Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Renowned Chef Found Murdered at Culinary Institute After Wife Writes Essay " How To Murder Your Husband."

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

Beloved Chef Dan Brophy is gunned down in the culinary school where he teaches. His romance novelist wife says she's lost her best friend, but now she's charged with his murder. Nancy Crampton Brophy wrote "How to Murder Your Husband, and "The Wrong Husband. " Police say Crampton-Brophy killed her husband for more than $1 million in life insuranceJoining Nancy Grace Today: Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego, Twitter: @WendyPatrickPHD Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, New Haven Police Department, Senior Lecturer, Director of the "Center for Advanced Policing" at the University of New Haven's Forensic Science Department Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida www.pathcaremed.com, Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine. Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference Zane Sparling - Reporter, The Oregonian/OregonLive, OregonLive.com, Twitter: @PDXZane Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A renowned chef is murdered, but who did it? Of course, that's the question. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Who is he?

Listen to this. I'd say in the last 35 years, I've had about 150 vegetable gardens. Death by pineapple chutney, peach chutney, rhubarb ketchup. I feel if people work with more ingredients, they have a fuller understanding of what to do with them. That's a secret, that's a very secret process. One cuisine for the rest of my life, I would opt for Thai cuisine, I think. I would put some more, I think the flavor was great on that, it needed something beside

the rice, and the lettuce wasn't the right answer. I like to see the students compete, and the peer pressure that comes along from being in a kitchen, I think we have done kind of a fun job of translating into the classroom. It's going to look more professional. You've got that diameter of chicken breast all the way around. Nice internal garnish scattered through there. You know, the eye catches all that color and shape as being more flavorful. Toasting that crouton will give another dimension of texture to this, that the soft, just bread won't. That may sound like a cooking video, like the ones I see when I'm trying a new recipe but

what you're actually hearing in addition to analysis of various recipes you're hearing the voice of Daniel Brophy murdered not only was he a renowned chef he was a professor as well so how does he end up murdered no question about it he's murdered and who did it listen our friends at koin this is how most people remember daniel brophy a teacher a chef someone who cared about treating animals humanely. Dominique Boza says she wouldn't have graduated the Oregon Culinary Institute without his help. He was really tough. He was really hard.

He would call out some of the flaws that you had so you can correct them. There was a big flood that came down here and it buried a bunch of things. She shared with us this video of Brophy in his element. Knowledge, knowledge beyond belief. You think you come into culinary school, like wide-eyed with like this dream of being a chef

and he realizes like you can do that, but there's a lot of things you need to know in between that. Just this weekend, my son, John David and I were at a Greek pastry shop and the lady was getting, John David ordered way too much and the lady was getting it all for him. And right beside her register was a chef. And her son had won the presidential award at the Culinary Institute. And I said, who is that? And she said, that's my son. And she was so proud it was the epitome of years and years at the best culinary Institute in the world and here you see this chef beloved by all of his students or was he somebody didn't love him because he ends up dead. So how did it all go down? Take a listen to our cut for

our friends at KATU. Dan was one of the few people I've ever known who did exactly what he wanted in life and loved to do it. Yeah, it's just the way. Students, colleagues, and loved ones gathered at the Oregon Culinary Institute tonight to remember beloved chef Dan Brophy. He was shot and killed over the weekend. Police still don't know who killed him. Chef Dan Brophy ran Southwest Portland's Oregon Culinary Institute. Students arriving for class the morning of June 2nd found Brophy dead inside the school. His killer nowhere to be found. Later that day, Nancy Crampton Brophy appeared at a vigil.

He was a person who did what he loved. He loved teaching. He loved mushrooms. He loved his family. He loved next in time. Nancy Crampton Brophy posted on her Facebook page the next day a message announcing the sad news of her husband's murder and added, I'm struggling to make sense of everything right now. I'm just thinking about how proud the owner of the pastry shop was that both she and her son, who will take over the business someday, had graduated from Le Cordon Bleu. And thinking about this chef taking all that time to teach his students, take time with them, work with them, only for it to end like this.

