Suspect: Nail gun attack was botched suicide pact
EUGENE, Ore. -- An Oregon man accused of shooting a woman with a nail gun told investigators that the woman recruited him to kill her.
Authorities say Troy Vance Thompson, 46, of Creswell, fired nine nails into the woman's head on June 1 before turning the nail gun on himself, The Register-Guard reported.
Thompson gave Oregon State Troopers a detailed statement the day after the incident. At the time, he was in a Springfield hospital recovering from an injury caused by the nail he fired into his own head.
Prosecutors have charged Thompson with assault but have not asked a grand jury to review the case yet. He was put in jail after his release from the hospital.
The woman's current condition is unknown. Police said last week that she was still hospitalized in critical condition. A prosecutor and hospital spokeswoman both said Tuesday that they had no updated information to disclose about the woman. She was not identified.
Thompson said he first met the 31-year-old Eugene woman the day before the incident, according to a police report made public this week. He said the woman stopped her car on Highway 99 in Eugene and approached him while he walked along the road, according a search warrant affidavit filed by trooper Cale Day.
She told Thompson she needed someone to kill her because she didn't want to be committed to a mental hospital, Day wrote.
The affidavit says the two discussed different methods of killing themselves before the woman announced a plan to rent a nail gun, travel to the woods and carry out a homicide-suicide.
Day wrote that the manager of an equipment rental store corroborated Thompson's claim that the woman went into the business to rent the nail gun and air compressor. The store manager told investigators that the woman asked for the gun with the largest nails, according to the trooper's report.
Thompson told police he fired three nails from the gun into the back of the woman's head, then stopped. The woman "was still alive and told him to keep going (and) reminded Troy he had promised her he would help her," Day wrote.
Passers-by later found Thompson and the woman and called police, according to the report.
Day also wrote that the woman's mother told a detective that her daughter is delusional, has bipolar disorder and has been hospitalized several times in the last year. The mother also said the woman has asked friends, family and strangers to help her die, the report said.
Thompson told police that he has "brain injuries from the past" as well as a history of substance abuse and suicidal thoughts, Day's report said.