The Woodbine woman who was killed with her three children by her ex-husband was “responsible and independent,” a neighbor said Sunday.
“It seemed like she was a mother who loved her children … who was trying to get her life together after the breakup with her husband,” said Gene Rodgers, who lives across the street from the woman?s home.
“They were ideal neighbors. She looked after her property.”
David Peter Brockdorff, 40, of Frederick, shot and killed Gail Louise Pumphrey, 43, and their children, David, 12, Megan, 10, and Brandon, 6, on Thanksgiving at Unity Park by Laytonsville. Brockdorff later fatally shot himself, Montgomery police said.
The couple divorced in 2005, and Pumphrey, a flight attendant, obtained a protective order against Brockdorff, an electrician, in spring 2007, according to court records.
Pumphrey and her children “seemed very well-adjusted considering the tension,” Rodgers said.
“I would think the children would have been affected, and if they were, they certainly didn?t show it in their behavior.”
Rodgers said he would usually exchange pleasantries with Pumphrey. He and his wife, Sue, said they frequently saw Pumphrey?s children playing with the other neighborhood children.
Pumphrey and her children moved to the neighborhood about seven months ago, but Rodgers said he didn?t remember seeing Brockdorff in the neighborhood.
“It?s hard to look at pictures of that man and imagine that he did what he did,” said Rodgers.
The children were caring toward animals and had a black Labrador retriever named Shadow that they loved, the Rodgerses said. The couple also remembers the children going trick-or-treating last month.
Other neighbors were contacted for comment, but many said they were not speaking out of respect for the family or because they didn?t know them well.
Nobody was sure whether family members were at the Pumphrey household over the weekend. A call left at her house was unanswered.
Today, guidance counselors, psychologists and other staff members will be available to assist students, staff or parents in coming to terms with their grief at Glenwood Middle School and Lisbon Elementary School in Woodbine ? the schools the killed children attended, said school spokeswoman Patti Caplan.
“They?ll stay as long as they feel it?s necessary to stay,” she said.
Staff Writer Dena Levitz contributed to this report.