With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, host of Today with Dr. Wendy, KCBQ. And you can find her at WendyPatrickPhD.com. Renowned psychologist joining us in the New York jurisdiction, Karen Stark at KarenStark.com. Karen with a C. Lisa Daddio, former police lieutenant in New Haven, now director of the Center for Advanced Policing, University of New Haven's Forensic Science Department. Dr. Tim Gallagher, the medical examiner for the state of Florida. He is lecturer, University of Florida Medical School of Forensic Medicine, and the founder of the International

Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. You can find him at pathcaremed.com. But first, I want to go to Zane Sparling, reporter with The Oregonian and Oregon Live. Zane, thank you for being with us. Let's start with the discovery of the body of the chef, Daniel Brophy. Tell me about it. Yeah, this was a really horrific and traumatic event for these students who were coming in for their live fire day. That's the day where Chef Brophy would have simulated an actual kitchen shouting out orders, actually getting these tickets done in a timely fashion. So everyone was actually arriving early that day because they were so excited for this live fire presentation. Instead,

they come into this classroom and really discover Brophy's body prone prone on the ground, he's been shot twice, once, and the first shot was from the back. So someone shot him from behind, and then he was shot again after he fell over and someone shot him again in the chest. And these students are coming in, they're trying to perform CPR, but there's blood seeping out of the wounds.

They think maybe they've broken one of these ribs and one of his fellow instructors is trying to squeeze his hands. Maybe he'll squeeze back, but of course he doesn't. About what time of the morning was that, Zane Sparling? Yeah, this was pretty early before class. I want to say it was around 8, 8.30 a.m. So if we know his custom and habit, we know what time he typically got to class. Guys, we're talking about the murder of a very well-known chef, Daniel Brothie. Not only in his own right, but he was also a professor, a professor at the Oregon Culinary Institute. Dr. Tim Gallagher, how can we determine based on the discovery of the body how long he's been dead? Well, good question, Nancy. One of the things that we can do is to determine his body temperature. So the body loses one degree per hour for every hour that it's dead.

Another thing we could determine is rigor. So rigor mortis is the stiffening of the body. So the body will start to stiffen about an hour to 90 minutes after death. If the body is not in rigor mortis, then we know that the death has occurred sooner than one hour's time. Once the body starts cooling down, does the body then stay at the ambient temperature of the room or does it decrease from that temperature? It can only stay at the ambient temperature of the room. So if the room is 72 degrees, the body will cool down one degree per hour until it reaches 72 degrees and then the cooling process will stop right there. What do you think about this mode of death?

Of course, there is the cause of death, which would be gunshot wound. The manner of death would be, let's see, I think there are five. There's accident. There's natural causes, which obviously this is not natural causes. There is undeterminedined and there's homicide. Am I missing one? Suicide. Yes, suicide.

So obviously, it's not suicide because he was shot in the back. Obviously, it's not accident because there's no weapon around when these students get there. Obviously, it's not natural causes. So that only leads me homicide it does right and once all the other modes of death or manners of death are removed the one that you are left with is the one that you are required to put on the death certificate let me ask you a question this is more of an anecdotal question Tim Gallagher. I've seen people manage to commit suicide with a long gun before where they rigged the gun, for instance, with a string attached to their toe. And they hold the gun pointed to them and they manage in some fantastical way to commit suicide.

That's few and far between. You ever seen a suicide where the victim shot themselves in the back? I have not. The only one I've seen was where a female had shot themselves in the back of the head because they wanted their face to be presentable during their funeral. How did she do that? How did she shoot herself in the back of the head? You mean the direct back of the head or at an angle?

This was a direct back of the head. And she used a very small snub-nosed.22 caliber gun to do so. So it was very easy to do that. But no, as far as suicide goes, typically they're on the side of the head, sometimes in the forehead, under the chin, in the mouth, but very, very rarely, and I believe that was my only case of a gunshot wound to the back of the head. And I would not have known that if the gun wasn't laying there and she wrote a suicide note detailing what she wanted after she expired. Let me think. The question was, have you ever seen a suicide where someone was shot in the back, where a suicide victim shot themselves in the back?

