgia woods early that autumn morning. >> what happened up there on the hill was -- well, you -- you can describe to me as best you understood at the time what had happened. >> sometime during the night, he had gotten up, according to his statement, to go outside to use the restroom. and as he came back to the tent, he realized that he had been bitten by something or was

having some type of reaction, that his throat was closing up and -- >> a sort of anaphylactic shock type reaction? >> well, that -- that's what i described it as. and she takes him out to this toyota pickup, if i remember correctly. he's crawling on his hands and knees at this point and having all these symptoms of some type of allergic reaction. >> reporter: johnson mostly just observed, he said, as the georgia bureau of investigation looked into what happened. but took no action. and eventually, the coroner ruled cathy's death an accident. and then, the life insurance company did the same. and as the more than half million dollar policy on cathy's life was a double indemnity, it paid double in the case of an accident. todd got close to $1.2 million. and the case was closed. but for the heartbreak, it was julie-lynn who told tanya what

happened. >> and she said, "tanya, cathy's dead. she's not alive anymore. she died." i remember falling to the ground and i said, "what do you mean she's dead?" >> reporter: cathy's friend julie-lynn felt not just for herself but for todd, too. >> and i wanted to console him and just let him know that we were there for him, supporting him, anything we could do for him. and he never returned any of my calls. >> reporter: tanya -- tanya tried to call him, too. for a different reason. >> it just didn't add up. my phone call was strictly to figure out and to pick his brain and ask questions. >> reporter: because, by then, tanya was a cop herself, who knew a little something about suspicious behavior. >> did i think he was going to answer that phone? no, and let me tell you, i tried that phone number numerous times. and after about a month of calling it repeatedly, the phone number was disconnected. >> reporter: she didn't get

anywhere. no. but sometimes, maybe, with a little help from curious prosecutor, you get a do-over. >> so, as the years went by, you thought about it? >> oh, yes, sir. >> it bothered you? >> yes. >> so, that must have made that call that you got from california all the more remarkable. >> when -- when i realized what they were asking me about, yes, sir. i thought, "oh, my goodness, what in the world is going on with this case?" so many questions of the long ago case. >> cathy was not a camper.

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reporter: once, when outsiders came to these north georgia mountains and valleys it was to make a movie called 'deliverance'. this time, the visitors were california detectives. here to find out exactly what happened on this mountain path on a dark night more than a decade ago.

>> we got all those police reports. >> reporter: out in california, 15 years later, prosecutor lisette suder was convinced. for the sake of her own case, she had to find out what really happened up here on this isolated mountain road in september, 1999. >> what is very important about the georgia case and our case is it goes to his intent in the rachel case. >> reporter: and before long she knew. this was going to be explosive. the georgia case could be her best evidence in the here and now in california to show that todd winkler was perfectly capable of spousal murder. because she soon believed he had done it before. >> the more we read, the more we realized that this was not an accident. >> reporter: todd's behavior up here on the mountain, said prosecutor suder, was deeply

suspect. for one thing, his stories just kept changing with each telling, like the one about where he was sitting in the truck as it headed down the mountain trail, in the passenger seat, holding cathy's hand, as he told the police, or back in the bed of the truck, as the campers insisted he told them. and when the truck went off the road? did he describe being thrown out of the vehicle? >> not to us, but there was another interview. that was done earlier, where i think he described to someone as a twisting and turning motion. but in our interview, what i recall him sayin' is that when he came to himself, he was layin' on the ground, outside the vehicle. there was a huge fire. and he didn't know where his wife was. so from -- >> reporter: so that he didn't remember the accident at all, in your interview? >> right, right. >> reporter: but apparently he did in some other interview. >> and that's correct. >> reporter: there were differing stories about what sort of bug supposedly bit him. supposedly causing an allergic reaction so bad he had to ask

