that's what she embodied. and i carry that with me. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. my parents always told me that monsters don't exist. i can tell you with absolute certainty that is 110% false. and he is a monster. >> a wife and mother killed in her own home. >> i get a phone call from a screaming irrational voice on the other end. i said, is it rachel? >> i said what do you mean? somebody came into her house and murdered her?

who murdered her? >> police discovered rachel had a complicated love life. >> she said i've fallen hopelessly in love with you. >> you were married to somebody else. >> i wanted to get out of that marriage soon as possible. >> was there an even bigger secret buried in this box? >> former wife. >> we finally come around this turn. the whole side of the mountain's on fire. >> marriage, money, and murder. >> when people say i know how you feel, you have no idea how i feel. i don't want you to know how i feel because no one should ever feel this way. >> deadly twist. hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. rachel and todd winkler were living a life of luxury. a nice home, fancy cars and private planes. but behind closed doors police

found that things were far from perfect. and what they discovered would launch an investigation that had them digging into the past, sending them clear across the country in search of answers. here's keith morrison. >> the night forest was profoundly dark. below its thick canopy of trees even the meager moonlight was shut out. as the driver rushed too fast down the twisting stomach-churning track, inches from yawning inky black depths, desperate to save the passenger's life. what were they doing up here, so far from civilization, from safety? what answers did the fire consume? as one of them was launched on a path as dark and twisted as the mountain road itself. one evil begetting another and another until -- >> this whole story is a mixture

of murder and blood and failings and grace and heaven and god and -- there's some real craziness to it. >> but to begin, 2,500 miles west of that remote mountain trail in georgia is one of the more civilized places on earth -- napa, california. world famous wineries, michelin starred restaurants. here lived a beautiful woman, who loved four admiring men. her father, the prominent artist. her husband, the ex-fighter pilot and pharmaceutical executive. her lover, the handyman, former marine and firearms expert. and her first boyfriend, the would-be impressionist painter. his name is tim cherrington. and she the woman at the center of all that happened, was rachel. rachel hatfield. >> reporter: so rachel. tell me about her.

>> oh, [beep]. i'm sorry. we're starting, huh? >> reporter: well, just whatever. >> hmm. start again. >> reporter: what'd that do to you when i said that? >> my heart just went, "boom." >> the subject of rachel, as you can plainly see, is painful for tim cherrington. a pain that might lessen if he'd only learn to forget. but all he can do is remember. like the night they first met. >> it was a july night, a party. and she was dancing. and i said, "wow, i'm gonna meet that girl." >> reporter: how old were you? >> i was 18 and i think she was 17. >> reporter: oh. wow. >> love-drunk teens. they set up house together. that's tim during those giddy years, rarely serious. looking like a character from the movie "dazed and confused." and there's rachel, unconsciously glamorous. like some movie star in her own romantic comedy, with a plot that was all too familiar. aspiring artists waiting for

their break. >> reporter: could she see making a life as a painter? >> yeah, she could. >> reporter: rachel could picture it because she had seen it happen. her own father, don hatfield, made a big name for himself painting the romantic, bucolic beach scenes that for years have graced living rooms around the country. you may have seen his "how to paint" courses on youtube. >> this is called, "for me." it's called, "aiming your shot." >> rare is the artist who, like don, could comfortably raise four kids in the napa valley. >> but though many are called, few are chosen. tim's artistic hopes were disappointed. >> it wasn't happening. it wasn't happening. >> so he and rachel lowered their sights and hustled up any work, like murals, that might help cover the rent. >> we were, you know, doing murals, and that's all the income we had. >> reporter: murals doesn't pay

all that well. >> no, it doesn't pay much at all. >> she was under-girding and supporting and loving and directing tim. >> don hatfield thought his daughter would outgrow tim. after all, rachel, unlike tim, buckled down and went to college. >> you know, graduates at top of her class at sonoma state, recruited by deloitte and touche and they started her out at 80k. "we want you --" no, i want to do a little business of my own. you know? and she and tim would run around and do stuff. >> reporter: paint murals and so forth? >> yeah. >> reporter: were they any good? >> not really. >> but she loved him nonetheless. fourteen years this went on. rachel wanted to get married and have kids. >> and i haven't asked her to marry me yet. and -- >> reporter: did you want to have kids? >> i did. i did. i did, but i just wasn't there yet, you know what i'm saying? >> well. it's an old story, isn't it? tim was blindsided by what happened next. rachel met another man, someone who was everything tim was not. todd winkler.

