Colin Winkler, 33, stabbed Jeffrey and Jacqueline Winkler to death with a kitchen knife, stripped naked, and smeared their blood on his body. A judge blocked his insanity defense months before he pleaded guilty.

MILFORD — A Pike County man who stabbed his parents to death in their Dingman Township home last September will spend the rest of his life behind bars, Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin announced Wednesday.

Pike County President Judge Gregory H. Chelak sentenced Colin John Winkler, 33, to life imprisonment plus 20 years in a state correctional facility, along with a $2,000 fine, for the September 24, 2024 murders of his father Jeffrey Winkler, 66, and mother Jacqueline Winkler, 67.

Winkler had pleaded guilty on September 12, 2025 to two counts of third-degree murder. Under Pennsylvania law, a conviction on two counts of third-degree murder automatically triggers a mandatory life sentence — leaving Judge Chelak no discretion in the matter.

“I don’t recall an incident like this of a double homicide of both parents,” Tonkin said at the time of Winkler’s arrest.

What the district attorney didn’t mention Wednesday: Winkler still faces eight criminal charges in Wayne County stemming from an incident the day after the murders — charges that remain unresolved more than a year later and have spawned two active writs of habeas corpus challenging his continued detention.

The Day Everything Changed

The killings unfolded on a quiet Tuesday afternoon at 103 Larkspur Lane North in Dingman Township, a residential neighborhood near Milford.

Just before 5 p.m. on September 24, 2024, Colin Winkler’s brother received a frantic phone call from their mother. Jacqueline Winkler told him Colin was having a “psychotic break” — that he had thrown her to the ground and was choking the family dog. She asked him to come to the house and call a family friend who had been like a “second father” to Colin.

The call disconnected. The brother couldn’t reach her again.

He rushed to his parents’ home alongside the family friend. What he found when he walked through the door would haunt him forever: his mother and father lying dead on the kitchen floor in pools of blood, bloody knives scattered nearby.

His fight-or-flight response kicked in. He grabbed a bloody knife, then dropped it in the driveway as he fled the house and dialed 911.

When Pennsylvania State Police troopers from the Blooming Grove barracks arrived minutes later, they found Colin Winkler standing on the back deck — completely naked, his body covered in blood, actively smearing more of it across his skin.

He ignored commands to get on the ground. One shot from a Taser brought him down, and troopers cuffed him.

“I Killed My Abusers and It Felt Good”

In the immediate aftermath, Winkler gave investigators conflicting accounts of what happened. He told troopers at the scene that he thought he had been asleep and had no memory of the killings. He asked what was going on, saying he believed he was “in surgery” and had woken up covered in blood and in handcuffs.

When troopers showed him his parents’ bodies and asked how it happened, Winkler showed no emotion and didn’t deny murdering them, according to the criminal complaint.

During a subsequent interview, he admitted to killing both parents.

Then came a disturbing explanation.

Winkler told investigators he believed he had been sexually abused by a therapist when he was five years old — and that his parents had been involved in that abuse.

“I killed my abusers and it felt good,” Winkler told police, according to court documents.

His brother painted a different picture for investigators. He said Colin had been living with their parents for several years and had been “manic of late.” Colin was seeing a therapist to work through past trauma, the brother explained.

Just the day before the killings, the entire family had gone golfing together. Everything seemed fine.

Pike County Coroner Christopher Brighton responded to the scene and confirmed both deaths resulted from sharp force injuries. He ruled each death a criminal homicide.

The Failed Insanity Defense

From the start, Winkler’s defense strategy hinged on mental illness.

His attorneys filed notice that he intended to claim an insanity defense at trial — a move that would have required the prosecution to prove Winkler understood the nature of his actions and knew they were wrong.

The Pike County District Attorney’s Office opposed the defense.

In April 2025, after a hearing on the matter, Judge Chelak issued an order precluding Winkler from claiming mental infirmity at trial. The ruling effectively eliminated his strongest argument for avoiding a murder conviction.

Faced with that reality, Winkler entered guilty pleas on September 12, 2025. The original charges of first-degree murder, criminal homicide, and aggravated assault were withdrawn as part of the plea agreement, leaving only the two third-degree murder counts.

Under Pennsylvania’s sentencing structure, that guilty plea sealed his fate.

The Wayne County Case Nobody’s Talking About

Court records reveal a parallel legal saga playing out across the county line that no other media outlet has reported.

The day after his parents’ murders — September 25, 2024 — Winkler was involved in a separate incident in Honesdale Borough, Wayne County, that resulted in eight additional criminal charges.

According to Wayne County Court of Common Pleas docket number CP-64-CR-0000462-2024, Pennsylvania State Police from the Gibson barracks arrested Winkler on:

• Two counts of aggravated assault against designated individuals (second-degree felonies)
• Two counts of resisting arrest (second-degree misdemeanors)
• Two counts of disorderly conduct involving hazardous or physical offense (third-degree misdemeanors)
• Two counts of harassment involving subjecting another to physical contact (summary offenses)

Trooper Christine M. Lashinski made the arrest. Magisterial District Judge Bonnie L. Carney set bail at $100,000 on November 6, 2024.

The charges were bound over to Common Pleas court on December 13, 2024, and an information was filed December 17. Public defender John Jerome Martin entered an appearance as Winkler’s attorney.

The case has moved slowly since. Court records show multiple Rule 600 waivers — filings in which a defendant agrees to extend the time limit for bringing a case to trial — submitted in February, April, June, August, and October 2025.

A formal arraignment scheduled for January 9, 2025 was cancelled. A pre-trial conference set for June 26, 2025 was cancelled. Plea offers scheduled for July 10, 2025 were cancelled. Jury selection set for July 14, 2025 was cancelled.

A motion to continue the trial term with consent was granted on June 25, 2025. As of this week, the case status remains “Awaiting Pre-Trial Conference.”

The Habeas Corpus Petitions

Adding another layer of complexity, Winkler has filed two writs of habeas corpus in Wayne County challenging his detention.

The first petition, docket number CP-64-MD-0000113-2024, was filed November 14, 2024. The second, CP-64-MD-0000125-2024, was filed December 9, 2024. Both list his address as Milford, PA — though he has been confined at Pike County Prison since his September 2024 arrest.

Judge Janine Edwards issued writs in both cases on December 10, 2024. Both petitions remain active with a status of “Awaiting Hearing.”

The habeas corpus filings suggest Winkler’s defense team may be challenging the legality of his continued detention on the Wayne County charges while he sat in Pike County Prison awaiting resolution of the murder case.

Life Without Parole

With Wednesday’s sentencing, the murder case is closed. Winkler will be transferred from Pike County Correctional Facility to a state prison, where he will serve a minimum of life behind bars.

The additional 20 years tacked onto the life sentence ensures that even if future changes to Pennsylvania law created some pathway to parole for third-degree murder, Winkler would face additional time.

But the Wayne County charges remain open. Those eight counts — including two felonies — have yet to be resolved. Court records show Winkler remains listed at a Hawley, PA address for that case, though he has been in custody continuously since September 25, 2024.

His only prior criminal history, according to earlier court filings, was a 2015 DUI conviction that resulted in two nights in jail.

Now 33 years old, Colin Winkler will likely never see freedom again.

His brother, who discovered their parents’ bodies and called for help, now lives with that memory — and the knowledge that his last conversation with his mother was her desperate plea for help as Colin’s “psychotic break” descended into violence.

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If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or chat at 988lifeline.org.