A nuclear engineer claims he saved his wife from a deranged attacker. He shot the intruder twice. He cradled his dying wife in his arms. Police called it a justifiable homicide. Then a Polaroid photo taken by a patrol officer proved that the hero was a cold-blooded killer.

On August 29, 1995, Mark Winger dialed 911 from his Springfield, Illinois home. He told dispatchers he was exercising in the basement when he heard a noise, grabbed his gun, and found shuttle driver Roger Harrington bludgeoning his wife Donnah with a hammer [citation:2][citation:8]. Winger said he shot Harrington twice and held Donnah as she died. Police closed the case, ruling it a justifiable homicide [citation:3][citation:6].

Four years passed. Winger remarried his young daughter's nanny, Rebecca Simic [citation:5][citation:8]. Then Donnah's best friend DeAnn Shultz revealed she had been having an affair with Winger at the time of the murder. He had told her it would be better if Donnah died [citation:7][citation:8]. Detectives reopened the investigation and discovered that Winger had lured Harrington to the home with a phone call. A patrol officer's Polaroid photos proved the bodies' positions contradicted Winger's heroic account. The hammer had struck Donnah at least seven times [citation:9]. A jury convicted Winger of two counts of first-degree murder, sentencing him to life without parole [citation:1][citation:4]. Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the man who played the grieving widower was the monster who destroyed two families.

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