focused, disciplined. a former f-16 fighter pilot who was on track to be a corporate leader. tim scrambled. >> and i went and bought a ring real quick to propose to her. and i did. >> it was too late by then, of course. rachel turned him down and announced her engagement to todd. >> it was really hard, you know, because the love of my life was leaving me for some guy that had a good job and a house and a boat and a nice car. >> tim, to me, was rachel's soulmate. he was nothing but loving and kind to her. >> hard to watch, said rachel's closest friend, shannon thurman. >> she called me when she broke up with him and said, "you know we're done. i wanna have a family, he's not ready to have a family. and so, you know, we're done." and then literally like two months later she called me and said, you know, "you need to be here in two days, i'm getting married." and i was like, "oh, great. you guys made -- made up." and she's like, "no, we didn't

make up. we -- you know, it's -- it's this other guy, his name is todd, and you need to be here in two days." >> tim didn't go to the wedding, couldn't handle it, went to a bar to escape it. no idea the wedding party would swoop into his bar for a round of toasts. >> it was hard, man, watching your girl on this big guy with her hot pink dress on and he was carrying her. he's the guy that's got it going on and she's a pretty girl. and they look like a great couple. >> i just -- i mean, i can't imagine what -- what that would be like. i just can't. >> yeah. its hard. >> reporter: to be the guy who gets dumped is bad. >> it's bad. i quit painting, you know, as soon as i found out she married todd. and i just had no energy. i had no oomph. i no inspiration. i had given up.

>> reporter: so what does this broken-hearted love story have to do with a fiery mountain crash? more than you could possibly imagine. >> in my mind this was not an accident. our friend was -- was murdered. i truly believe that. >> a married woman's complicated love life. one of rachel's lovers is gone but not forgotten. coming up -- >> i thought maybe, you know, later on down the road, we can, you know, get together again and share life again. >> and there's a new lover on the horizon. >> i couldn't get her off my mind. >> when "deadly twist" continues. ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: history, for all we may try to slip its inconvenient grip, is a sticky business and is rarely as done with us as we would choose to be with it.

we make debts we must pay. rachel hatfield turned her life as if on a dime, left her past behind and embraced an existence that was everything it wasn't with old boyfriend tim. when she married todd winkler, the ex-fighter pilot turned corporate executive, she also married into a very different lifestyle. there were private airplanes and boats and motorcycles. a big house in a development east of sacramento called an air park. cessnas in garages, piper cubs on the curb. tim cherrington versus todd winkler? "no contest," said her dad, don hatfield. >> the guy's an air force academy graduate. he's successful in business. he's a family man. he's, you know, from the midwest. he's got to be great. >> reporter: good, solid upper-middle class guy? >> up yeah, no. >> reporter: and he's got a plane and he's got -- >> planes and boats and -- you know, all over the place.

>> reporter: what tim, the starving artist could offer, beyond love and loyalty, was a whole lot of nothing. todd, on the other hand. >> we went to orlando with them -- to disney world. >> reporter: and he was picking up the bill for this stuff? >> yeah. most of the time, yeah. >> don had no way of knowing that tim was, for a time, still in rachel's life. sort of. >> reporter: you didn't lose touch completely. >> no, we really kept in touch, >> reporter: why would they do that? maybe because her marriage, her marriage, rachel led tim to believe, wasn't all apple pie and ice cream. >> because she wanted to share with me what was going on. >> reporter: what did she tell you? >> she shared with me that todd took her credit cards and maxed them all out and bought a plane and just put her in debt for, like, $45,000. >> reporter: whoa. >> i was, like, "whoa." i'm all, "aren't you freaking out?" and she said, "yeah, but we -- he'll take care of it." >> reporter: which when he thought about it sounded less like complaining than maybe

