Part I: Open Letter from the Winecoff Family

(A pdf of this post is available here.)

The surviving family of David Winecoff have learned of a revisionist podcast produced by people associated with the Revoice movement within the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), the denomination of David’s ordination and ministry, and the “exvangelical” movement. The show concluded that David’s death was no accident, as reported in all previous accounts, but suicide. It included a gruesome account of David’s death and speculated wildly about the motivations for this supposedly premeditated self-murder. It wondered whether David’s death was related to hypothesized “complicity” in another murder, that of his congregant Elizabeth Mackintosh. It attempted to link David’s death to a culture of abuse in the PCA.

David’s family disputes all of these claims, unequivocally. We approached the show’s producers – TJ Ingrassia and Ruth Serven Smith – to request retraction of this material. We offered to collaborate with the producers to replace the deleted material with more accurate information. After off-the-record discussions in which we provided evidence of serious errors in their reporting, they agreed to a number of factual retractions, deleted speculation about our family’s medical history, and some exploitative details of David’s death that served no narrative purpose. They refused to make changes to their story arc, however, letting the insinuations stand.

This is insufficient. There is no objective evidence for any of the claims made. This show was poisoned by conflicts of interest that were undisclosed or improperly minimized. In its original version the factual and logical errors were so widespread that it would be comical if it wasn’t so deeply offensive; the narrative arc is not materially supported after partial corrections were applied. The show mischaracterized David’s relationship with Covenant Theological Seminary – he was never a professor there – and incorrectly claimed that he had an arrest record. It wondered if he received medical diagnoses that were not scientifically possible at the time. It claimed that he suspiciously skipped a meeting he attended – we provided visual proof – and used his supposed absence to speculate about his conscience. It made claims about family practices that are simply inaccurate, completely false. This is a very partial list of errors.

The sources of this misinformation are predominately two men with unsettled minds by their own admission. They made provably-wrong claims and likely-wrong interpretations, which were not thoroughly fact-checked prior to publication. In the show, David is called a “lightning rod” for prosecuting a heresy charge, but the fact that the trial defender is his current accuser was not disclosed. This accuser has a history of egregious deceit, extending back decades, attributed in court records to severe mental illness that was diagnosed but untreated during the events analyzed in the show. This person is the ultimate source of all rumors that David was involved in Elizabeth’s murder, from what we can ascertain, which have percolated through PCA circles despite zero supporting evidence. The producers mention his prior dishonesty only in passing, in a different context much earlier in the show. (He embezzled significant funds from clients of his law firm, causing the suspension of his law license.)

This person approached David’s widow Jane last year, under false pretenses, while collaborating with the production of the show. Thus continued a decades-long effort to scandalize David Winecoff’s name, which the show unwittingly facilitated.

The podcasters did not directly contact anyone in David’s family prior to publication. Instead, they sent an acquaintance to approach Jane as intermediary. This person wrote that he was “not personally involved with the production of the podcast or its contents” but was aware of things in it. He did not describe what this content was, however. Jane reiterated David’s alibi, in ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS (the podcast omits this and mischaracterizes a previous statement Jane gave to police). She said she paid no attention to “foolish speculation” about her deceased husband, noting the police had cleared David after performing due diligence, yet this intermediary concluded she had “heard it all”. This was not the case. Because of an acute health issue she referred this intermediary to her current husband Mark, as friends, but did not authorize Mark to speak to the media on behalf of the Winecoff family, nor direct all future inquiries to him.

That constitutes the outreach of the show’s producers to David’s widow and children prior to publication. They did message Mark, months later (after Jane’s health had improved), again via that intermediary. Mark replied that he was busy with family business so “it will be a while before I can get to it”. They did not follow up before publishing their “bombshell” report several days later. They did not reach out to any of David’s adult children at any point, despite some of them being present for events discussed on the show. (The producers apparently telephoned David’s brother regarding family medical history, an inappropriate topic that has since been excised from the show; he never received a message from them either.)