cathy to rush him down the mountain to a hospital. yet, when the cops asked to see the bug bite? >> he didn't know where the bug bite was. didn't know what bit him. >> reporter: didn't know where it was? >> no, sir. >> reporter: something serious enough to give him an allergic reaction that doesn't present anywhere is a bit odd. >> that was a big question in my mind. >> reporter: todd told the cops back then that he had a history of allergic reactions. always carried an epi-pen for emergencies. yet didn't take that to the wilderness that weekend. did that seem strange to you that he'd go camping without an epipen if he was subject to this sort of thing? >> it seemed strange to me that we were spendin' so much time talkin' about bug bites. it was almost as if we were tryin' to steer away from the real issue, which was a fatality crash involving his wife. >> reporter: it also seem strange he said that by the time the campers saw todd, he displayed no evidence of an allergic reaction. of course, lisette suder and her people interviewed mike and woody too. and they told her, as they told us, that they never forgot how strangely phony todd seemed when

he arrived at their campsite that night. >> he was kind of -- kinda play-sobbing, i would say, you know? it was -- it was some horrible acting going on. >> it wasn't believable. >> reporter: they also wondered why, on a warm southern night, was todd dressed in several layers of heavy clothing? was he protecting himself from a fall he knew he was going to cause? >> he had a lot of extra clothing on. but i also remember he also had a toboggan hat on. >> reporter: the kind you pull down over your ears. >> the kind -- yes. >> and i'm standin' there in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops. >> reporter: also, why did the accident happen on the one spot in the whole drive that offered a long straight drop hundreds of feet into a deep ravine? >> the steepest cliff possible on that road. >> reporter: why did their toyota pick up erupt into flames? that might happen in the movies, but rarely in real life. why did it look like the fire had been burning for a long time? >> it was -- the whole side of the mountain. it was a big mountain. it had to have been burnin' an hour or two.

>> yeah, probably. i would think. closer to two. >> reporter: curiosities. why would he bring up here to the very top of the mountain to go camping it's an hour's drive over a rutted track to the other campers farther down the hill. acording to cathy's family she didn't like camping at all. so why would he bring her to the most remote possible place? >> no one camps up there. unless you want to be really secluded. >> reporter: and that said cathy's brother was not something she would have wanted. did she like to go camping? >> no. she'd rather be in a hotel -- any day over -- a tent, knowin' my sister. >> reporter: puzzled cathy's friends too. >> i was like, "camping?" >> cathy was not a camper. >> reporter: and there was this -- >> i recall him -- at some point, mr. winkler saying, "do you think i killed my wife?" >> reporter: is that a question an innocent man would ask, johnson wondered?

and when the investigaor responded. johnson remembered thinking todd's behavior seemed off, inappropriate. >> if i remember correctly, special agent roberts says, "did you?" and then at that point he became very emotional, you know? "oh, i can't believe --" and his body language and his demeanor was just so over the top. >> reporter: but though they may have had their suspicions back in 1999, suspicion alone didn't make the death of cathy winkler anything but what it was called at the time, an accident. insurance companies investigated and paid out, because they felt that it was a real accident, and the -- authorities there couldn't show that it wasn't a real accident. so why was it worth you looking at it again? >> well, we knew a lot more about todd winkler at this point. we knew a lot more about how he goes about getting what he wants.

>> reporter: the more she learned about cathy winker's death the more it seemed to her that todd must have planned it all. just as the evidence here in california was telling her that the killing of rachel winkler more than a decade later was a case of history, todd winkler's history, repeating itself. but if she had some crusading idea of finding justice in that old case, and using it to solidify her own here in california, she'd have persuade a judge, first. >> disorder in the court. too many people in pain settle for

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>> reporter: once, a long time

ago, this part of california was the epicenter of the gold rush. back then, as legend has it, at least, there was no wait for justice. you committed a crime, the punishment was meted out then and there. but not now. for more than two years after the bloody confrontation in the winkler's nursery, todd waited in jail to be tried for her murder. >> and i just started just pacing around the house just saying, "god, i just killed their mother." >> reporter: for those two years, todd maintained, as he had from the very beginning, that he killed rachel only to save his own life, to save himself and his children. from jail, he and his family fought a losing battle with rachel's father, don hatfield, who won custody of those children. and here began atoning for the sins of his youth by devoting his life to three little kids, eva, ariel and alex.