boasting. tim, after all, could barely qualify for credit at all. eventually, being on the outside looking in was just too hard. >> i couldn't take it no more. it's, you know -- it was getting harder and harder. >> reporter: so he asked her to stop calling him. he had to move on, start painting again, forget her, though as he admitted to us, he wasn't very successful. >> i thought, you know, maybe later on down the road we can, you know, get together again and share life again. >> wishful thinking, of course. tim simply failed to understand that rachel's life with husband todd was getting more exciting by the day. when todd's company sent him to live briefly in australia, he invited rachel's dad to visit and paid his way. >> every night after work, boom, we're going to cirque du soleil, to comedy clubs, to dinners. i mean, it was a big -- it was a six-week party down there. >> reporter: but it was back home in the airpark where the winklers' social life blossomed. >> gosh, we have all kinds of things, from oktoberfest in october where the neighbors get together.

christmas parties, easter, valentine's day parties. >> ice cream social and paper airplanes. >> ice cream socials. yes. >> reporter: these were the neighbors. rich and linda johnson. lina and marion cockrell. >> todd had one airplane in the hangar and one in the driveway. >> reporter: they loved having an ex-fighter pilot for a neighbor. >> todd was always -- i mean, he was just a genuinely interesting guy. he would make eye contact with you. he always wanted to know about my job. what sort of cases are you working on? what kind of law do you practice? >> i had actually kind of looked at todd as kind of a "guy's guy." >> reporter: you enjoyed their company. >> we did. >> reporter: enjoyed todd a little more than rachel, maybe. >> i knew her less well than i knew todd, i feel. i feel like we were both in the same place in our lives, but sort of moving in different circles and -- >> reporter: she wasn't one of those people who kind -- you immediately were attracted to or

what? >> no. i don't -- i really liked her but she always seemed a little bit distant. very polite, very friendly but a little bit distant. >> you want to go over there? >> yeah. >> let's go over there. >> reporter: by 2001 raichel an todd had two little daughters, eva and ariel. >> he always seemed very involved and very engaged with the kids and to me always seemed to be trying to help rachel and give her a break. >> rachel and todd to us were like the perfect little family. >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> they were both very proactive parents, loving parents, caring parents. as well to each other a couple, they seemed like the perfect couple. >> and in our experience, we saw todd more on a social level with the kids than we saw rachel. >> reporter: not every day, mind you. todd landed a lucrative job with an international pharmaceutical company. grew expense account soft on his desk-bound track toward what he

called a c suite, as in ceo. the only catch was, his office was a long drive away in the san francisco bay area and, not wanting to uproot his family, todd got an apartment in town, returning home to the airpark for the weekends. which meant, of course, that rachel was now anchored to home, and two toddlers, monday through friday and was soon quite restless. so she put her kids into daycare and got a full-time job managing the airpark. >> reporter: how was she as a mother, by the way? >> oh, she was okay, i guess. >> reporter: was that harsh? don, you should know, has firmly rooted religious beliefs. >> i tried to lead all of my children to the love of jesus christ. >> reporter: it was an article of don's brand of faith. a mother should be at home with her kids. >> i was really pretty frustrated that she had them over in daycare and that she was working full-time.

>> reporter: mm-hmm. >> i didn't like it. >> reporter: but of course it wasn't the only thing he didn't like about rachel's job. there was also "him". >> the first thought i had was, you know, "wow, what a beautiful woman." and i still remember what she was wearing. i remember the way her hair was. >> reporter: his name -- james white. former marine. gun enthusiast. airpark handyman. >> she was just the most perfectly nice, most beautiful woman i've ever met. i couldn't get her off my mind. >> reporter: intoxicated by a married woman? well, no good can come of that. >> coming up -- >> i wanted to get out of that marriage as soon as possible. because 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 arise. >> how did she feel about carrying todd's baby?

