Daniel Brophy: The Chef Killed by His Romance Novelist Wife

The Beloved Chef

Daniel Craig Brophy was a man who loved food, teaching, and people. At 63 years old, he was a respected chef and culinary instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland.

Daniel's students adored him. He was patient, encouraging, and passionate about sharing his knowledge. Teaching wasn't just a job for Daniel—it was his calling.

He had been married to Nancy Crampton Brophy, a romance novelist, for over 25 years. To the outside world, they seemed like a happy couple.

But on June 2, 2018, Daniel's life was cut short in the most shocking way.

The Murder

On the morning of June 2, 2018, Daniel Brophy arrived at the Oregon Culinary Institute to prepare for his classes. He was alone in the kitchen when someone walked in and shot him twice.

Daniel was found dead on the floor of Kitchen One—the place where he had taught countless students, the place he loved most.

There were no witnesses. No obvious suspects. But investigators began piecing together clues that would lead them to an unlikely killer.

The Investigation

As detectives dug into Daniel's life, they discovered something chilling: his wife, Nancy, had written an essay years earlier titled "How to Murder Your Husband."

In the essay, Nancy detailed various methods of killing a spouse—including shooting—and how to avoid getting caught. She wrote about motives like money and life insurance.

At first, Nancy seemed like a grieving widow. But investigators found disturbing evidence:

•Life insurance policies: Nancy had taken out multiple policies on Daniel totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars

•Gun parts: Nancy had purchased a Glock barrel and slide kit online—parts that matched the type of gun used to kill Daniel

•Surveillance footage: Nancy's minivan was captured on camera near the culinary school the morning of the murder, despite her claims she was home

•Internet searches: Nancy's computer showed searches for ghost guns and untraceable firearms

Nancy claimed she was researching for a novel. But prosecutors argued she had written a blueprint for murder—and then followed it.

The Trial and Conviction

Nancy Crampton Brophy's trial began in April 2022. She maintained her innocence, claiming she loved Daniel and would never hurt him.

But the evidence was overwhelming. The jury deliberated for two days before reaching a verdict.

On May 25, 2022, Nancy Crampton Brophy was found guilty of second-degree murder.

On June 13, 2022, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

A Chilling Reminder

The murder of Daniel Brophy is a case where fiction became reality. Nancy Crampton Brophy wrote about how to murder a husband—and years later, she did exactly that.

Daniel Brophy deserved to grow old, to continue teaching, to live the life he loved. Instead, he was killed by the person who was supposed to love him most.

This case reminds us that sometimes, the most dangerous person is the one closest to you.

TRANSCRIPT:

Daniel Brophy

Mandy: [00:00:00] A romance writer once wrote an essay titled How to Murder Your Husband. Years later, her husband, a beloved culinary instructor, was found shot inside his 

classroom. clues left behind, included, insurance policies, gun parts, and a shaky timeline.

Marker

Mandy: Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. 

Melissa: Hi Mandy. How are you? 

Mandy: I'm doing well. How are you?

Melissa: I am great. Thank you. I am looking forward to cooler days, which are,

they are a cumin. They are a There's parts of Florida that are going to be like. Freezing potentially this coming week. It's crazy.

I know. So when this comes 

out, 

actually it will have already happened, so maybe 

we'll be frozen, not like 

actually frozen, but maybe

we'll get some fake snow 

ish things. I want it to snow again in Florida. I 

Mandy: Well, I was gonna ask, I was just about to say was it. last year that you 

Melissa: Yes,

this year, January, it was my daughter's 16th birthday. [00:01:00] Yeah, it was so cool. 

Mandy: I mean, yeah. I mean, I, snow is cool. Yeah.

I agree. It's 

Melissa: so now I just like,

am kind of like,

well, it could happen. And so I don't think anyone 

wants it to happen but me. But um, yeah, it is exciting just to get, just to get in the holiday spirit, which I can't 

believe we're even talking about. The cooler weather does help.

Mandy: Yeah. And um, we're just a couple weeks away now from Thanksgiving, and that's one of, it really is one of my favorites because I just enjoy cooking and being in the kitchen and, you know, everybody's kind of hanging out and talking and I love that. So my family and I are actually.

Hopefully going to Houston for Thanksgiving to 

spend it with my grandfather.

that is, if we can fly there, I don't know exactly what's been going on, uh, in terms of like flights not potentially going off.

And, the one that I'm really worried about is, yeah, the one that I'm really worried about is our return flight home, which is supposed to be on Friday [00:02:00] after Thanksgiving, which is already like the 

busiest travel day of the years. So, uh, yeah, my husband was like, we were taking a walk this morning and or the other morning and he was like, I just want you to be prepared that this might be like the worst flying experience, travel experience we've ever had.

And 

I was like, yeah, I know. So, 

Melissa: do appreciate that

your husband does something

similar to me, like to go ahead and put it out there so everybody knows the vibes as we go into 

something. Um, yeah. 'cause then you can prepare mentally to know like, this is gonna go terrible. So every moment that goes right, you'll be like, whoa, this is great.