I mean, I can't even figure out how they would do that without some sort of contraption. Right. That would be a novel one to me. I have not seen that, nor have I heard that. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Okay, we're going off on a tangent and I was the one that took us there because if there had been a suicide in that manner, the contraption would still be there so needless to say okay there I went off on this for a reason to Lisa Daddio think about it he's obviously shot first in the back

because he's found lying on his back face up Then he is shot in the chest. It's as if somebody wanted to make sure he's dead, but they didn't want to shoot him in the head, in the face. Interesting, right? Absolutely. You know, I would think that the first shot to the back was probably maybe initially as an attempt so that he didn't see who was shooting him. And then the second shot would have been to make sure that he in fact was deceased. Now let's think about that. Think about it, Karen Stark. I think we need to shrink. Karen, think about the mindset required to shoot somebody in the back and then walk over, turn them over and go, hmm, not sure he's really dead. Got to make sure he's really, really, really dead. As they say in the

Wizard of Oz, is she really, really, truly dead? So then with the guy probably looking them in the face, put another cap on him. Total disregard for the person that's being killed. Absolutely no. Maybe at first shooting from behind. That makes sense. You don't want them to see you. You have some feelings. But then you turn them over and think maybe they're alive.

So you shoot them again. You could care less about this person. No feelings, Nancy. Absolutely no connection to this person that they killed. So I guess the very first thing, Zane Sparling joining us. Oh, hold on, Zane. Let me throw this to Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor. I guess the first thing they would do, cops, would be to close down the campus, close down the building. If the killer's still in the building, you would want to trap them in there. And it's bringing to mind the case of, I believe, would you look this up, Jack? Anna Lee.

The case Lisa Daddio worked on? Yeah, Lisa Daddio, you worked on that case. Yes, I did. Patrick, Anna Lee went into the building at her university where she was a researcher, super smart, and she never came back out. And one of the first things they did was start cold everybody in the building, find out who was there. Then they started using key card evidence to figure out who had gone in and out of the building. So I guess in this case. Oh, and by the way, she never left the building. The killer put her in a wall. Isn't that right, Lucy Daddio? Yes, it is, Nancy. So in this case, Wendy Patrick, I guess the very first thing I would do is stop anybody from leaving that building pronto. And in fact, the whole campus. Yeah, absolutely.

That's absolutely the number one best way to make sure that, God forbid, if the shooter is still there, still armed dangerous, that we make sure that we get him or her. You know, I was thinking about the way this came down a little differently. You know, we don't know that the shooter shot in the back and then turned the body over. It could be the shooter shot in the back to disarm and disable this beloved chef and professor. And then the professor ended up trying to get up, turning over. And then, of course, the final kill shot was administered. So just looking at the positioning and the original scene, obviously, yes, of course, you're going to do all the lockdown.

But then we're going to have to really start out from there trying to decide how exactly this happened and how exactly, because that's going to help us not only find the suspect, but find motive. I got to tell you, you just made me think of something, Wendy Patrick. I remember the Fulton County Courthouse shooting. There were multiple victims. They had to rope off the courtroom where several of my friends were shot dead. It took them literally days to process the crime scene.

And I remember one of my best friends in the office, Al, a co-prosecutor with me, was called in to help the medical examiners, investigators, homicide, process the scene. And it was excruciating for him to have to process the scene where our friends were murdered. And I'm just thinking about all the students there as they're processing the scene like you just described. Zane Sperling joining me from the Oregonian and OregonLive.com. Zane, what was the first thing cops did to try to identify the shooter? Nancy, they did a couple things. First, they were looking to see whether this could have been a random robbery and burglary.

