Warning: this story contains graphic details

The man accused of killing a 55-year-old mother of two confessed to the murder in graphic detail in an interview with a Saskatoon police officer played in court Tuesday.

Tyler Hurd, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Cynthia Crampton, who the Crown said took Hurd in when he was homeless. Crampton’s body was found in the bathroom of her rented Stonebridge basement suite apartment in June 2016.

The jury watched a three-hour interview between Hurd and police that took place June 6, 2016 — five days after police believe Crampton was killed. In the video, Hurd told Saskatoon police polygraphist Sgt. Rob Sampson he planned the murder and casually outlined to Sampson the gruesome details of how he killed Crampton.

He explained how he struck Crampton in the head with a hammer before strangling her. He said killing Crampton didn’t “faze” him, but he was bothered — and surprised — that the killing took 30 minutes. Hurd detailed the sounds he heard during the killing and how Crampton screamed and pleaded for her life.

“I hope you said, ‘I love you,’ to your daughter because you’re going to die right here,” Hurd recalled in the interview telling Crampton.

He also told Sampson the murder was pre-meditated and he decided to kill Crampton after she told him she’d kick him out if he didn’t have sex with her. He said he met Crampton because she was friends with his girlfriend Tammy Poffley and because she sold painkillers. He said Crampton disgusted him and that she preyed on men.

“I really wanted to do it at this point. I really wanted to kill her,” Hurd said in the interview.

Hurd said he talked to Poffley about the killing being a “justified murder” because he was sparing men from her manipulation and others from buying painkillers from her.

“I know that’s disgusting and horrible to think like that, and that it’s wrong, but you can see with a person like this it’s not,” Hurd told Sampson.

The jury heard about Hurd’s past in the interview. He said he had never done drugs, made $36 an hour and had a wife and children. His wife died of ovarian cancer in 2010 and he then lost his job due to the recession, his home and eventually his children. He started doing drugs including meth and prescription pills.

Two other police officers testified Hurd confessed to killing Crampton after he was arrested close to midnight on June 5. Poffley was arrested after the two were spotted at an Asquith restaurant, but Hurd took off in a vehicle. He was eventually arrested in a field near Asquith. The two were wanted in connection with Crampton’s murder at the time.

One of Crampton’s daughters, Kara Leftley, testified Tuesday that she found her mother’s body on June 3 after she and her sister couldn’t get a hold of Crampton.

“I was kind of nervous at first. I didn’t really know what I was going to find,” she told court.

She said she hit something when she tried to open the bathroom door.

“It was just like a thud, like something just hit something cold.”

She believes she had a panic attack when calling 911 and said her mother’s belongings, including jewelry boxes, were strewn across the bedroom.

Court heard Monday Crampton was found face down in the bathroom of her suite wrapped in towels, some of which were soaked in blood. A hammer, with what appeared to be dried blood on the head, was found by police underneath one of the towels, court heard. Three pieces of leather straps that matched a purse and a towel rod were also found near her body.

Court was also shown a wooden board, with a note penciled into it, found on a bed in the basement suite. The note said, “I’m going to do what I’ve said I would for a long time” and “brutally kill” Cindy by slitting her neck.

Police also seized an abandoned car and found jewelry, clothing and a bag containing Crampton’s identification. Officers seized a bank receipt from June 1, 2016, showing approximately $1,400 being deposited by cheque, then a similar amount being withdrawn.

Hurd’s trial is scheduled to last two weeks.