Mandy: I know, I know. Well, you know, I always like to approach everything with optimism. I'm like, well, maybe we'll just get there and 

it'll just be normal. Right. it'll just be easy and quick. 

Melissa: this. Not for this.

You go to the 

depths of the worst things that could happen and then you just, everything.

the toilet didn't overflow on me. This is wonderful, and it'll just be those kind of steps that will get you through. 

Mandy: Yeah, I'll keep that in mind for sure. All right, [00:03:00] so this week we are in Portland, Oregon, where we meet Daniel or Dan Brophy. He was born June 27th, 1954 in Valley City, North Dakota, to his mother, Karen, and he was raised with his brother, bill Daniel graduated from the University of Sioux Falls. 1976 and then went on to devote more than 50 years to food, whether it was in restaurants, classrooms, farms, or really anything in between.

At the time of our story, he was a teacher. He was the kind of instructor that students really remembered for life. He was tough in the way that makes you a better person, but he was playful in the way that reminds you kind of why you love the craft.

He was just really enjoyed being around food outside the classroom. He was a devoted forager. He also gardened and he was an amateur beekeeper with chickens, turkeys, and a yard that really doubled as a science lab. 

Melissa: This sounds like your place. This 

Mandy: Honestly, Dan was my kind of guy. I am really [00:04:00] into this whole setup that he has going here.

He really lived by this mantra of his, which was, life is a science project and 

this was not something he just said. 

He really seemed to mean it. He got married and became a dad to his son Nathaniel, but ultimately divorced his first wife, and later built a life with a writer named Nancy Crampton. Brophy.

Friends described Dan and Nancy as being inseparable, and then years later everything changed inside Dan's classroom, also known as Kitchen 

one. 

Melissa: So before we get into exactly what happened, let's talk a little more about Dan. After graduating from the University of Sioux Falls in 1976, he went straight into the only world that ever truly fit. The food industry. His first job was in a restaurant and that really set the tone for the next five decades. In the seventies, he was

on the line at Jake's famous crawfish in downtown Portland. It was an old school, fast-paced kind of kitchen where

you either [00:05:00] learn to think under fire or you get out of the

way. I have not watched the show, what is it called with one word? No, not Hell's Kitchen. I've watched that actually a lot.

The one that everyone says says, yes, chef, I'm gonna lose my mind. 

Mandy: You know, this is 

Melissa: It's one word. It's one word. I will have it by the end of the episode. But anyway, that's what this reminds me of. It's kind of like put up or shut up and you just have to get stuff done. Continue yelling at your listening devices. I will have it by the end. Um, At some point though, he headed to Denver to work for McCormick in Schmick, and that's where he sharpened that classic seafood skillset. He later returned to Portland and transitioned into teaching at Western Culinary Institute. He left the institute around 2004 or 2005, and then in 2005, his longtime friend, Eric Strom Quist, opened the Oregon Culinary Institute, and of course he hired him From that point until 2018, Dan worked as an instructor there. Students [00:06:00] called him tough. But also said he was a good teacher and a jokester. the kind of guy who expects your best, but also makes you want to give him your best. He also taught poultry slaughter at the side, yard, farm, and kitchen, because Dan Didn't just pack food into tidy boxes. He followed it from coop to cutting board to classroom, and his personal life mirrored that curiosity. He forged mushrooms in the Willamette National Forest and brought students along to show them how ecosystems and ingredients are inseparable. He gardened kept bees and raised chickens and turkeys at home, effectively turning his yard into a living lab. His bio on the institute's website even called him an expert

in marine biology. Dan really treated food like a discipline, not a trend. And his guiding phrase was, life is a science project. It wasn't just cute branding for him, it's really how he moved through the world.

Mandy: Then there's also the family side of Dan which is as [00:07:00] complicated and as human as anyone else's.

He first married Pearl a Stillwater, and together 

they had a son named Nathaniel. That marriage ended in 1994 and the relationship with his son became distant for a time years later, a new chapter began when Nancy Crampton came into the picture.

She's a Texan by birth, a writer by passion, and a student at Western Culinary Institute. At the time that Dan was on faculty there, they really hit it off as friends at first, and then it grew into a partnership that spanned nearly three decades. They held a wedding ceremony in the late 1990s, but they never made it legal until 2016, but still friends who'd known them for 20 years described them as being inseparable.

The couple settled in Beaverton, which is a Portland suburb where Dan's identity as a teacher and tinkerer really flourished. Meanwhile, Dan's off-duty life kind of stayed industrious. There were bees to tend [00:08:00] mushrooms to hunt, and a large vegetable garden that was equal parts pantry and classroom. and his interests were really stacked.

He was into a wide variety of things from marine biology, culinary technique, farm practice, and foraging ethics. You could really argue that he lives multiple lives at once and you know, this overlap is really intentional. He's just into everything, really. The circle of life, I guess you could say.