They were able to rule that out pretty quickly because they noticed that Chef Dan Brophy still had his wallet, had his keys, had his phone. There's some valuable kitchen supplies and equipment there in the Culinary Institute. And all that stuff was essentially untouched. They found all of that remaining at the scene. And the next thing they were really doing is looking first to get these students away from the crime scene. They had them all in a separate room and they had their put their hands on top of the table so that they could interview these people separately. And they're also looking for surveillance footage. And what they discovered. They put their hands on top of the table. Yeah. I can tell you why

they did that in case the perp was still there and had a gun and to try and preserve their hands in case one of them was the shooter so they could get GSR gunshot residue off their hands or the cuffs of their their shirts and I mean almost all it takes is for you to go rub your hands it's like baby powder it's gone so I'm sure they wanted all their hands visible okay go ahead the only other thing they were able to pull is that there were no surveillance cameras in the institute, either inside or out. So there's no camera, no footage and no witnesses. OK, wait a minute. That's on my list to ask you. Were there surveillance cams? And you're saying no? There were no cameras. They were able to pull some footage from nearby streets because there are some light

rail train stations in the area and those had cameras. But nothing showing people going in and out of the building itself or what happened inside. I know you'd think this day and age, Zane, that they would have security cams out the yin-yang. Another question to you, Dr. Tim Gallagher. I'm thinking about time of death, which is so crucial here. Okay, so the dead body is lying there. It goes into rigor, let's just say, hour to 90 minutes. After it goes into rigor, after a certain stiffening, after a certain time

in rigor, do the limbs then loosen up on their own? Yes, they do, Nancy. A rigor, depending on, of course, the ambient temperature will last from about 24 to about 36 hours or so. And then after that, the muscles will relax. The body will become, again, floppy. And then rigor would have already passed. So if there's no rigor, it will usually mean that the body has not been dead longer than an hour or the body has been dead longer than 36 hours. To go beyond the rigor. The reason I'm asking is I'm trying to set up a timeline here, but we know it hadn't been 24 hours because he was seen the night before. All right. So the case progresses and Zane Sparling, they get nothing from the students.

No secret love affair. No anger between the students and Professor Brophy. Nothing like that. Correct? That's correct. He was beloved. between the students and Professor Brophy. Nothing like that, correct? That's correct. He was beloved. You know, when you find out a professor, a male professor's been gunned down at school,

many people immediately think, oh, he's having an affair with a student and it all went wrong. There was nothing like that here. But they did notice this. Take a listen to our cut 18. This is Lindsay Natrick, a KGW eight. Nancy has written several novels and in 2011 also wrote an essay called How to Murder Your Husband. In it, she writes, I find it is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them. I don't want to worry about blood and brains

splattered on my walls. And really, 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. Zaina, who is Nancy? Nancy is Chef Daniel Brophy's wife of many years. You know what's interesting? I've seen a lot of homicide scenes and I've written a lot of books about murders, murder mysteries, but I've never actually even thought once, even once until right now, about having, quote, blood and brains splattered on my walls. Now, I will tell you this. When I write murder mysteries, my husband, David, of course, is forced to read them. And in one scene, I had a victim killed at Gatorland. As it just so happened, that following summer,

we took the twins to Gatorland or Gator World, whatever it's called. My husband, before he got out of the car, asked me, was this a setup? Of course, it was not. He's still alive and with us. But, you know, that's a pretty damning thing for his wife to write and then how to murder your husband. And then her husband ends up murdered. Right. So who brought that to the attention of police? I'm curious. Well, it's actually something that we reported first in the Oregonian. So you came up with it. Congratulations. Congratulations. Well, it was a different reporter, but I can't take all the credit.

I'm just still giving you the credit. That's very modest of you, Zane Sparling. So The Oregonian first dug it up. It wasn't just her novels full of sex and romance with steamy hot body scenes. But there was more. Take a listen to our friends at KATU2. Investigators say Nancy Brophy lied about where she was the morning her husband's body was found here at the Oregon Culinary Institute. They also say she lied about life insurance. This is the article Portland police say Nancy Brophy wrote and posted in 2011 entitled How to Murder Your Husband. Daniel and Nancy shared a joint iTunes account

and that someone on it had recently bookmarked an article titled 10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder. Okay, Wendy Patrick, note to self, do not share iTunes account with murder victims. Well, not only that, you know, you have to think about why somebody would be researching these things to begin with. Now, her out would be, well, I'm a novelist, I create fiction. But that may be true, but still the interest in some of these topics gets a little dark, especially when thinking that everybody feels this way, as we just mentioned. So that's a big, that's a big clue. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Karen Stark, Wendy Patrick has a point.

