The Nancy Brophy Story: Killing a Husband Goes From Fiction to Reality

Oregon Culinary Institute, which closed on June 2, 2018, witnessed the tragic event where Nancy Crampton Brophy’s husband, Daniel Brophy, was killed and shot. Daniel Brophy, who was an esteemed instructor at the institute, lost his life in this incident. Nancy Crampton Brophy, who was 72 years old at the time, was charged with and arrested for second-degree murder in September 2018. After a seven-week trial, she was found guilty in May 2022. She is currently serving her sentence at the Correctional Creek Coffee Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, and has been sentenced to life in prison.

Novelist Brophy Crampton said during the trial that she plotted for months to kill her husband in order to cash in on his 1.4 million life insurance policy. She and her husband owned a $300,000 home.

[Watch episodes of Taking the Stand on the A&E App.]

The prosecution stated that the Brophys, who were financially struggling, took out a credit card, mortgage, and retirement account worth $35,000 before Daniel Brophy’s untimely death.

The defense conjectured that the killing of Daniel Brophy might have been a botched robbery. Crampton Brophy attested that she would “fare better” if her spouse were alive, as they were liquidating their retirement funds and planning to reduce the size of their property.

Writing About Homicide

However, her genuine passion lied in the art of narrating tales. Additionally, she penned articles for professional magazines and HR divisions. According to Brophy’s author profile on Amazon.Com, her initial published piece was a booklet called “Between Your Navel And Your Knees,” which delved into the evolving societal norms of sexuality during the 1960s and ’70s at the University of Houston.

“The Incorrect Paramour,” “The Incorrect Protagonist,” and “The Incorrect Spouse” were incorporated into the titles of her published novellas and romantic suspense novels upon her enrollment in the regional branch of Romance Writers of America in 2003.

“In her profile, she mentions the challenge of maintaining a relationship and the happiness of discovering love. She also discusses the complexities of family dynamics and highlights the strength of women as well as the attractiveness of men in her narratives.”

According to News 6 KOIN, Brophy Crampton wrote an essay titled “How to Kill Your Spouse” on the See Jane Publish website before her arrest, seven years ago. (It was described as a blog post in other media.)

The judge eliminated the essay from the trial, “but the prosecutor cited its subjects without referencing it by name,” The Oregonian stated.

Crampton Brophy listed five motives for murder in her post: being a professional hired killer, experiencing abuse, developing feelings for someone else, engaging in deceit and infidelity, and financial reasons.

“Either you possess dreadful accuracy or he is under the influence of narcotics,” she penned. Firearms, she stated, are boisterous, disorderly, and necessitate a certain level of proficiency. Engaging the services of a romantic partner or a contract killer, employing cumbersome machinery, toxic substances, a garrote (or strangulation), and blades were among the techniques she enumerated for terminating a person’s life. Additionally, she provided a catalogue of various methods for ending someone’s existence, such as utilizing blades, garrote (or strangulation), poison, heavy equipment, and enlisting the assistance of a lover or a hitman.

Untraceable Firearms and Video Recordings

According to The New York Times, his pupils came across his corpse; he had been filling containers of water and frozen water crystals upon his arrival and unlocking of the establishment in the early hours. A post-mortem examination revealed that Daniel Brophy was shot once in the posterior and subsequently in the thorax, from a short distance, whilst he was reclining on the ground of a culinary space within the Oregon Culinary Institute.

A forensic scientist with the Oregon State Police testified that Crampton Brophy, as reported by 12 FOX KPTV Portland, had bought gun components from the identical manufacturer, a Glock handgun, which is believed to have been used in the shooting of Daniel Brophy.

According to the prosecution, Brophy Crampton began investigating “phantom firearms,” which are untraceable weapons that can be purchased on the internet and put together at one’s residence, towards the end of 2017. The prosecution claimed that she invested $15,000 in firearms and firearm components, which encompassed a phantom gun that was delivered in January 2018, but she lacked the necessary expertise to assemble it.

According to The Oregonian, investigators speculated that she affixed that barrel, which was never found, to an additional Glock firearm she purchased at a gun exhibition. Additionally, investigators discovered that Crampton Brophy acquired a Glock handgun barrel from eBay in February 2018.

Video footage captured by video cameras near the Oregon Culinary Institute showed that she had suffered retrograde amnesia from the trauma of finding her husband dead. The psychologist called by the defense claimed that she had no memory of the trip.

He testified at the trial that he never spoke about finances or his relationship with him, and he also testified that his stepmother and father seemed to have a good marriage. He described his father as an affectionate grandfather with a dry sense of humor.

Stillwater said that, after his father’s murder, he took a week off to grieve and help Crampton Brophy, KPTV FOX 12 reported.

He expressed, “I was also worried about her welfare, but I was aware that there was a significant amount of work to be accomplished.” “We were unaware of the events that had occurred at that particular moment,” we.

Related Features:.

Stacey Castor and Other Women Who’ve Gone to Great Extremes to Murder Their Spouses.

What Truly Occurred to Belle Gunness, Serial Murderer and Slaughterer of Men?

The Killing of Army Sergeant Tyrone Hassel III: A Fatal Love Triangle.