Students remembered humor mixed with high standards colleagues. Note how deeply he cared about his craft and at home. There's this whole rhythm of animals harvest and a happy life with his long-term partner.

Melissa: Nancy Lee Crampton. Dan's wife was born on June 16th, 1950 Wichita Falls, Texas. Both of her parents were lawyers and she sat in the middle of at least two siblings. She graduated from Wichita Falls High School in 1968, and she earned an economics degree from the University of Houston in 1971. As far as her [00:09:00] temperament goes, she presented as someone who was confident and decisive. According to her resume, she had moved through insurance and sales. She had sold Medicare plans and before that she sold life insurance. 

She also ran a catering company for roughly a decade. This catering company had posted a tax return showed $500,000 in revenue After nine 11, the Portland Dining Community really took a hit. She had to let go. 10 of her 25 employees and told the Oregonian, everyone's hanging on, hoping the economy is going to turn. She had left Texas in the

early nineties and moved to

Oregon. Once she was there, she enrolled at Western Culinary

Institute and that's where Dan Brophy had just started teaching.

The two clicked as friends then more. When it came to Dan, Nancy fell hard. She even wrote on her site about when she knew that Dan was Mr. Right. And although Nancy was working in different fields, ultimately she loved to write. She self-published nine [00:10:00] titles on Amazon. from titles like Plotting Your Story Arc. The wrong husband, the wrong seal, the wrong cop, the wrong brother, the wrong hero, the wrong lover heal on the heart. And the anthology girl, most likely I like the whole, the wrong thing. That's I, I'm intrigued, but the wrong never felt.

So Right Series had actually earned her four to four and a half stars on average with modest review counts. The wrong brother. That she wrote, and I guess it was on Amazon, led with 64 reviews. She joined Rose City Romance writers and cultivated a presence in the room. One of the fellow members who was also a journalist, Heidi Joy Trethaway later said, Nancy liked to be the queen bee

and she had main character energy and often dispense unsolicited advice. That's like my biggest fear is that I, that somebody would describe me in a way that I. Gave unsolicited advice, like, 'cause I'm always like, I wanna be a good listening ear.

Then I'll hear myself say something. I'm like, they didn't ask [00:11:00] you dummy. And so it's kind of a fight and an internal fight to not be described that way. on her old 

About me, Nancy described reading Nora Roberts on a long flight. Turning

to her husband, Dan, and saying, I could have written this, and then reciting a line, and she said, basically, easy reading is hard writing.

Which that is so true, like it is to make it where people enjoy reading it. It has to be kind of, I guess, difficult to make it. I don't know. I'm never gonna do it. 

She also credited the Romance Writers of America for teaching her how to hone her craft.

Mandy: So Nancy's online footprint also included a 2010 to 2011 blog called Rebuilding from a House Fire

In March of 2010. She wrote that Dan had called 9 1 1 for 

a basement fire the same day that their insurer had flagged a paperwork issue. So that's kind of sketchy. In a follow up, she said that the house had been insured and that no one, including their small dogs who were named PB and J or [00:12:00] the chickens had been hurt.

She said they ultimately did receive about $170,000 in insurance proceeds, and admitted that they had recently dipped into a 401k in March of 2011. She wrote that her mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer the previous August and had died the same year. Her last post, which was on March 22nd, 2011, mentioned ordering kitchen cabinets.

Also in 2011, she co-Lo C Jane Publish, which was a craft blog that posted interviews and writing talk through November of that year before it also went quiet. That site hosted the piece that would later overshadow everything in our story, which was titled How to Murder Your Husband. In this piece, she laid out five motives.

There was financial, lying and cheating, fell in love with someone else abuser. And the final motive was, it's your profession, which I guess, that's an interesting one. Um, you don't hear that as a motive very often, [00:13:00] but she also outlined these six methods that were guns, knives, garrote, random heavy equipment, poison, and hiring either a hitman or.

I guess you're a lover.

Near the end, she wrote, quote, I find it easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them. I'm not good at remembering lies, but the thing I know about murder is that every one of us has it in him or her when pushed far enough. End quote, 

ma'am, you can't. write that on the internet.

But at the time, this just reads kind of like, you know, she's really into now writing these like more dark things, dark series kind of things. It's all just fiction, you know, it's not real.

but later this would read more like a problem for her. I.

Melissa: For sure. So by the mid to late 2000 tens, the public face of Dan and Nancy still looked very stable. They had a long partnership. They had their Beaverton home life and the kind of shared routines that couples developed over decades. But money pressures have always really been a [00:14:00] part of the background. House fire insurance had helped them years earlier, yet the couple had also tapped into their retirement funds. Nancy had kept writing, but the books had not delivered significant income. Meanwhile, Dan had worked and taught at OCI and on side gigs like the poultry slaughter classes at the side yard, farm and kitchen while they kept animals and a large garden at home. Nancy's identity as a novelist had grown more defined than lucrative, and her persona in writing circles had stayed assured. She joined, advised and hosted. She also kept that 2011 essay online, That's that how to murder your husband thing, where it sat amongst posts about crafts and community that thing's gonna be on the way back machine.