If you were to look at my laptop, you would see all sorts of searches about poisons and bodies and just all sorts of info related to murder. So a computer search does not a murder case make. That's true, Nancy. And I guess if you are writing a novel about that, you would find that. But if you keep finding specific things about murdering a husband and your husband is murdered, then you have to wonder what's going on that this person is looking for 20 ways to murder your husband or, you know, like... 10 ways to cover up a murder. I don't agree. I think about the reason why she would write that everybody is capable of murder if pushed far enough, because that is not true. Absolutely not true. So somewhere in her brain, she knew she was capable of murder and projected it onto everybody else.

Well put, Karen Stock, and I agree with you. To Dr. Tim Gallagher, how long, since this was not a shot in the head, how long do you think Chef Brophy would have lain there dying? Well, getting shot by a rifle is a lot different than getting shot by a handgun. A rifle has a more powerful bullet, and it causes a lot more damage. When the bullet entered into his body, most likely it broke a rib or another bone. Those bone shards went into the lungs. They went into the heart. The bullet continued through the rest of the body and did even more damage.

I would estimate that he was probably conscious no longer than 30 seconds, you know, after the initial gunshot wound. 30 seconds is long enough to lay on the floor and know you're dying. You know, so it's you, Zane Sperling, at The Oregonian and OregonLive.com. You guys got the ball rolling when you dug up the wife's article on how to murder yourband, her essay. But it's not just the article. It's not just her novels about sex and murder. Take a listen to Hour Cut 20, our frenzy, KATU2. Investigators say Nancy told them she'd bought a 9mm pistol at a gun show in February 2018. They say the two bullets that hit Daniel Brophy did not match that gun. But investigators say they later discovered Nancy had bought a kit online from GhostGuns.com to make a similar untraceable version of the pistol.

They also say she bought gun parts like a slide barrel online and that the gun and accessories matched the bullets that hit Daniel. Police also say Nancy lied about her location the morning Daniel was found. They say she told them she was at her Beaverton home when surveillance videos showed her driving her minivan on Jefferson outside the Culinary Institute before Daniel's body was found. Investigators also say Nancy told them she'd taken out a $40,000 life insurance policy on Daniel. They say they later discovered she was a beneficiary of several policies valued at more than $350,000.

$350,000. Okay. The lying Zane Sparling joining us from the Oregonian. When someone lies, it paints every other thing they do with a nefarious stroke. Why would she lie? And what exactly is a ghost gun? Explain it to us, Zane. Sure, sure will. Now, the defense attorney for Nancy Brophy is going to bring an argument in court right now in these coming days that due to the trauma she'd experienced, that Nancy Brophy had gaps in her memory. But what the prosecution is talking about is that Nancy had access to multiple guns.

There was that Glock pistol that was mentioned just a moment ago. Now, they found that gun in the house, but they noticed that the barrel had been replaced, right? The barrel is what gives those markings that forensic experts can use to match the bullet to the gun. The barrel had been replaced inexorably. It was not the same barrel that hadn't been put on right. And she had actually bought a ghost gun too, right? That's an untraceable, no serial number, no federal tracking. You just put in your credit card online and someone sends you a kit to build a gun. But it's actually very complicated to build a ghost gun. And Nancy, who was a writer, did not have the tools or the skills necessary are actually claiming that she bought it for research, right, because she's a romance and crime novelist. So they're saying this was just part of her writing process, buying a ghost gun. Specifically, a ghost gun is designed to avoid all gun laws.

