Roger Lee Harrington was 27 when he died on August 29, 1995, in Springfield, Illinois. He worked as a driver for Bootheel Area Rapid Transportation and attended Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Springfield. Initial reports described his death as the result of a violent altercation with Donnah Winger, a passenger he had driven from the airport.

Mark Winger, Donnah’s husband, told police he shot Harrington in self-defense after witnessing Harrington attack Donnah with a hammer; the case was closed on that account. Harrington’s family and friends disputed that he was capable of such violence. Investigators later found evidence that Harrington had left a note in his vehicle with Mark Winger’s name, address and a time, suggesting he had been lured to the Winger home. That and other inconsistencies led to the case being reopened, and in 2001 Mark Winger was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Donnah Winger and Roger Harrington.