WEST LINN, Ore. — A West Linn woman said her grandmother was once "groomed" by Timothy Mackley, who was charged with the murder this week after 89-year-old Marcine Herinck's body was likely found in the trunk of a car.
Mackley also is under investigation for possible ties to the 2016 death of Merrilee Cooley, 68, whose body was found in the trunk of her car in early January 2017.
Judy Crow told KGW Thursday that her grandmother Billie Crampton, now deceased but then in her 80s, was conned by Mackley, who was then in his 30s.
She said they met through a prison ministries program when Mackley was serving a 20-year sentence for sodomy.
Crampton was a businesswoman who lived in La Grande and died from natural causes, but before that, for at least 10 years, Mackley manipulated Crampton and convinced her to give him money, Crow says.
"I was very emotional when I heard the name Timothy Mackley," said Crow. “He definitely groomed her to believe that he was incarcerated falsely, that his family had disowned him. She fell for him emotionally first.”
Crow said she is speaking out now because she worries there are other older women who were manipulated by Mackley. She hopes they will talk with police.
She said he convinced her grandmother to send him money on a regular basis and sent her a lot of letters professing love.
“She had torn out of a letter that he had written his vow to marry her when he got out of prison," Crow said, "And she had tucked it away in her wallet. That's how deeply she believed in him. And eventually I had to sacrifice the relationship I had with my grandmother to go to the extent of the conservatorship and the guardianship to keep the two apart as much as I could.”
Mackley, who is also a Level 3 sex offender, appeared in court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to Marcine Herinck's murder. He's expected to be back in court on Oct. 4.