Volume 12 · Chapter 4
The Wrong Wife
Nancy Brophy
Victim: Daniel “Dan” Brophy
Case at a glance
- When
- June 2, 2018
- Where
- Oregon Culinary Institute, Portland, Oregon
- Perpetrator
- Nancy Crampton Brophy
- Victim
- Daniel “Dan” Brophy
- Outcome
- Convicted of second-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years
The case
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.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 12 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 12 on AmazonCase photographs
2 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“Most people will remember this case for the essay title, and the judge was right to keep it from the jury. What actually convicted her was patient, ordinary work: a gun purchase, a missing barrel, and camera footage of a minivan. I hope readers look at that evidence rather than the headline.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