It's gonna be there forever. So nothing about those details really looked like a murder case on their own. They only mattered later because a prosecutor would argue that they hinted at motive means and planning While a [00:15:00] defense team would say they had proved nothing except that Nancy was a writer

who used the internet and had a flare for attention. Dan and Nancy had slept in separate rooms sometimes because Dan was someone who woke up early around 4:30 AM which I consider to be. The night before, like that's not sleeping. Um, and Nancy was someone who preferred to sleep later. Me too. But on June 2nd, 2018, all of that changed.

Mandy: That morning. Moved fast. Dan got to Oregon Culinary Institute at about 7:21 AM He disarmed the alarm and went inside and he was the only person

in the building at the time. Another staff member showed up at seven 30 and planned to let students in at eight.

But sometime in that window, someone shot Dan twice. One shot hit him in the back while he stood at the sink, it hit his spine and that shot would've paralyzed him. The shooter moved closer and then fired into his chest with both bullets [00:16:00] piercing his heart. Either one of these shots would've been fat. At 8:00 AM students came in for class and found him on the floor at the back of the room.

They called 9 1 1 and did CPR, but unfortunately, he passed away. The lab later said that the bullets looked like they came from a Glock nine millimeter Police found two shell casings, but they couldn't find any usable prints. There were no signs of a struggle. There was no forced entry anywhere, and nothing had been taken.

Dan's wallet, his cash phone and keys were all still there, and his car was still right where he left it. So to the investigators, this didn't look like a robbery at all. The next day, Nancy posted on Facebook. She wrote that her husband and best friend had been killed and said there'd be a candlelight vigil at the school on June 4th at 7:00 PM She also said that she felt overwhelmed and asked for people to hold off on calls until she could function a little better.

It really came [00:17:00] across like a woman just trying to get through every moment, which is what you would expect if this happened to your husband. From the start, the scene felt very controlled. Whoever did this knew exactly where to go and when to go. It happened before the students came in, but close enough to the start of class that help would find him fast.

It also happened in a kitchen where there were sinks and drains and noise from equipment when class got started, and that really mattered because it gave the shooter some cover and kind of a timeline that you know, really fit into a tight box. And that is where the detective started.

Melissa: Police worked the basics First. They cleared the building. They checked the doors and windows, and they found no sign of forced entry. They logged all of Dan's stuff and saw everything was really there. They tracked who had codes and who had keys, and then Nancy arrived in her Toyota minivan. She said she had heard there was a shooting at OCI and had called and texted Dan when she didn't hear [00:18:00] back. She drove over in a panic, she told detectives she had been home all morning and she walked them through Dan's routine before he left the house. She said Dan had left that morning around 7:05 AM. Detectives then asked Nancy about guns and Nancy said she owned a Glock nine millimeter that she had bought at a gun show, but she said neither of them had ever fired it. The police ended up taking that gun with her permission and the state lab tested it and said it was most likely not the murder weapon, which sounded helpful for Nancy on paper, but it opened a door for a new question.

If it wasn't that gun, then which gun was it? As a team dug in, they pulled phones and accounts. They learned that Nancy and Dan shared an iTunes account that had an article bookmarked. 10 ways to cover up a murder, They also started pulling video and plate reads from around the school and around downtown. And then there were the early mistakes that still made people grit their teeth. Police did not swab Nancy's hands for gunshot residue. [00:19:00] And of course, if you're looking at everything, that's something you really want to do because everyone should be looked at as suspect as, you know, especially early on. Even so the police kept building their case. They had this scene, they had this. Perfect amount of time. They had a likely caliber of gun

and they had a spouse who had been nearby

only hours later. The next moves were about

money and parts and a minivan that was caught on camera. And we have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. 

And now back to the episode. 

Marker

Mandy: before the break, Dan Brophy was found at work, shot 

twice with no sign of a struggle or robbery and all his belongings still there. His wife, Nancy, had arrived saying she'd been home and told the police that she owned a Glock, which the lab said didn't match the murder weapon.

Detectives pulled digital records and found a bookmarked page titled 10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder. From there, the case shifted to surveillance cameras and a minivan that shouldn't have been there. [00:20:00] So the video told a story before Nancy really even could.

Nancy had told the detectives that she stayed home that morning, but surveillance did not agree with her. Cameras. Showed her Toyota minivan driving past Oregon Culinary Institute at 7:08 AM and leaving the area at 7:28 AM That was the same van that she later drove to the scene. Later filings showed she had already been in downtown Portland by 6:39 AM and police matched the license plate on the minivan to Nancy and locked in this route that she took.

The 20 minute window around the school sat right on top of the time that Dan was killed. It didn't exactly prove who pulled the trigger, but it did put Nancy right there when it happened. And next came the gun parts. Detectives pulled browser history and shopping records On December 19th, 2017, Nancy had Googled ghost guns and visited ghost guns.com and bought a [00:21:00] Glock 19 nine millimeter kit.