it was after all that that they held the trial. prosecutor lisette suder intended to portray todd as a manipulative and devious man who murdered not one wife but two. that is if she could persuade a california judge to allow an old georgia case to be dusted off and brought back to life. >> i felt confident that i had the law behind me on that. and i submitted my brief, and i submitted the legal arguments that supported that. >> reporter: and? she won. and so, in september of 2014, when todd winker went on trial charged with first-degree murder of second wife rachel, lisette suder could use the georgia story about first wife cathy's death 15 years earlier against him. and the defense? dismissed the georgia case out of hand. irrelevant, said todd's

attorney. cathy winkler's death was thoroughly investigated, he said. and it was not ruled a murder, because it was not a murder. >> there's no evidence of anything other than an accident. >> reporter: todd's attorney was able to explain away the things that had raised suspicion. cathy's family was wrong, said the defense. she loved camping. a ranger who saw them making their dinner way up in this remote spot, so far from any other living soul, said they seemed happy. and the insurance money, remember that? that wasn't motive, just business as usual for a pair of upper-middle class professionals. >> in addition to the insurance policy of about $1.1 million that cathy had at the time of her death on her own life, he had $1.2 million on his own life. >> reporter: no, cathy and todd were a young upwardly mobile couple. life insurance was cheap, easy to get. they both had it. anyway, todd loved cathy. why else would he keep her ashes all these years.

cathy's death, said the defense, had nothing whatever to do with the event for which todd was on trial, the death of rachel winkler, and he wasn't guilty in this case either. >> this is not a murder case, ladies and gentlemen. it's a self-defense case, or at most it's a voluntary manslaughter case. >> reporter: there were two good reasons to believe that, said the defense. reason one, self defense. as todd told the police that very first day -- >> it was probably a kill or be killed kind of situation. >> reporter: he was a good guy in a bad situation, said his attorney. he worked hard and long hours to support rachel. he wanted to make her happy, and he was a good dad. and for that she cheated on him, threatened him and then attacked with those scissors. of course, by that point, todd told the police, she was a very unstable woman. >> started drinking, started binge drinking. i was afraid for the children.

she was just spinning into this mental cycle of self-destruction. >> reporter: and then todd's defense revealed this little gem. >> she's signed up for california sweetheart, which is an adult connection kind of -- you can judge for yourselves what it is. >> reporter: married to a man she'd grown to hate, in an affair with a man she was maybe thinking of cheating on, said the defense. she was conflicted, said todd's attorney. she was telling people she was afraid of todd. and yet she sure didn't act like it here, todd and rachel look happy. >> compare it with this photograph taken in las vegas about just a few days before rachel died. >> reporter: but there was something else, said todd's attorney, and it was reason number two, that rachel's death was not murder. and that was that his client had a psychotic breakdown when rachel attacked him. his ability to understand what he was doing was diminished.

why should the jury believe that? well, as you'll remember, rachel herself described todd as unstable at times. and now the defense presented evidence of what they said was his history of psychotic episodes. the first one happened in asia, something like 20 years earlier when todd was married to cathy and was flying with the fighting samurai squadron. he was caught shoplifting from a base px. he claimed amnesia. so the air force sent him off for psychiatric tests. but then it got even more bizarre, and cathy called her friend tanya. >> she telephoned me saying, "i'm in hawaii. todd had a mental breakdown, and so he's in a psychiatric facility." she had said to me that he escaped and was in the wooded area in hawaii. and for a week or two. and when he finally came out of the woods he said that he was a samurai warrior. >> reporter: back then, after months of psychiatric evaluation, todd was diagnosed

with dissociative disorder, a neurosis that warped his view of reality. not exactly what the air force wanted in a fighter pilot. >> and because of events and the determinations by the air force psychiatrists, he was retired medically with a 50% disability. >> reporter: and there was that incident in amsterdam. remember? rachel told james about it. it happened just before he was due to make an important presentation at a conference. that time he appeared to black out, became catatonic, ended up in the hospital where they found nothing wrong with him and released him. rachel told james he faked the episode. but here at trial, a defense psychiatrist testified todd suffered from real mental issues, dissociative disorder, conversion disorder, which meant he could be violent if he felt he was under attack. and that awful morning?