>> when "deadly twist" continues. (dad) one under par on a hole is a...? (daughter) birdie! (dad) that's what i'm talkin' about. and a score of two under par is...? (daughter) big birdie! (dad) no, it's not that, it's uh... (rickie) turkey vulture! (dad) rickie fowler, i'm sorry, what...? (rickie) turkey vulture. (dad) oh! thats a turkey-oh! all right, lets go. i'll follow you. go, go, go- go! (burke) otherwise known as sand trap scavengers. seen it, covered it. september twenty-ninth, twenty-seventeen. at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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>> reporter: service in the military, as so many americans have come to know, can form a person. as it did james white. >> i was a marine for life. it never leaves you. >> reporter: once a marine, always a marine, they say. and james white loved everything about the corps. >> i miss the marine corps very much. >> reporter: though not so much his next job as a mississippi deputy sheriff. what was it you didn't like about it? >> i don't like seeing human suffering on a day-to-day basis. >> reporter: so, after a failed marriage and with his young daughter in tow, he moved back to the place he started out, northern california. that little girl, katelynn white, is all grown up now. >> we're more best friends than father and daughter. we fight like siblings, and we're just -- we -- we're more focused on having fun and not really caring about what other people think.

>> reporter: james and katelynn set up house together here in the foothills of the sierra nevada mountains, coincidentally, just a few miles from rachel and todd winkler's airpark. james started a handyman business and again, pure coincidence, got some jobs at the airpark. he also started a website called ammosmith.com. not so much about guns as about the craft of creating custom ammunition. >> we have an automatic pistol that shoots a rimmed revolver cartridge. >> reporter: and that was his life in the spring of 2010, a nicely varied little business. a second marriage that was not going terribly well. oh, and he had a secret mad crush on the beautiful young woman who managed the airpark. rachel winkler. >> and then one day she called me into her office. this is in june, beginning of june of 2010. she said, "have a seat." and i said, "okay." i thought i was in trouble. and she leaned over from her chair and she grabbed my hand and says, "james, i got something i really need to tell

you." i thought i was, like, "you're fired." no, she said, "i've fallen hopelessly in love with you, and i don't know what to do about it." >> reporter: what was it like to hear that? >> it was a huge relief. >> reporter: relief? >> yeah. >> reporter: because you were in will have -- >> i was already in love with her at the time, but i couldn't tell her. i didn't feel that i should tell her. you know, i wouldn't know how she would react. i'd rather have her as my friend than have her as nothing at all. >> reporter: so having left artist tim to marry ex-fighter pilot todd, rachel now launched into an affair with ex-marine james. this, by the way, wasn't one of those sneak off into a closet and steal a kiss kind of affairs. with todd living and working in the san francisco bay area during the week james and rachel were together almost constantly. >> we tried to spend as much as

time as possible we could together. >> reporter: what'd it feel like when you did? >> it felt like we were a family, felt like we were one -- one heartbeat. you know, our hearts were intertwined together like i can't describe. indescribable love. never loved someone so intensely in my life. >> reporter: their children were soon in on the secret. katelynn was beguiled by rachel. >> you could be talking to her, like we're talking, and she would make you feel like the most important human being on this earth. >> reporter: how did that make you feel? >> special. loved. i could open up to her. >> reporter: if todd suspected anything he didn't let on. but rachel's dad, don, began to get a queasy feeling during his visits to the airpark. tell me what you thought about him, at the time. >> he came across as this christian guy. and he -- you know, he's helping rachel. >> reporter: yeah. >> he was helping her around the airport. okay, fine.

after about the second time i said, you know, "is this guy trying to bed you or what's going on?" and she says, "he'd like to. but it's not happening." >> reporter: there were whispers around the neighborhood, too. people do notice things. >> reporter: suspected what? that something was going on? >> that maybe something was going on. >> reporter: because you saw the two of them together a lot, she and james? >> i didn't see them as a couple, you know, outwardly as a couple. even though you'd see them together. >> reporter: but rachel and james had more than todd and don and the neighbors to worry about. you were married to somebody else. >> i was. >> reporter: what did you do about that? what did you think about that? how troublesome was that for you? >> i wanted to get out of that marriage as soon as possible, because i wanted to be with rachel. >> reporter: so you told your wife? >> no. my wife discovered us, and then we separated. >> reporter: you will perhaps

not be suprrised to hear that james's wife, angry and betrayed, made a phone call to todd winkler. who begged rachel, end it with james. she, in a rush of guilt and shame, agreed. >> she tried to call it off and i tried to call it off. we couldn't stay apart from each other more than two days before we went crazy for each other. >> reporter: how would you try to call it off? what would you do? >> she would say, "i need to work it out with my husband," and i'd say, "i need to work it out with my wife. we can't talk to each other." two days later she'd text me, said, "i love you and i miss you." and i said, "i love you and miss you, too." we had a real strong spiritual bond. >> reporter: and then, all love-sick, they'd sneak off to see each other or leave longing messages on the phone like this one from rachel. >> one of the great things when you're in love with somebody is that those feelings come to the surface more. your feelings about work, about your heart, about your spirit, about everything.

