The Murder of Donnah Winger
- What Investigative Mistakes Did the Detectives Make?
While detectives had in their investigations concluded that Roger Harrington, a cab driver, had murdered Donnah Winger, the bloodstain pattern at the crime scene showed that the detective had made several mistakes in their investigations. For instance, Thom Bevel, an expert in crime scene reconstruction and bloodstain analysis, explains that while Mark Winger had seen Harrington kneeling next to Donnah with a hammer he was using to batter her, the vast amount of bloodstains on the wall on the ceiling, furniture, and the southern wall suggested that the Donnah’s killer must have been kneeling in a perpendicular stance. The killer’s arm must have also been moving in a north-south motion, not east-west, as Mark Winger had claimed. Bevel’s view is supported by Schram and Tibetts (2017) who hold that investigators can use blood spatter evidence to determine the direction of blood spatter, the distance from the blood source to the surface where they were deposited, the type of weapons used, and the location of other objects, surfaces, and people that have blood spatter on them.
Another investigative mistake that detectives in the Donnah’s murder investigations made is using a DNA analysis report to conclude that Harrington was the killer. While DNA analysis had confirmed that Harrington’s shirt had some of the victim’s blood and tissue, according to Bevel, it was because Mark Winger had hit him in the chest with the same hammer he had hit Donnah’s head with. The detectives had also believed that there was a struggle between Mark Winger and Harrington, whom they found still moaning on the floor (Lewis, 2008). However, had they carefully studied the Polaroid photos of Donnah and Harrington that had been taken at the crime scene, they would have discredited Winger’s version of events.
- What Was the Most Important Piece of Evidence (In Your Opinion)?
In my opinion, the most important piece of evidence in this investigation was DeAnn Schultz’s testimony regarding her affair with Mark Winger beginning just a month before Donnah’s death. Schultz’s testimony not only reopened the case, which had been closed for almost four years but also presented a motive explaining Mark Winger’s decision to kill Donnah. According to DeAnn, who was also Donnah’s best friend, Mr. Winger was so desperate to get out of his marriage that he had tried to convince her to be part of his plan to kill his wife. Winger is claimed to have said that Donnah’s death would make their affair “easier” (Kohn, 2007). With DeAnn’s testimony coming to light, the conclusions made by investigators to close the case were established as incorrect.
DeAnn Schultz continued to explain that in addition to suggesting that Schultz should play some role in her best friend’s murder, Winger had talked of Roger Harrington, an airport shuttle driver who he would frame for Donnah’s murder. This revelation further disapproved Winger’s testimony in which he had claimed that the cab driver had been harassing him and his wife recently in the days leading to Donnah’s death. From DeAnn’s testimony, it was apparent that Winger had staged Donnah’s murder so he would get out of his marriage. That he continued to see Schultz for several months after his wife’s death and married another woman with whom he had two children shows that Winger desperately wanted out of his marriage with Donnah. Due to these factors, it is my opinion that DeSchultz’s testimony was the most critical piece of evidence in a murder investigation that had been deemed solved and officially closed for four years.