first he told the police she threatened to sic her well-armed boyfriend on him. >> and she said, "no, you know, i'm looking to have my boyfriend get rid of you." >> reporter: and then -- >> she was coming at me with a vee of scissors. >> reporter: rachel's dad, don, and self-described soulmate, soulmate, james, watched as the defense argued that todd had no choice but to kill the woman they so loved. >> his state of mind is what you really need to pay careful attention to here. he knows she'll kill him. he knows if he doesn't end it, it could end him. >> reporter: all very sad, said the defense, but not murder. and what would prosecutor suder say about that? >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. >> reporter: simple, all that psychiatric stuff, she said, was fakery. todd winkler may have had, or feigned, some disorder that got him out of the air force, she

said, but he killed rachel. and it was murder, deliberate and planned, she said, committed by a man practiced at getting away with things. >> this is a case about a mastermind, a manipulator, a murderer. this is a case about todd winkler and how he brutally murdered rachel marie winkler, his wife, mother of his three small children. >> reporter: todd winkler did not have to fend off a scissor-wielding wife, said prosecutor suder, so it wasn't self-defense. and rachel's death could not be blamed on any mental condition either, any more than the death of another mrs. winkler in those dark woods so long ago. but as she began to tell that part of the story watch what happened. >> she's found burned to death down a steep embankment where the car went. the car and she burned. and the defendant is very fine

with just a few minor scratches on him. >> you are not samurai. >> stop, stop, stop. stop, stop, stop. judge -- >> you do not speak truth. you only want to destroy. you have no bushido. you have no bushido. >> reporter: bailliffs and his lawyer struggled to restrain todd. it looked like the whole trial would be over. he's a monster. ♪i get down on my knees ♪and i start to pray ♪till the tears run down from my eyes♪ ♪lord somebody, ooh somebody ♪can anybody find me somebody to love?♪

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>> she's found burned to death down a steep embankment. >> reporter: just as the

prosecutor was laying out her case against todd winkler in the killing of his wife, rachel, a sudden, inexplicable outburst from todd. >> you are not samurai. >> stop, stop, stop. stop, stop, stop. >> you do not speak truth. you only want to destroy. you have no bushido. you have no bushido. >> reporter: bushido? in japanese, the "way of the warrior," the honor-based code of conduct of a samauri. why was todd winkler raving about it now? was this another psychotic episode? >> judge, off the bench. stop, stop, stop. >> reporter: of course, the trial came to a screeching halt. a mistrial loomed. >> may we have the courtroom cleared? >> reporter: instead, the judge came down hard on todd. >> if you want to play the game,

>> he's had, now, two wives where he has been the one who has been the only witness to a crime. >> reporter: but, she said, based on what investigators found, the events at 3:00 in the morning in the california airpark were not so hard to determine. and she prepared the jury. what happened that night was horrific. one, todd opened rachel's laptop and found the divorce documents she'd been working on with her boyfriend, james. that laptop has disappeared from its ususal place in winkler home. two, he grabbed the scissors

from a craft box, which was kept on a shelf right above the computer. and three, prosecutor suder -- >> i believe he took a pair of scissors and he went in that room with the intent to kill her. he attacked her while she was sleeping, stabbed her repeatedly in the face and the neck area. and i believe, at that point, he thought he had killed her, and he left her for dead. >> reporter: then, said the prosecutor, as todd prepared to leave the house, he saw a light had been turned on in the baby's room. >> so that's when he then goes, gets his motorcycle jacket on for padding, for protection, bangs in the door, finds her in that corner. >> reporter: cowering? >> cowering. >> reporter: trying to save her own life? >> correct. >> reporter: they knew that rachel spent some time after the first attack holding her baby. from prosecution closings -- >> baby alex's onesie was examined. and you know that there are drip blood, like being droplet blood, up on top of that onesie. that's how we know that rachel was holding that baby.