and we can share those with each other, okay? and i love you. take care. bye. >> reporter: during their heart-to-hearts, rachel complained that her todd was not so perfect as people seemed to think. did she lay it on a little thick for the sake of her other man? wouldn't be surprising of course. anyway, james relayed to us what he said she told him, that todd was stingy, emotionally distant, that he was so devious, he actually faked having cancer, twice, to avoid deadlines at work. that on a business trip to amsterdam he feigned some sort of catatonic state the day he had a presentation due. and worse, as james related rachel's story, todd talked about staging a serious car wreck as a pretext for suing his own company and collecting a big settlement. now, all this may just have been

trash talk about the husband whose mere existence was an impediment to their happiness. but, wrapped up in their fog of love, they began talking about running away from it all together. and then, it was just about a year into their affair, uh-oh, she was pregnant, with todd's baby. so did rachel and james end it then? why, no. they did not. what did it do to your relationship? >> brought us closer. she said to me, "who in their right mind would want to take on a woman with two toddlers and an infant?" i said, "i would, without hesitation." she started crying and so did i. >> reporter: how did she feel about carrying todd's baby? >> she said that the life in her was a gift from god, and no matter who the father was, she's going to love that baby no matter what. because half that baby was her. >> reporter: sure, of course.

>> and i told her i would love that boy and her daughters just like my own. >> reporter: but wait a minute. there was, after all, a husband. todd was not about to take this lying down. and sure enough, he recruited a powerful ally. and one tense and anxious day they braced themselves and set out to confront his wife's lover. and james white was ready for them. >> i had a nine millimeter on me, and i know how to use it extremely well. >> reporter: coming up, witness to a showdown between an angry husband and his wife's pistol-packing lover. >> i see these two men walking up the driveway and i was like, "oh my god, what are they doing here?" >> and what was about to happen? when "deadly twist" continues.

i'm kendis gibson with this

hour's top stories. the u.s. has responded to kim jong un's threat of a christmas gift for washington. south korean media reporting that the u.s. flew four spy planes over the korean peninsula. and queen elizabeth says 2019 was a bumpy year. she and the rest of the royal family celebrated christmas this morning at a church near one of the queen's estates. it comes a day after the queen's husband, prince philip, was released from the hospital for what was called a precautionary measure. and now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. rachel winkler was cheating on her husband todd with ex-marine and gun enthusiast james white. todd found out about the affair and was about to introduce himself to his wife's lover. the plan was to show up unannounced. and he wasn't going to do it alone. here again is keith morrison.

>> reporter: todd winkler, distressed by his wife's infidelity, found an unlikely ally as he prepared to confront her lover, james white. but in this case rachel's dad don hatfield was only too happy to help. he did not approve of his daughter's behavior, just too much like his own once was. and don was a guy who'd been carrying his guilt like a cross for years. >> i tried to lead all of my children to the love of jesus christ. there was only one major obstacle to that ever occurring in a way that -- that i would be happy with. and that was my hypocrisy. >> what do you mean? >> huh? >> your hypocrisy? >> my hypocrisy. chasing women. >> oh. >> blowing my marriage. >> reporter: as don tells it, women found his role as an ascendant artist quite appealing. never mind he was a married father of four. >> and that kind of thing