They are untraceable. They are unserialized. Like on your car, for instance, you've got a VIN, V-I-N number. It's like a fingerprint to your car and they're very hard to remove. They're engraved on metal and really drilled into your car. You have to really work hard to get that VIN number out. Guns have serialized numbers as well. You can get a ghost gun without any type of a background check. It's totally secret. So the fact that a ghost gun is coming into play is very, very disturbing. I want you to take a listen to what neighbors think. Our cut seven, our friends at KOIN. I think it's a surprise to everybody in the neighborhood.

As an author, she's been writing steamy romance novels filled with murder mysteries. Her neighbors say if there were troubles in the marriage, they never knew it. Really quiet, ordinary people from what I could observe cookies at Christmas. While she may have been tight lipped with neighbors, Nancy expressed her feelings on Facebook shortly after Daniel's death, calling him her best friend in the months since her husband, beloved chef Daniel Brophy, was killed. So explain to me the nature of their relationship, Zane Sparling. They've been married more than 20 years.

Nancy and Daniel Brophy seemed on the surface to have the perfect marriage. Nancy wrote once that the reason she married Daniel is because she was in the tub expecting him to come join her and he calls out sure but let me finish the Ahan divorce first right she's serving him he's serving her food you that he's a very talented chef and again the defense has produced a number of letters and voicemails suggesting that they had a very happy relationship at least on the surface there really weren't a lot of problems except for money troubles. They were in serious trouble with their mortgage, credit card debt,

and were really looking to sell part of their home, sell part of their land because of how much money troubles they were in. How in the world do they get into so much money trouble? You know, well, it's a very interesting thing. Nancy Brophy, her day job was to sell life insurance policies. And as we heard earlier, she actually had $1.4 million that she stood to collect from Daniel's death. And that meant that every month, even the months they couldn't pay their mortgage, she was paying over $1,000 to keep up all these

premiums on these life insurance policies. Lisa Daddio, money, the love of money, the root of all evil. It's been said a million times. They had a fine marriage, no problem. They just had money problems. When she wouldn't pay other bills, she would pay that life insurance policy, $1,000 a month. Did you hear that? I did. It's one of those wows, right? Talk about circumstantial.

Those types of things are going to be interesting as the case proceeds to find out all these details leading up to motive. Guys, Nancy Brophy, steamy romance novelist, also the author of an essay on how to murder your husband. That's her title, not mine. Now in the crosshairs of prosecutors who believe she is the one who murdered her husband. And for what reason, according to Zane Sparling with the Oregonian and it's worth noting

that Chef Brophy was looking to retire. He had actually shifted just to working on weekends and he was working in a care facility too. So they were trying to, and Nancy really was not earning money she had in previous times, but she wasn't earning in the years leading up to her husband's

death. So they didn't have a lot of income. They lived on a very large lot in Beaverton. So they had those property taxes to deal with. There was some splurging on the credit card bills. They had credit card debt. And of course, really, again, all these life insurance policies, 10 different policies, 1.5 million total payout if Chef Daniel Brophy were to die. You know, they were using all their money to pay off credit cards, just make monthly payments. They must have been living really high on the hog.

But I find it really almost laughable. And I just can't wait to find out the reaction to this. She actually says that Brophy bought a ghost gun kit to put together a ghost gun and viewed it as a jigsaw puzzle. Like it was a game to her to put together, I believe, an automatic weapon. That's just fantastical. Lisa D'Addio, as we call it in the law, BS, legal technical term. That's a load of horse crap right there. Bought a gun, an automatic weapon as kind of like a a parlor game a jigsaw puzzle really it just none of it makes sense in that way and it leads you to like kind of scratch your head and be like

well what type of person does that unless there's some other type of motive or terrier motive to all of it and just there's other things you can do do if that's the way you want to kind of, you know. Like a jigsaw puzzle. Yeah, exactly. You know, get a crossword puzzle, get a jigsaw puzzle. Exactly. Take a listen to Hour Cut 6, our friends at ABC 13. The day after his murder, Brophy's wife, Nancy Crampton Brophy,

posted a statement on Facebook. It read in part, I have sad news to relate. My husband and best friend, Chef Dan Brophy posted a statement on Facebook. It read in part, I have sad news to relate. My husband and best friend, Chef Dan Brophy, was killed yesterday morning. I'm struggling to make sense of everything right now. While I appreciate your loving responses, I am overwhelmed. We now know Nancy was arrested Wednesday at her home in Beaverton. And today appeared for the first time in court. According to the DA's office, she's facing one charge of murder with a firearm constituting domestic violence. This news has shocked their community.