Police later found that kit in a storage unit that she rented. The problem was that this kit didn't really, uh, go with the Glock nine millimeter that she said she had bought at a gun show. In February of 2018, she had actually bought a Glock 17 slide and barrel on eBay, and that setup would fit her gun.

The theory that followed was simple and really ugly. She could have swapped in the alternate barrel, fired the shots, then put the original barrel back on the gun. Ballistics then wouldn't match her gun because the test shots would come from the original barrel. The ghost barrel, however, was never found.

Melissa: So I have not heard of this, or maybe I just have not that this is a thing 

Mandy: You would need knowledge of how to take guns apart, I would imagine. Or someone you know, would have to know how to do this.

Melissa: Right.

Well, I guess it

makes sense that they're like basically living on a farm and

doing all this animal stuff that they probably [00:22:00] do know 

how to use everything they're hunting and all of that. So it 

does 

make sense, but it is something where I was 

like, I'm actually surprised more people don't use that because it does absolutely throw people off the 

Mandy: It's an interesting 

theory. Yeah, for sure. But there were other details that stuck too. The police had not swabbed Nancy's hands for gunshot residue, which was a lost chance really, to test for that answer to that basic question, you know, whether or not she handled or fired a gun that day. They also flagged a shared iTunes account where an article called 10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder was, you know, sitting in her bookmarked list.

But that didn't prove anything by itself. It also didn't really help her story. The pieces were starting to stack up. They had the van on camera, that ghost gun kit, the barrel that she bought on eBay and the timeline that just really kept pointing right back to her.

Melissa: But next up was the money trail, and that came in and hit hard three days after the murder on June 5th, Nancy called the lead [00:23:00] detective Darren Posey. On this call, she asked for a letter saying that she was

not a 

suspect so she could claim life insurance. in this audio recording, she jokes that the company probably didn't want to pay quote if it turns out that I secretly went down to the school and shot my husband. 

Mandy: Yeah, probably not. 

Melissa: No, for sure. And she also said Dan had a $40,000 policy. Detectives kept digging and found more. They learned that there were multiple life insurance policies with Nancy as the beneficiary totaling over $350,000. Court records later described around 10 policies that added up to close to $800,000. There was also an accident policy that would pay $400,000 if Dan died at work. On top of that paperwork listed, Dan's income is $60,000 when he actually made more around $34,000. Neighbors noticed Nancy's mood, and one of them, a guy named Don McConnell, told a reporter that she [00:24:00] really didn't seem

upset and almost looked relieved. 

So he said that she told him that police aren't really telling her much because she is likely a suspect, and that comment will line up with things in reality later. At the same time, this financial picture fills out a little bit more. So Dan had pulled $35,000 from his 401k in October, 2017 to pay an $11,000 credit card, as well as to catch up on the mortgage. And at this point they owed $13,000 in taxes And helped use this money for this. By the summer of 2018, that money was gone. An insurance broker would describe the bro fees as robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the couple had about $10,000 left, and there were plans to subdivide the Beaverton property for about $700,000. Altogether, this looks like motive plus means plus opportunity, and having her van on that route at the right minute, as well as the kit that's found in storage as well as the [00:25:00] missing barrel, the insurance,

a million insurance, plans and asking for this whole, not a suspect letter three days after her husband's been killed.

The case isn't finished, but the direction really feels obvious.

Mandy: So the police made their move. On September 5th, 2018,

they arrested Nancy at her home and took her to the county 

detention center and she faced charges of murder and 

unlawful 

use of a weapon. A judge denied her bail when officers took her in. She said, you must think I murdered my husband. I mean, they probably told you that that's what they thought when they arrested you, Nancy.

but the arrest came three months after the shooting. Investigators at that point though, had already been treating her as a suspect pretty much the whole time. Nancy's friends, however, were shocked. A few even said that Dan and Nancy had looked perfect together and they just really could not believe this.

Detectives kept talking to people who knew the couple. Some friends said Nancy had [00:26:00] talked about wanting to sell the house and travel the world, but she never would say that in front of Dan. She said it would be hard to actually convince him to do something like that. Meanwhile, the paper trail also kept lining up with what the police had already found on video.

And there was one strange moment in court news that fall on November 20th, 2018. The Oregonian reported that Deputy District Attorney Sean Overstreet, had said that Nancy might have been committing crimes from jail. He didn't explain what he meant in that hearing, so it kind of just sat there as a red flag without any real details.

And it didn't change the course of the case, but it did kind of go to show just how tense the pretrial phase had really gotten.