destroyed -- just literally, destroyed my family. >> reporter: by the time rachel was in middle school, don's string of affairs led to a home-shattering divorce. >> i think that the -- the obliteration of the nuclear family had a profound effect on rachel. >> reporter: now, he feared, the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree. his daughter rachel was in the middle of an affair herself and it was putting her marriage at risk. >> you know todd had been calling me, you know, "what am i gonna do? you know, how am i gonna save my marriage?" and i said, "todd, have you just told him straight up to stay away from your wife until this thing is worked out?" he said no. and i said, "well, have you thought about that?" he says, "well, not till right now. sounds like a good idea. will you come with me?" "yeah, i'll go with you." and so we drove over there. >> reporter: james's daughter katelynn, 16 then, sounded the alarm as rachel's worried father and betrayed husband pulled up

at the entrance to james's isolated mountain property. >> we just got done shooting. and i just hear this car roll up. i was like, "wow, that sounds like rachel." and i see these two men walking up the driveway. and i was like, "oh, my god. what are they doing here?" and i ran out. i'm like, "dad, todd's here. and so is don." he goes, "all right. let's get this over with." and i grabbed the nine -- or i didn't grab the nine, i grabbed the m4. >> reporter: katelynn is talking about the guns she had at the ready, a 9 millimeter pistol and an m-4 rifle. and james? he had a pistol holstered in the small of his back as he walked out to greet todd and don. >> i had a 9-millimeter on me, and i know how to use it extremely well. >> reporter: here is james's memory of a confrontation so tense it sounds almost surreal. as the two men approached the house, he said, they hid behind todd and rachel's children.

>> he had ariel in his arms, using her as a human shield. and don had alex in his arms, hiding on the other side of the car. >> reporter: they were afraid that you were going to shoot them. >> perhaps. >> i can't remember whether or not todd actually went to the door with the kid or i went to the door or whatever. but he was a human shield. he was going to stop the bullets, right? >> reporter: that's a little scary. >> yeah, it is scary. >> todd was holding ariel, and don was holding alex. and todd came up, he looks just a wreck. >> todd confronted me, he said, "rachel and i aren't divorced yet, and i would appreciate it if you would stay away from her." >> reporter: and? >> no. >> reporter: you said, "no"? >> i said, "no." >> reporter: there was a pause. if something was going to happen, this would be the moment. >> and then he turns to me and he goes, "hi, katelynn." i was like, "get off this property." >> reporter: and suddenly, it was over. todd and don and the kids got back into the land cruiser and drove off. what was the feeling like as this was going on?

>> the feeling for me was, "god, i hope this clears the air." i think -- you know, he's asked him to stay away, so maybe he'll stay away and maybe they can figure out what to do. >> reporter: was it a civilized conversation? >> yes. yes, very. >> reporter: they didn't yell at each other? >> no. >> reporter: didn't stare daggers -- >> calm. nothing, zippo. i didn't like the fact that here's a marriage in trouble. and there's -- guys will prey on that, you know? if he's a gentleman, he says, "i'll wait in the wings. and if this flies, fine." but you know, he didn't. >> reporter: no. apparently, nothing could keep the lovers apart. james e-mailed rachel. "hey, my love. i miss you something awfully bad. i've been crying on and off since sunday. i'm dying inside. my heart is shattered. i love you endlessly, my sweet love." no. this wasn't over. not the affair.

not the marriage, either. and not the confrontation. something was coming. watch out. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> i'm calling to report a fatality. >> where did this occur? >> it's in the cameron park airpark. >> coming up -- >> i was in my yard and saw the sheriff's department pulling into the neighbor next door. taking kind of tactical positions, putting on flak jackets and pulling ar-15s. >> who had been killed? >> i get a phone call from a screaming, irrational voice on the other end. >> and who was the killer? when "deadly twist" continues. c.

welcome back. with his father-in-law at his side and his children in tow, todd winkler confronted his wife's lover. but todd did not get the outcome he wanted.