Journalistic responsibility goes beyond reaching out to an intermediary via another intermediary, without ever receiving confirmation that the message was delivered. Neither did either of these colleagues of David’s notify the family that they were accusing him of sinister deeds on the record. We were blindsided. And appalled. His children had not heard these accusations.

They are false but damage has been done. This podcast has traumatized its listeners, beginning with David’s family but not ending there. Many have reached out to us expressing outrage, sorrow, and concern. Given that, we must publicly contest the narrative in the show – the entire narrative as it pertains to David Winecoff – as vigorously as we are able. Which is very vigorously indeed, since the truth is on our side and we have no fear of transparency.

This podcast fails basic tests of valid inference. It should not have been published. We will present our full argument later, in rich detail. In the meantime, we will wonder whether the producers’ political commitments may have led them to inappropriate conclusions in their efforts to prosecute Covenant Seminary and the PCA. As we will show, the conflicts and blindspots in this show run wide and deep. What is definitely true is that people who participated in the show to honor Elizabeth Mackintosh’s memory believe they were misled, and feel her memory has been degraded. These are Elizabeth’s friends, as were we. This also matters. There remains no evidence that David Winecoff’s death was anything but accidental. No note, no verbal statement of intent, no emotional breakdowns, no unexplainable behaviors prior to that trip, no adverse medical diagnoses, no crises of the soul. Just someone who did not know David very well, nor for very long, claiming that he could read David’s mind in his final moments under duress. We have compassion for him, it is clear that he has been traumatized by this event. His story should have been edited with much more care. (He was also influenced by David’s accuser in key moments. We will examine these relationships at the links below.)

We knew David much better, and we know that David was optimistic about the future, having just enrolled in his final doctoral seminar at Westminster Theological Seminary before embarking on a dissertation regarding John Owen. All signs point to his death being accidental. David Winecoff was not an experienced climber, and the place where he died has claimed many other lives (another fact not mentioned in the show). We find it implausible that he premeditated the murder of himself via an excruciating process, that involved being knocked into unconsciousness with a probably-fractured skull, before waking up “delirious” hours later (according to the rescuer who identified his body) – after significant blood loss, oxygen deprivation, and dehydration – and making an intentional decision. Frankly, we believe this interpretation of David’s final moments is absurd. The simpler explanation is consistent with the facts and far more likely.

After weeks of trying to persuade the show’s producers to reshape the episodes focused on David, we have concluded that further appeals are wasted effort. We will provide a more complete and accurate account via media less burdened by controversy. We urge all who are interested to wait before reaching conclusions. None of the allegations against David Winecoff hold up to informed scrutiny, and the show’s “just asking questions” method of rumor-mongering is defamatory to the dead. A full rebuttal is coming at https://www.DavidWinecoff.info.

The lesson of David Winecoff’s life is to be bold in the cause of righteousness, a trait that likely led Elizabeth Mackintosh to seek his pastoral care and mentorship. We believe that the podcast’s participants and producers were similarly motivated at the outset. We do not impugn their intentions. Our personal interactions with them post-publication have been respectful. They assured us that they are operating in good faith. We take them at their word, and interpret their mistakes as the product of inexperience. Nevertheless, they have made too many serious mistakes for this narrative to stand. We must now publicly request a retraction of all discussion of David Winecoff in episodes 13-14 of the show, and a public apology.

We hope this letter will be seen by many, and will be circulating it widely through our networks. We ask David’s friends to share this statement with anyone who expresses interest in this podcast, now or in the future. We encourage all who found the contents of this show objectionable to leave negative reviews on all platforms where it is posted. For those who would like to remember David’s life and ministry in a more positive way, we have set up a moderated Google Form to collect remembrances at this link (which is clickable): https://forms.gle/HF4Gs4EjogrPPFgT8. We are constructing a permanent online memorial including these memorials, as well as more information about David’s life and work, at https://www.DavidWinecoff.info. The Winecoffs can also be contacted more privately at: familyofdavidwinecoff@gmail.com.

We write as the family of David Winecoff, to honor his memory and that of Elizabeth Mackintosh, in the spirit of peace, truth, and light.