Rachel Hatfield was married to Todd Winkler, a “Top Gun” fighter pilot who became a successful pharmaceutical executive. They quickly had children – three. Winkler didn’t want to uproot the family from Napa for his job in San Francisco, so he got an apartment in the city and came home on the weekends. But Rachel, now a mother of 3, grew restless and started an affair with James White, a handyman in town.
In 2011, while their children (Alex, 9 months, Ariel, 2, and Eva, 4) were in the house, Rachel was stabbed to death in the neck with a pair of scissors. Todd said it was self-defense — that she attacked him with the scissors. Winkler was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for killing his wife. During his trial, questions were raised about the suspicious death of Winkler’s previous wife, Catherine. After she died in a 1999 car crash, Winkler received $1 million in insurance settlements. Dateline will air a special episode dedicated to the Rachel Hatfield case on July 16, 9pm on NBC.