it appeared his marriage was teetering and things were about to go from bad to deadly. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: oh, so peaceful in the airpark that last sunday of february 2012. todd and rachel winkler's marital issues did not noticeably ruffle the surface of normal suburban life. a neighbor bumped into todd that afternoon. >> he stopped and talked to us for, you know, a couple a minutes and, you know, wished us well and kept going. he was pushing the two strollers with all three kids and he didn't look particularly cheerful. >> reporter: todd had no way of knowing that sunday afternoon that rachel was back at james's mountain house, double-checking her divorce application. >> she finished the paperwork and she said i'll file -- i'm going to fax it's next morning. >> reporter: you're continuing the relationship. she is filling out divorce papers. he's trying to block her. she's determined to do it. >> uh-huh. she turned to me that day, she

said, "you know what, james? whether you're in the picture or not, i'm divorcing todd. i want out." >> reporter: whether you're in the picture or not? but was there some doubt about that? >> no. she said the reason why she wants to be with me is because she wanted to be with me, not because she had to be with me. >> reporter: i'm trying to imagine what you were feeling like. >> i was elated. we were finally going to be able to start the life together we've talked about and dreamed about and wanted together for so long. >> reporter: rachel headed home to tell todd they were history, that she was leaving him for the man she loved. evening fell. it was sunday night. no one who drove past the winkler's home in the gathering dark would have noticed anything untoward. but come monday morning it was a day unlike any the airpark community had ever seen. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> good morning. i'm calling to report a fatality. >> where did this occur? >> it's in the cameron park air park. my understanding, it was a domestic -- >> it was just so surreal. it almost -- it seemed like a dream. >> reporter: what was going on?

the neighbors watching anxiously from their windows didn't know, of course. >> i was in my yard and saw the sheriff's department pulling into the neighbor next door, between our house and the winklers' house, and taking kind of tactical positions, donning flak jackets and pulling out ar-15s. >> there were five sheriffs in the backyard with their guns drawn facing todd's house. >> reporter: what happened next floored marion cockerell. >> and i saw todd walking backwards across the street. >> stop right there. turn around. put your hands on top of your head. drop down to your knees. keep your hand on top of your head. you understand me? >> yes, i do. >> who else is inside the house? >> there's no one else inside the house, sir. >> and where's your wife? >> my wife is inside the house. >> you said nobody else was inside, though. >> my wife is dead. >> reporter: how could it be? rachel winkler was just 37 years old, with those three little children to whom she meant the whole world. >> where is your wife?

>> she's in -- when you enter the house, you turn to the right. the first bedroom on your right. >> and you're sure she's dead? >> i'm positive. >> how can you be -- how are you sure? >> no pulse, no breathing. >> reporter: amid the chaos, frantic calls, one of the neighbors reached rachel's father. >> and i get a phone call from a screaming, irrational voice on the other end. i said, "is it rachel?" "yes, it's rachel." i said, "i have a question for you. is there a yellow ribbon around the property?" "yes!" "is there a big white van in front of the house?" "yes!" >> reporter: don was in the middle of moving. the movers tried to calm him down. >> and the guys says, "we don't know that she's dead." i said, "count on it, he killed her." and i got there and, you know, she was gone. >> reporter: he was right to begin with. rachel was dead. the horrific news spread. >> i got a call from a friend and i said, "it can't be." and the next thing i knew, i woke up on the floor. >> reporter: you fainted? >> i completely blacked out, hit

the floor. so i called the sheriff's department and asked them if they knew what was going on. and they said just stay right where you're at. >> reporter: james's daughter katelynn got a message at school. >> i walk outside, and i call a family friend, and he goes, "are you sitting down? i think you need to sit down, katelynn." i was like, "what's going on?" and all i remember is just dropping to the ground. >> reporter: rachel's friend shannon couldn't believe what she read online. >> i found out through facebook. i was scrolling and saw someone post something, "r.i.p. rachel." and i was like, what the hell is going on? so then i called her younger brother, and he said somebody came into her house and murdered her. and i said, "what do you mean somebody came into her house and murdered her?"

