The prosecution said she had repressed the memory up until that point.

CNN: Trust your memory? Maybe you shouldn't

As I watched the unspooling horror of it, a repressed, traumatic memory resurfaced, of an audition, one that must have taken place around the time this comedy troupe was formed, very likely in the same town.

NEWYORKER: Dead Man Laughing

While Loftus couldn't definitively prove that repressed memories weren't real, she could show that it was possible to implant a memory of a traumatic event that never happened.

CNN: Trust your memory? Maybe you shouldn't