In the quiet community of McKee, Kentucky, a welfare check in the early morning hours of July 19, 2020, led to a grim discovery and the beginning of a shocking murder investigation. A daughter’s concern after being unable to contact her mother prompted authorities to visit the residence of Peggy Vanwinkle on Highway 2004. Just before 3:00 a.m., what started as a simple check on her well-being unfolded into a nightmare when the remains of the 52-year-old Caucasian female were found.
Kentucky State Police troopers and detectives were called to the scene, where Peggy Vanwinkle was pronounced dead by the Jackson County Coroner. The initial investigation quickly pointed to a domestic dispute that had taken a fatal turn. Detectives determined that Peggy’s husband, 59-year-old Farris Vanwinkle, had been involved in an altercation with her. During the dispute, he allegedly retrieved a firearm and fatally shot his wife. The investigation would later reveal even more gruesome details, with allegations that after the shooting, he dismembered and burned parts of her body.
Farris Vanwinkle was arrested and taken into custody, facing charges of murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence. He was initially lodged at the Jackson County Detention Center before being transferred. As the case proceeded through the legal system, additional charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and being a persistent felony offender were added. The case has moved slowly, marked by a court-ordered competency hearing in 2023 to assess Farris Vanwinkle's mental state and his fitness to stand trial for the violent death of his wife.
Peggy Vanwinkle was remembered in her community as an in-home caregiver for the elderly and a member of The Old Path Holiness Church. Her sudden and violent death left behind two grieving daughters and two granddaughters, and sent ripples of shock through the small town she called home. The subsequent arrest of her husband began a long and complicated legal process as her family and friends awaited justice.
