The Wrong Wife:Nancy Crampton Brophy·Nancy Brophy·Daniel "Dan" Brophy

Daniel Brophy was a well-liked chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Southwest Portland. His wife, Nancy Crampton Brophy, wrote self-published romantic suspense novels and had once posted an essay called “How to Murder Your Husband.”

On the morning of June 2, 2018, Dan arrived early to prepare for class. Shortly afterward, a colleague found him dead in a kitchen at the school, shot twice. Investigators learned the couple was under financial pressure and that Nancy stood to collect on life insurance. She owned a Glock of the same model used in the killing, and she had bought a replacement slide and barrel online. Prosecutors argued she used the new barrel for the shooting and then got rid of it, so the bullets could not be matched to her own gun. Traffic cameras showed her minivan driving to and from the area that morning. Her story shifted from being home in bed to driving out to write, and she said she could not recall that stretch of the morning.

She was arrested in September 2018. The judge kept the murder essay out of the trial. On May 25, 2022, a Multnomah County jury convicted her of second-degree murder, and on June 13, 2022, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.