>> coming up -- what had happened in that house? an eyewitness account from todd. katelynn." i was like, "what's going on?" and all i remember is just dropping to the ground. >> reporter: rachel's friend shannon couldn't believe what she read online. >> i found out through facebook. i was scrolling and saw someone i was scrolling and saw someone ♪ ♪ everything your trip needs,

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click, call or visit a store today. police were about to cop front the suspect. inside they would find a mystery that had them wondering was this self-defense or cold-blooded murder. once again, here is kate.

drop down to your knees. keep your hand on top of your head. you understand me? february 27, 2012, grew more bizarre by the moment. as neighbor marion cockrell watched the police surround todd, he saw something quite incomprehensible. >> they handcuffed him and took him off and we didn't know what was going on. >> reporter: todd, under arrest? charged with murder for killing rachel. what about her lover, the man with all the guns? no, it was todd in handcuffs. the investigators disappeared 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 at a neighbor's house. todd had dropped them off there before the police arrived. soon, todd himself was sitting in an interview room at the sheriff's department. 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 said, as he was preparing to leave early the next morning for work. rachel told him straight out, she was leaving him for james. >> and she'd go back to the arms of james white. >> reporter: and then, a few hours later, 3:30 monday morning

when todd went into the baby's room where rachel had taken to sleeping, they argued, bitterly about custody of the children. >> i said, "i'm not going to agree to you having the kids up here and having primary custody on that. going to fight you on this." and, she said, "no, you know, i'm looking to have my boyfriend get rid of you." her boyfriend is a big gun collector. >> reporter: as todd told it, when rachel said that when she threatened to send james white to get rid of him, whatever that meant, he overreacted and punched rachel. >> where did you hit her?

>> i hit her right by the face. >> after she had told you basically she was going to have this, her boyfriend take care of you. >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: todd said he tried to apologize. >> and i'm rubbing back saying, "i'm sorry, you know, i'm just so sorry, there's not -- i'm sorry." >> reporter: but then, he said, rachel turned around and attacked him with a deadly weapon. >> reporter: she was coming at me with a vee of scissors. >> uh-huh. >> and i got a hold of them. and we had a struggle on the bed and rolled off onto the bed. >> uh-huh. >> and got into this struggle over the scissors. i took some cuts just on my hands trying to get them away from her. >> reporter: they wrestled on the bedroom floor, he said. just a couple of feet from the

crib where 7-month old alex was sleeping. and, overweight and out-of-shape, said todd, he was fighting for his life with his much fitter wife. >> it was a long, long, long protracted struggle. >> uh-huh. >> i don't know how long, but it was a long time. she's a very strong girl. >> uh-huh. >> she's an extremely strong girl. and she had me on the bottom. and she was on top of me. like, back and forth between bottom and top in this struggle over the scissors >> reporter: then, he said, he finally overpowered her, got control of those scissors. >> i was able to get them turned around onto her. >> uh-huh. >> and give her some jabs. she was injured at this point, but probably not seriously. >> uh-huh. >> i poked her in the eye really hard and got her to break free. >> reporter: he retreated, he said, as quick as he could. >> and i got up and got out of there and then ran to my car. got to my car and thought, get out of here. i thought, "oh, my god. i didn't realize. get the children, get the children out here." >> reporter: his two daughters were in their room, but baby alex was with the wounded rachel. standing there in the garage, he said, he made a decision. he had to protect his children. he would go back in and rescue them from rachel. >> i grabbed my motorcycle jacket at that point. put it on, zipped it up. it's got pads over here for, like, breaking down the door. >> uh-huh. >> and i rushed into the room. >> reporter: she must have been waiting, said todd, to pounce. he was, he told police, soon in a fight to the death to save his

own life. i tripped and fell forward when i rushed into the room. she kicked me in the face and then we got into -- >> uh-huh >>-- another subsequent struggle on the floor. and once i, you know, started to get the upper hand, i just, i pushed the scissors in as far as i could. >> and where was that, do you recall? >> in her throat. in her throat. i don't know how long. quite a very long time. >> okay, and why did you hold her there like that with the scissors in? >> i knew if i'd let go, i mean, she still had her hand on these scissors. i was also fearing for, you know, she was, it was probably kill or be killed kind of situation. >> reporter: eventually todd got

to his feet. he prepared a bottle for crying alex, he said. and he worried. >> and i just started just pacing around the house just saying, "god, i just killed their mother." s can s ca there's a lot of talk about value out there. but at fidelity, value is more than just talk. we offer commission-free online u.s. stock and etf trades. and, when you open a new fidelity brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate -- that's 21 times more than schwab's. plus, fidelity's leading price improvement on trades saved investors hundreds of millions of dollars last year. that's why fidelity continues to lead the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk fidelity.