Melissa: In February of 2019, Dan's son. Nathaniel filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Nancy for $1.7 million. He asked for $200,000 for Dan's pain and suffering, $500,000 in estimated losses to the estate, and $1 million for the loss of his father. In May of [00:27:00] 2019, the court put that case on hold until the criminal case finished. in April, 2020. COVID is a thing and the defense of course, is pushing for her release because as her lawyers said, she is older and she has diabetes, and they said putting her in jail, keeping her in jail, uh, put her at risk of imminent death. The judge denied the request and she stayed in custody to wait for trial. So by the time trial rolls around, the shape of the case really was set. The defense had a marriage that looked long and devoted on the outside, and a client who said she loved her husband and definitely didn't kill him. The next step was the courtroom, which meant fights over what the jury was allowed to hear and what they

were not allowed to hear, which I'm always so fascinated with what's

allowed and what isn't, and we will get into that after one last break to hear 

word from this week's 

sponsors. 

Marker

Melissa: And now back to the episode. 

Marker

Mandy: So we have been telling the story of the murder of Dan Brophy and now his 

wife Nancy, is going to trial Nancy's trial opened on April [00:28:00] 5th, 2022. Senior Deputy DA Sean Overstreet led for the state and defense attorney Lisa Maxfield. Represented Nancy Judge Christopher Ramus set the rules upfront. He kept the how to murder your Husband essay out of the trial, so the jury never got to hear that, and lawyers also were not allowed to even bring it up.

That really kind of shaped the lanes for both sides. The state then leaned on the money and the guns and the movement of Nancy that day of the murder and the defense leaned on her being this loving, grieving spouse. You know, they really just tried to cast out The prosecution said that this was really a money case that turned into a murder.

They said Nancy kept a stack of life insurance policies while the couple fell behind on bills. Overstreet said that she paid well over a thousand dollars a month to keep those policies alive while they were struggling to even pay their mortgage. An insurance broker testified that they were robbing Peter [00:29:00] to pay Paul, as we said before, and the state said the couple had about $10,000 left.

They had talked about subdividing their Beaverton property to pull out about $700,000, but reported potential insurance payouts if Daniel were to die, reached about 1.4 million. Then prosecutors discussed all the gun parts. They talked about the ghost gun kit that was bought in December, 2017, and they also pointed at the eBay order for a Glock 17 slide and barrel. In February of 2018. The prosecutors walked the jury through this theory that Nancy could have swapped out the barrel of the gun, shot Dan, and then put the original barrel back on, and that they never did find the missing barrel.

But that doesn't mean that it's not possible that that's what she did. The defense said the story the state told didn't track with real life. They said Nancy loved Dan and had nothing to gain from his death. Maxfield said Nancy's life collapsed after her husband was killed and that she couldn't even [00:30:00] return to her day job.

Melissa: Probably 'cause she was too busy filing or trying to get new. You know, I'm not a murderer. Letters to 

Mandy: right. 

Melissa: of these insurance companies. 

Mandy: Right, but her attorneys pointed out that Nancy's name wasn't on the Beaverton deed, and the defense 

also pushed 

alternate suspects. They talked about a 

man who argued in the alley near the school and had clashed with some staff before, and they said that crime had just gone up around the school and that Dan was a high standard teacher who could be harsh at times, and it's possible that a disgruntled student may have snapped.

Melissa: Maxfield also tried to explain Nancy's calm face after the murder. She said Nancy had been raised in the south and kept a stiff upper lip, and that seeing her cry was very rare. She said shock and grief looked quiet on Nancy, and that just didn't mean that she didn't care. 

So the state pushes back with this jail call they have, so jurors actually hear Nancy talking. This is taken from during the time of the trial while [00:31:00] the trial is going on and she's talking to someone on the phone about how. A student had tried to save Dan and that same student had been on the stand and she'd seen this person on the stand crying. And so she said something like, they had all these little girls that cried today. I've seen some of them cry three times. Now. One of 'em cries on cue and basically kind of like. Almost in a way I think that it was received, like it's, I'm annoyed, like it's annoying to me that they're just crying over my husband and obviously that doesn't make her look good if they're all crying and she's not. And she's like, you know, kind of, it felt more like a get over it

kind of situation. But on cross-examination, she said

she did feel for the student, but she thought the crying was over the student's own fear, and not for Dan, but of course that lands pretty cold, that she's still saying this about someone who found her husband dead. I mean. On top of that, like that's gonna mess you up no matter what. 

Mandy: Right. 

Melissa: while Nancy was on the stand. She did own up to the fact that the minivan that was seen on camera was hers. She [00:32:00] said she likely just drove downtown that morning to go right, because OCI felt like a place where she could settle in and work. She also said she had something called, and feel free to use this towards your husband's retrograde amnesia, after she learned that Dan was dead and she just didn't remember being there. So she could only really guess that she went to write or drive. For inspiration. She didn't even really know. She's like, I, I can't even remember. I think I might have gone to drive there, but also maybe I didn't, I don't

know. Later. She also said she left the house to go to Starbucks, which gave the state a line to say her story shifted as she goes

along as a state actually called it.

Convenient amnesia. And we see that sometimes where people are like, and then I blacked out and I don't know what happened until that very moment where I would no longer look guilty in this 

Mandy: Right. 

