OXFORD, Mich. – Testifying at her own trial, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter on Thursday told the court that text messages from her son regarding ghosts and hallucinations in their home were just jokes, and not a cause for concern.
Prosecutors have shared text message evidence between the shooter and his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, at her involuntary manslaughter trial in their attempt to prove the mother was grossly negligent toward her son, and therefore partly responsible for the killings he carried out. Some of those texts included messages from the shooter to the mother, in which he said their house was haunted, clothes were flying off shelves, and that he was having hallucinations and seeing demons.
Prosecutors have argued that the parents should have gotten their son professional help, pointing to these messages, among other behavior. But while serving as a witness in her trial on Thursday, Feb. 1, Crumbley said she didn’t think her son needed help, and that those texts were just jokes.
- Defense attorney: When you look back at these texts now, and you see that there’s ‘a demon throwing bowls’ and things like that, now looking back, do you think, ‘Oh, my gosh! He had mental issues?’”
- Crumbley: No.
- Defense attorney: What do you think was going on?
- Crumbley: ... That it was just him messing around. He only did it when we weren’t at home.
Throughout her testimony, Crumbley said her son had a sarcastic sense of humor, and frequently sent text messages meant to mess with his parents. She also said he had a Ouija board that he played with for some time, and that he was convinced the family’s old house was haunted.
“We called it our house ghost,” Crumbley said. Each of them reportedly had names for the “ghost.”
The mother did express that her son experienced a period of depression in 2021, particularly after the loss of a grandparent, a family pet, and because his grades were poor. When asked if she thought the shooter needed mental health treatment, she said “no.”
The shooter’s then-best friend, who was the only friend he spent time with outside of school, according to Crumbley, moved away abruptly in October 2021. Crumbley said her son took it hard and appeared more sad than usual -- but when asked if that loss made the mother feel like she needed to get her son counseling, she again responded “no.”
---> More details: Full updates from day 6 of Jennifer Crumbley’s trial (Feb. 1)
You can watch Crumbley share this information in the first part of her testimony below.
Click here to watch all witness testimony from the trial so far.