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Tina Winkler
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is
looking into the death of Tina Marie
Winkler, whose body was found in her PT
Cruiser in a thick wooded area behind the
Winkler home on Langford Store Road in the
Pea Ridge community near Huntingdon early
Friday afternoon. Her remains were found by
her son, according to John Mehr, TBI special
agent in charge in Jackson.
Winkler, 54, wife of Dr. Volker Winkler who
has a medical practice in McKenzie, had been
missing since the first part of November,
according to Agent Mehr. Dr. Winkler had
recently made known her disappearance and
hired an investigator in search of
information concerning his missing wife,
according to the agent.
Mehr said the TBI has sent the body to
Nashville for an autopsy and the vehicle was
sent to the TBI forensic lab in Nashville.
Authorities do not know at this time how the
woman died and would release no further
information concerning the case, pending
autopsy results. Preliminary results could
take several days or weeks, said Mehr.
Carroll County Coroner Steve Cantrell and
Carroll County Sheriff’s Department deferred
all calls to Agent Mehr.
Winkler was born December 31, 1952 in South
Carolina. She was a domestic engineer, a
master storyteller with the National
Storytelling Association, and an avid
runner.
Dr. and Mrs. Winkler came to McKenzie from
Ontario, Canada in August 1978, when he
joined the medical practice of Dr. S.S.
Walker in downtown McKenzie and was on the
staff at McKenzie Memorial Hospital.
Funeral services are Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.
at McKenzie Funeral Home’s Cedar Avenue
Chapel, with cremation to follow. (See
separate obituary in this edition).
In the summer of 1995, Volker and Tina
Winkler and their six children, Kirsten,
Jesse, Ben, Robyn, Ty, and Roman took a year
off from work at McKenzie Medical Center and
their studies at McKenzie School System to
embark on a year-long expedition of travel
and education which ultimately landed them
in exotic South India. The family flew to
England and traveled leisurely for several
weeks through Europe.
The family mixed business with pleasure
during their trip of a lifetime. While the
students gained knowledge at the
multicultural K-12 Kodaikanal International
School, Dr. Winkler served as a part-time
volunteer physician in the local clinic and
school infirmary and Tina served as a
volunteer teacher/storyteller in grades
10-12 at the school.
The family had planned for many years to
travel together to India, an adventure
similar to one Tina herself followed when
she was a teenager and attended the same
school.
At the time, Tina noted that she spoke
German, some French, and had studied many
other languages throughout the years
including Arabic, Tamil, Greek and Russian.
Tina, who often traveled extensively with a
storytelling group, looked for ways to share
her skills with the language-arts and
theater department at Kodaikanal. |
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