Melissa: basically what she does.

Mandy: Right, and that's one of 

those things I feel like that gets abused. Like, because I feel like there is like a, that's a 

real thing that can happen in a 

traumatic [00:33:00] experience is that you can have temporary, you know, 

amnesia or black block out, like the actual details of what happened for a time. But I feel like that just opens the door for people to just say that they don't remember.

You know? And like there's no real way of knowing and because it is actually a possibility that you don't remember, you know, it's kind of 

like, 

what can you really do if 

someone's claiming that they don't know what happened? 

Melissa: as far as those ghost gun parts, Nancy said those were actually for a book idea. She said she already knew how to remove a Glock barrel and also said she had broken two nails while doing it. I know, I know. I'm like, is that a sympathy pull? I don't think you're gonna get it. She also said she didn't know where the missing barrel went, but said she had seen it in her wardrobe either February or March of 2018. She went on to say that her marriage with Dan was really in a good place and that they had been happier than ever in the months before Dan died.

We also hear that so often. She said they often slept in different rooms, but that was only [00:34:00] because Dan liked to wake up so early. Overstreet ended his cross-examination with one question that tied back to her writing worldview without saying the actual title of the essay. So he basically said, I'll tell you a few things that are, that are in the article, but I won't say it's how to Kill your husband. He said, if there's one thing you know about murder, it's that Anyone is capable of it. And she agreed after court, he told reporters he thought she improvised on the stand and just changed parts of her story. So the jury now has two clean paths. There's this money plus planning, Plus a close window of time. Or you just have this grieving 

wife with really bad optics 

and so many coincidences, like just, you know, an unheard of amount of coincidences, plus amnesia, plus amnesia.

Mandy: Plus amnesia. Yeah. So the state closed with a short and sharp rebuttal. They called a former jail bunk mate named Andrea Jacobs. She said that Nancy told her [00:35:00] quote. I was this far away when the shooting happened, and then Nancy held her arms out to show a very close distance.

Andrea said that Nancy quickly corrected herself and changed eye to it, meaning the gun. So saying like it was this far away when the shooting happened, but either way, how would you know? Right? 

So the defense pushed back and said that she was just a jailhouse informant with all the usual problems that come with that, which is something, you know, that's always kind of a controversial thing, you know, putting someone who.

Has also been convicted of terrible crimes on the stand to testify, like, and because people do those things too, to get themselves a benefit in some cases. So you, it's very hard to know if this person is telling, you know, a true story or not. but the state said that little detail matched their view of the second shot, which had actually been in very, you know, at a very close range to the chest.

It wasn't a very long witness testimony, but it did leave a mark because it fit the theory that she had swapped the barrel, and the idea that whoever [00:36:00] did this had stepped in closer after the first shot. By then, the jury had heard the whole story. The minivan was on camera between 7 0 8 and 7:28 AM there was this ghost gun kit in the storage unit.

She had ordered this extra slide and barrel on eBay, and they never did find that missing barrel. They also, you know, had heard about this article about covering up a murder and her asking to be deemed not a suspect pretty much right away after 

Dan died. That part is so crazy to me because, yeah, nothing like there.

I can't think of anything more suspicious than calling the insurance company and just trying to get to the money faster. Like you're never gonna make yourself look like just you have to 

just wait for the insurance to like 

Melissa: And I have, 

Mandy: thing.

Melissa: and I

have a feeling it wasn't the insurance company saying, well Nancy,

if they'll give you a 

letter. I feel like it was her saying if I can get a letter, maybe they will give it to me like she's coming 

up with this idea. cause I have never heard anything like that 

to be like, [00:37:00] I'm not on

that list.

But I could be wrong. But I don't think I am on 

that.

Mandy: Yeah. So, you know, the jury heard about how the amount of money and insurance that she could collect just kept getting bigger the more you looked. 'cause she just had like endless different policies and different things to collect on The defense, of course, just stuck to the picture that they had been painting, which was that this couple had a long and loving marriage. You know, there was she that Nancy was really just this, writer who could take on this different personality, I guess, and create her artistic, you know, writing they explained that it was possible that Dan had a student or that someone else could have been responsible for his murder. So for the jury, it really came down to kind of which picture felt the most true when you compared it to the actual timeline and the evidence that they did have.

Melissa: So after closing arguments, the jury went out. They ended up deliberating for about eight hours and on May 25th, 2022, they came back with a verdict, guilty on second degree [00:38:00] murder Sentencing followed a few weeks later and the family spoke out. Dan's mother, Karen said, through the trial, Portland learned that our son was a great guy and we really miss him. His brother Bill talked about real things that now sat in the past tense, no more mushroom hunts, no more waffles at family gatherings, and he called it Nancy's most selfish act. Dan's son, Nathaniel addressed dance directly. He said she had executed his father in cold blood, premeditated murder, and he listed the simple work of love his dad had done for her from cooked meals, washing her clothes, supporting all of her efforts, and said she had lived in the shadow of a great human, which is a pretty powerful statement. On June 13th, 2022, the judge sentenced Nancy to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years with credit for time served. If she ever reaches that hearing, she will be in her early nineties. The DA's office put out a [00:39:00] statement that day and said it had been a long road and that the family had waited nearly four

years for justice outside court. The picture was 

simple. The state said motive and planning, and 

movement 

had all lined up, but the defense said love and grief and coincidence had just been ignored.