The couple's neighbor tells us... They were pretty quiet. I never really saw them together very often. While Dan taught at OCI, Nancy worked from home. She's the author of several romance novels, including one titled The Wrong Husband. On her website, she relays stories about her marriage, calling her husband Mr. Right and writing, can you imagine spending the rest of your life without a man like that? So is it money or sex? I'm trying to figure that one out. But again, the state never has to prove motive. To Zane Sparling, let's talk about something concrete, not just our speculation or what a jury may speculate upon. What does the surveillance video show about her, Nancy Provey's van the morning of the shooting and in particular, an 18 minute disappearance. That's right. So the surveillance footage from those nearby traffic

cameras shows a vehicle that matches the description of Nancy Brophy's vehicle cruising around. The word prosecutors have used is staking out the property, that Oregon Culinary Institute, where the murder occurred. So you see this vehicle, this gold colored minivan cruising around the streets. You don't quite see it parking. And then you see it leaving. And there's that that crucial gap that that prosecutors have matched to the time a death notification with Nancy Brosey and tell her that her husband was dead, which at this point she wasn't a suspect, when they went to tell her, Nancy was perfectly happy to talk. She recounted her whole day.

She said her husband got up, took a shower, left, but she just sat in bed and never left her home. And yet now the prosecutors in court this very day are making the case that there are these telltale dents in the vehicle that Nancy owned and in the vehicle shown in the traffic footage, which proves that her car was apparently circling the murder scene just minutes before it occurred. Now, isn't it true at one point she or her lawyer stated she was at a Starbucks at the time he was murdered. She did claim that she went to got her usual order at the Starbucks drive through so that she would have left her home for a few minutes. But Beaverton and downtown Portland are not at all close together. It would take you about 30 to 40 minutes to get downtown from from their location in Beaverton. So there's no way that a quick trip to the coffee shop would take that long. There's nothing quick about Starbucks. I don't know if you know that or

not. My daughter has taken to some exotic Starbucks drink. I mean, I had to write it down so I could say the drive-thru. It's never fast. Wendy Patrick, don't you just love it when suspects change or embellish their story to a point. It's completely unbelievable. First, she stayed home all day and then, whoops, I was at a Starbucks when this happened. But why is her car, her van circling the crime scene? Yeah, that's true. Credibility counts. That's the understatement of the day. I mean, you talk about a jigsaw puzzle that does fit together. It sounds like that's what we're learning regarding where she was the morning of the murder. And, yes, that not only fits together perfectly circumstantially, but as a timeline.

And you're right. I love Starbucks, too. And that story doesn't fit this. I don't love Starbucks because why would I pay five dollars for a cup of coffee? But, hey, you can go ahead and throw all your money away. You cannot live in a Starbucks cup when you're 75. Just keep that in mind. Guys, the defense is painting them as a couple madly in love that she nurtured their relationship. And the defense has just scored a big win in court. To Zane Sparling joining us from the Oregonian. What can you tell me about the fate of How to Murder Your Husband, the essay? Will the jury ever see that? It will never see the light of day. Of course, the jury is forbidden

from following any news coverage or listening to this podcast about what has been excluded in court. And the judge in this case in Multnomah County Circuit Court has ruled that because this essay was written back in 2011 when Nancy Brothe was joining a writer's group, he says it doesn't have probative value that it could mislead the jury. That's prosecutors that hope to bring it up in their opening statement. But they had to take it out because right before the jury came into the room, the judge ruled you got to strike this essay. And it is and the how to murder your husband essay will not be heard before the jury. A major boo boo by the judge. It clearly goes to her frame of mind.

OK, we wait for that jury verdict. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I Heart podcast.