>> reporter: then todd came back. >> she's in the corner there. she kicks at him. >> reporter: didn't stop him. >> he bear crawls up her body. he takes those scissors, and this ex-fighter pilot jams them into her neck, and he sits there and lays there on top of her while she slowly dies. >> reporter: after that, for seven hours, todd cleaned up, said the prosecutor, then took his kids to the neighbor's house. and then, after dropping the kids at the neighbor's, but before the cops arrived, he took the time to cut his hands, to make it look as if he'd been attacked by rachel. how did they know the cuts were self-inflicted? the neighbor said his hands weren't cut when he dropped off the kids. and then the prosecutor told the jury about the ashes, cathy winkler's ashes, which rachel discovered months before she was

killed. >> and learned how there had been a crash, and he had no injuries and she had died. rachel was upset by this and said, "well, is this how i'm going to turn out?" and this defendant's reply was, "well, you're not going to get in my way, are you?" >> reporter: rachel knew she was in danger, said prosecutor suder, as a doomed young woman had already told her closest friends and family. >> and rachel explained that this defendant said to rachel, "if you divorce me, you will end up like my last wife." she did. >> reporter: after 13 days of testimony the jury got the case. they were out one day. >> we, the jury in the above entitled action, find the defendant todd alan winkler guilty of the crime of first-degree murder. >> reporter: no outburst this time. no breakdown. the former fighter pilot sat quietly and listened. he got 26 years to life. it was over for todd. but not for anyone else.

not really. as james white's daughter, katelyn, told us -- >> i was told that monsters don't exist. my parents always told me that. and after going through that trial and seeing what i had to see, i can tell you with absolute certainty that that is 110% false. he is a monster. >> reporter: and rachel's men? we weren't surprised to hear that james has his own idea of what justice might be. did you have any thought about what would happen if the justice system didn't look after todd in a way that seemed reasonable to you? >> he would have been dealt with. >> reporter: by whom? >> me. >> reporter: you know, they could have put you in prison for life. >> it would have been a one-way mission. he and i are both goig to go down together. i'm not going to shoot him. i'm going to kill him with my two bare hands. i'm going to do to him what he did to rachel. >> reporter: tim cherrington,

the man who failed to commit and then watched the love of his life go on to her terrible end, has his own way of taking revenge, mostly on himself. kind of a tragic love story from your point of view? >> it is, it is. >> reporter: i mean, this is a woman you could've spent the rest of your life with. >> very, very easily could, yes. i should have pulled the trigger when i had that chance, you know. i blew it. i didn't, you know, give her the ring earlier. >> reporter: well, you're still paying for it, aren't you? >> yeah. yes, i am, yeah. that's a tough one. >> reporter: different kind of thinking across the country, among the friends of that other mrs. winkler, the one whose death on a lonely mountain road, is still officially labelled, "accident." >> i mean, this is a beautiful woman who gave so much, was so nurturing and caring. i don't feel like there's been justice for cathy. >> i think about cathy's death all the time. >> reporter: about whether she

could somehow have done more to prevent a second death, the murder of rachel winkler. >> my heart breaks for those children. i wish i could hug them all and tell that i'm so sorry that i didn't press harder to make them open this case or be that strong person that i was. i apologize. >> reporter: and some day, said don hatfield, he'll find the words to tell the story to rachel's children, ariel, alex and eva. >> this whole story is a mixture of murder and blood and failings and grace and jesus and heaven and god, and so there's some real craziness to it. but that's the character of my life and some of rachel's life. it's just kind of life in general. >> reporter: in the meantime, he said, he's trying to be the kind of parent he wasn't with his own children, but is now, for

rachel. >> i believe it's my destiny to raise them. i intend to do that, you know, with god's help.

it was a whirlwind love affair. >> i felt like this was the one that i'd been waiting for. maybe it was too good to be true. did he love me, or was this all a game? >> reporter: a beautiful businesswoman falls for a dashing doctor, but her daughters have doubts -- >> i had lots of suspicions. >> she thinks his fingernails are dirty. this does not look to her like the hands of an actual doctor. who was this guy? >> his nickname was "dirty john." >> this woman knew him all too well.