Mandy: After the sentencing, the case actually kept moving. Nancy filed an appeal in 2024. Her team raised standard issues and also said the 

prosecution had hinted at the band essay that they weren't supposed to mention during cross examination. Even though the judge, you know, said that it had to be kept out at the trial, the argument became the headline because the title had followed this case like a shadow while the appeal was on the move life around the case move too.

Nancy had been housed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, and that is where records showed her as of October, 2025. The civil case Nathaniel filed had stayed on hold back in 2019 and there were no [00:40:00] public updates that we could find after that.

The money questions that had filled so much of the courtroom never really got a clean conclusion. The rest lived on in pop culture. In 2023, lifetime released how to Murder Your Husband. The Nancy Brophy story with Sybil Shepherd as Nancy and Steve Gutenberg as Dan in 2024. Wondery rolled out happily never after Dan and Nancy with reporting support from the Oregonian and Oregon Live, and it pulled a lot of trial detail into really one place for people who hadn't really had the opportunity to watch this from gavel to gavel.

And Dateline actually had already covered it back in 2022 with an episode that was titled Murder in Kitchen One. Did you ever see that one, Melissa?

Melissa: I did not see that one, but

I did listen to the entire Wondery series. It's actually really good and you hear a lot of

I if I remember correctly, I remember hearing. Nancy

calling the officers to ask for [00:41:00] that letter. 'cause that's very very vivid in my mind. 

So there's a lot of stuff like that. It's a 

very, very easy Listen, if you want more information.

Mandy: Yeah, I always find these cases interesting when they have so much circumstantial evidence that points to someone, but they're not really able to get like that

final thing that they need to like really seal it and say like, this is definitely who did it, this is what happened.

But in this case, I mean, even as a jury member, like it looks pretty like, it very much looks like she did it.

Melissa: Yeah, well, juries really want DNA and since they didn't check, gunshot residue, They really had to go on circumstantial stuff. Like, I mean, to me the big one was her van being that way and her not having a good reason,

saying, well, I may have been going to write, and somebody had to know his schedule to know that when he gets to the office, when he, you know, when students come

in as well as knowing she gets more money if he dies at work. If somebody runs [00:42:00] an insurance company, please explain to me, 'cause I

still don't 

understand it. How can you get insurance po Not like I'm trying to do 

this, but just like I'm curious, how can you get insurance policies and have somebody on somebody and they don't even know. So Dan doesn't even know he has all these insurance policies. Like you have no idea. 

Mandy: I've always thought that was wild. 

Melissa: It doesn't make any sense to me like it feels like that's a great way to create a problem. Not like it's their fault and you can't

make somebody murder somebody, but it is such a wild thing to be like one day you could be alive, the next day you're dead, 

and the person you're married to 

has $2 million of insurance policies on you and you had no idea.

That 

just seems absolutely crazy to me.

Mandy: Right. And it, and it is like just one of those, I don't know, it kind of just feels like a violation obviously, because you're like, why? Like, because you feel like you should know. after my father passed away, actually I found out that he had a life insurance policy on me, and he also had a one on my sister.

Right. But he. And it [00:43:00] makes sense, right? 'cause it's apparent. And he took them out. Like my mom explained to me later that he took them out when we were much, much younger, right? Just literally, it wasn't like a huge thing. It was basically enough to cover like expenses if something were to happen, you know?

and so, but after he passed away, I had to get that like in my, you know, I had to do something with that like policy. And, um, but I remember like for a split second when I found out about it being like, why did he have a. Life insurance policy. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't even know about it.

Like I didn't know that existed. Like, that's so weird, you know? But, um, I think it's definitely even more strange if your spouse has policies out on you that you don't know about. Um, it's not quite the same thing as a parent for sure. And I would definitely be

really sketched out if I found out that my husband had a life insurance policy on me and I didn't know it existed.

Melissa: Absolutely. Yeah, I had, I knew somebody that I worked with a long time ago and I remember her saying something about her kid having a

life insurance policy and I was like, what is wrong with you? And then she brought up the point

like if something bad happens, you don't

even have to think about it like everything else you can deal with.

And [00:44:00] I was like, that

actually makes so much sense. But you're exactly right. I understand not telling a kid you have it on 

them, 

Mandy: Right. 

Melissa: Absolutely no sense for your spouse not to have some

knowledge.

Mandy: For sure. Yeah. That was our episode for this week. Thank you guys so much for listening. We will be back next week. Same time, same place. News story. 

Melissa: Have a great week. 

Mandy: Bye.