Before he shot himself, popular local meteorologist John Winter told his wife the shameful secret that he feared she would never forgive.

He had cheated on her.

Winter, morning weatherman for WFLA-Ch. 8, told his wife Karen about the affair hours before he shot himself in their garage on April 5, according to documents released Tuesday by the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.

He also told close friend Robert Fontaine Jr., a WFLA director who ran a production company with Winter.

He told Fontaine the other woman was a co-worker at Big U Productions; he said he felt ashamed.

"I told him that we are all human beings," Fontaine said.

Winter, 39, set up a conference call with his wife and Fontaine and said he wanted to end his life, Fontaine told investigators. They tried to talk him out of it, Fontaine said, assuring him they could all get through it.

Winter spoke of his grandfather, whom he called "Pap-Pap." His grandfather committed suicide in 2005.

"John stated that he wanted to end it all and that if it was good enough for (Pap-Pap), it was good enough for him," according to the Sheriff's Office interview with Fontaine.

Deputies went to Winter's home in Lithia on April 5, after they received a 911 call at about 3:30 p.m. from Teresa Brunton, 40, of Pinellas Park.

Brunton, a co-worker, said Winter "threatened to possibly hurt himself." Brunton worried that Winter had a gun.

The Sheriff's Office released the 911 tape Friday but the caller's identity wasn't released until Tuesday.

"At first she felt responsible because John had threatened her on the phone that if she told anyone or brought anyone to the residence, he would end it," Sheriff's Detective Lisa Croissant wrote. "But she feels that if she did not do something, that he would have harmed himself anyway."

Brunton could not be reached for comment.

When deputies arrived at Winter's suburban Hillsborough home, they couldn't see any lights in the home. No one answered the telephone.

Deputies kicked in the front door. At that moment, they heard a single gunshot.

Investigators found Winter on the floor of the garage, a .45-caliber gun in his hand, a gunshot wound to his head. Next to Winter's body, on a weight bench, was a funeral notice for his grandfather.

Investigators also found a printed suicide note sitting on a laptop computer and a Bible on the kitchen counter. It was opened to John 14. The chapter begins: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."

Winter's wedding ring lay on top of his wallet in the kitchen.

"It's hard to imagine that he's not here anymore," Karen Winter said. "I just miss him more than he'll ever know."

The death shocked co-workers and fans across Tampa Bay. They knew John Winter as the gregarious, hard-working backbone of WFLA's morning crew.

He was always ready with a practical joke and zingers in his "morons in the news" segments.

"He was about as level-headed a guy as I could deal with," said WFLA news director Don North.

But Fontaine said the meteorologist had long battled depression. There was at least one other time when he worried Winter might take his own life.

Winter grew up in Pinellas, a graduate of Seminole High School. He told the St. Pete Times that he became interested in weather as a kid playing with a weather-station science kit.

He relished being WFLA's morning-show weatherman.

He once cut short a Bahamas vacation when it looked like a hurricane might hit Tampa.

"I'm a weatherman," he told the Times, "and that's my job."

Reporting: Abbie VanSickle, Eric Deggans, S.I. Rosenbaum, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler