Going West: True Crime - Daniel Brophy // 206

Episode Date: June 4, 2022

In 2018, a chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute was murdered in his classroom before a Saturday morning class. After investigators looked into his wife, who was a romantic suspense novelist, they caught her in multiple lies, and uncovered that she had previously written an essay titled, “How To Murder Your Husband”. This is the story of Daniel Brophy. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.newspapers.com/image/484418953/?terms=Daniel%20Brophy&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/481541057/?terms=Daniel%20Brophy&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/455394578/?terms=Daniel%20Brophy&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/484656881/?terms=Daniel%20Brophy&match=1 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190341222/daniel-craig-brophy https://www.courttv.com/news/or-v-crampton-brophy-romance-novelist-murder-trial/ https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/nancy-brophy-trial-stepson-testifies/283-e33d8777-d670-4d54-b272-0607457e5056 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-brophy-6715317 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/us/husband-murder-trial-nancy-brophy.html https://archive.ph/D1s2X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to Crunk fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for joining us. It is good to be here and I just want to give a very quick shout out to Tiffany for recommending today's case. I can't believe I didn't hear of this before, especially because it's not far from where we live in Portland, but it, this case is insane. Yeah, it's crazy and just the connections and the irony of it all you guys will see when we get into it This is I'm surprised this isn't a bigger story right now because I feel like maybe a lot of people outside of Oregon Don't really know about this story, but it is so Crazy just the way it unraveled and as you guys will see

I mean it's just mind blowing and so terrible and senseless and just wow Yeah, and also apologies for the sound quality. We are currently under construction in our new studio. So we're trying to get it all together, but we haven't quite got everything put together yet. So we're doing our best here. We are in Los Angeles, and it's good to be here. It's good to be back home.

But yeah, we're building our new studio, and it is just crazy. So how many times am I going to say crazy in this episode? A few more times. Yeah. Alright guys, this is episode 206 of Going West, so let's get into it. In 2018, a chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute was murdered in his classroom before a Saturday morning course. After investigators looked into his wife, who was a romantic suspense novelist, they

caught her in multiple lives and uncovered that she had previously written an essay titled How to Murder Your Husband. This is the story of Daniel Brophy. Daniel Craig Brophy, who went by Dan, was born on June 27, 1954 to parents Karen and Jack Brophy in Valley City, North Dakota, which is a small city that's just an hour west of the much larger city of Fargo, North Dakota, which I'm sure many of you have heard of. Yes, I'm sure you guys have probably seen the movie or TV show. Right. Growing up, Daniel had a lot of passions that included cooking and marine biology. But cooking was really his forte and true love, so after graduating high school in 1972,

Daniel headed off to the University of Sioux Falls and then began working in kitchens to kind of perfect his craft. Around this same time, Daniel married his first wife and they had a son named Nathaniel. But after Daniel and his wife's divorce in 1994, he became, quote, largely estranged from their son. But things would get better between them later, which we will get into. Daniel really threw himself into his work at this point,

and after working in kitchens for almost 10 years, he began teaching other people how to cook. In the early 1990s, Daniel was living in the state of Oregon and working as a culinary arts teacher at Lincoln High School in Portland. And this was when he was still legally married. So we can't be sure if he was living in Oregon with his wife and son or if he moved without them and then the divorce, you know, didn't finalize until 1994. I could not find this out. But either way in 1991, 37-year-old Daniel was then working for the Western Culinary

Institute, which has since closed and become La Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, which has also since closed. But anyway, Daniel was a chef instructor where he would teach various students how to cook, and one of those people was Nancy Crampton. At this time, Nancy was around 41 years old, since she was four years older than Daniel, and she took a liking to him during their time together in class. She was very taken by his intelligence as well as his passion and skill for cooking. And actually, Chef Daniel's class was her very first one when she started at the Western Culinary Institute, and she and Daniel became friends.

After Daniel divorced a couple years later in 1994, he and Nancy really began dating, and then in 1999, they had a large wedding. But they didn't make it legal until around 17 years later in 2016, which I thought was one of the most interesting things. I do, as some people just don't get married. I don't know. Yeah, they had the ceremony, but they just didn't make it legal, so. But throughout all their years together, they referred to each other as husband and wife.

Before we continue, we'll tell you a little bit about Nancy. So Nancy Lee Crampton was born on June 16th, 1950, so almost four years to the day before Daniel was born as the middle child to two lawyers in Wichita Falls, Texas. After graduating high school in 1968, she headed off to the University of Houston where she majored in economics. She too was married before meeting Daniel but to a police officer in Texas. Though like Daniel's marriage, hers fell apart too, and in 1990 she wanted a fresh start, so she decided to move to Oregon and begin learning how to cook. In 2006, 15 years after meeting Nancy, 52-year-old Daniel began working at the InGood Taste cooking school as an instructor,

followed by getting a second job at the Oregon Culinary Institute, also known as OCI. But Dan wasn't just an instructor at OCI, but he was also incredibly active in leading field trips, particularly to forage for mushrooms with students, go to the Oregon coast since he was also a mushroom expert like many Oregonians are I was gonna say it's like huge in Oregon. Meanwhile, Nancy had been running her own business for a few years in Portland called Chef Dezure Catering where she brought in about $500,000 a year. Daniel on the other hand brought in about $50,000 a year. Daniel, on the other hand, brought in about $50,000 a year teaching, still good, but he adored it and his students appreciated him. He was known to be a bit tough on them and was the type to correct your work, but he did this so his students could be the best

chefs or the best chefs they could be, and one student in particular said that they wanted to be a better cook because of him. Another said quote, Chef Brofie was the man. He had an answer for everything and was always right. So I think it's kind of general anyway my grandpa's a friend chef and I feel like chefs can be very aggressive and just angry and you know, because I don't know why that's the thing. I think everybody out there who knows a chef understands what I'm saying. So it's a thing anyway, but he was a good person and he wanted his students to get a lot out of the class. I think they call that tough love.

Right. So after the economy took kind of a turn in the early 2000s, Nancy's business suffered and she had to lay off around 40 people. Due to this, Nancy took up writing and she was allegedly never in it for the money, but it was something that she was just kind of drawn to. Years earlier, when she had graduated from culinary school, she opened her business, but also participated in local writers' groups. So over the years, she would mostly write essays and such,

many of which were romantic suspense writings, including one that has become a big part in this case. A big part. In 2011, Nancy wrote a 700-word essay titled How to Murder Your Husband on the Website C. Jane Publish. It opens with this. As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure. After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don't want to spend any time in jail. And let me say clearly for the record, I don't like jumpsuits and orange isn't my color. The essay isn't very long, so we're just going to read it to you guys.

After that opener, it says quote, Motives. One. Financial. This is big. Divorce is expensive. And do you really want to split your possessions? Or if you married for money, aren't you entitled to all of it?

No. The drawback is the police aren't stupid. They're going to be looking at you first, so you have to be organized, ruthless, and very clever. Husbands have disappeared from cruise ships before. Why not yours? God. Aggressive.

I shall carry on. Okay. Two. Lying, cheating, bastard. Deception of any sort. This is a crime of passion. In anger, you bash his head in or stab him with a kitchen knife.

Most of the time, there's a trail that leads directly to you. Each type of murder leaves clues. A crime of passion does not look like a stranger was involved, and who has left to clean the blood from your carpeting? 3. Fell in love with someone else. Usually financial is also involved here.

Let's say your church frowns on divorce. You need to be a widow so you won't fall out of favor with your religion. At this point I should mention that it helps if you aren't too burdened by the Ten Command Mints. I think that maybe murder would be more frowned upon than divorce, but just a guess. I would agree. For a abuser, this one is tough. Anybody can claim abuse.

What is abuse? To a teenager, it might look different than to a spouse. As a motivation, this reason usually comes up after you've been arrested. Not a lot of abused wives down 9-1-1 upon burning down the house with their husband in it. 5. It's your profession. Now we're talking.

You already possess both skills and knowledge. You have the moral ambiguity necessary to carry it off. Quick hit and you fade from the scene. Get your payment up front from someone else because life insurance probably won't send a check. Nancy continues with options to consider. Guns, loud, messy, require some skill. If it takes 10 shots for the sucker to die, either you have terrible aim or he's on drugs.

I feel like she's trying to be wittier or something, but this just sounds so insensitive and extreme. Like, if it takes 10 shots for the sucker to die, chill out, lady. Well, and just knowing what we know about this story and what we're gonna get into, it just makes it seem worse. I just feel like she comes across with this snarky voice, like she's trying to be this bad woman, you know? Yeah. And it just doesn't work.

No, not at all. Sorry, continue. And then she goes into knives, really personal and close up. Blood everywhere. Ew. Gerrott, how much upper body strength does it require to strangle a person? Random heavy piece of equipment. Usually this involves hitting someone hard with the baseball bat or the pipe wrench that you just happen to have in your hand.

Poison, considered a woman's weapon. Arsnic is easy to obtain, worse, easy to trace. It takes about a month or two to kill someone. Plus, they're sick the entire time, who wants to hang out with a sick husband? Geez. Knowledge of pharmaceuticals would be handy. Availability would be even better. A word of caution, watch out for poisons found in nature. They're not a sure thing. Too little? Too much? Your mother always told you to marry a doctor. Now you know why. What? No. No. Everything she says is just, girl, what? Hiring a hitman. Do you know a hitman?

Neither do I. And an amazing number of hitmen rat you out to the police. Or blackmail you later. Hiring a lover. Never a good idea. The husband dies. And then the wife gets the money. The lover doesn't always win in this scenario.

Sometimes he too finds himself facing a loaded gun. And finally, we are finishing. Nancy wrote, I find it easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them. I don't want to worry about blood and brain 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 have it in him or her when pushed far enough.

What constitutes a good romantic suspense is the wise. What happened that forced a person into this situation? How will they justify this action? By the way, he needed killing is not a legal defense. Can they keep a secret? A confidence whispered in the dark is no longer secret. What if killing didn't produce the right results? Would they do it again? Could they do it again? What if they liked it?

Whoa, there's an idea for a new story. What if they liked murdering? I don't know. Alright, okay. Again, this came out in 2011, so let's read some of the comments that were posted at this time. Eerily enough, a woman named Jesse wrote, quote, I'm calling Dan to make sure he's alright, smiley face. That is so, like, that is some foreshadowing.

foreshadowing. By, like, when I read that, I couldn't believe that that was one of the comments. Kim wrote, oh my gosh, Nancy, I just love your mind. You are so wickedly ornery. I think this should be your next book, Smileyface. In the essay, there is a stock photo of a woman with a knife

kind of behind her back, or it's more like over her butt. And in reference to that, a woman named Susan commented, I love the picture of the woman with a knife behind her back. I always thought I'd be a knife girl. What? Love how your mind works, lady. If I ever need to Kim Flaudge emotive, I'm coming straight to you, smiley face.

I think someone needs to check on Susan's husband. I just think as so many needs to check on all these women. I know, like they're all just think this is so funny and it's absolutely just weird. I love your mind. Tell me how to murder my husband. So weird. Okay. So after writing this essay Nancy began focusing on writing novels and in 2015 she released a novel titled The Wrong Husband, which is about a woman who escapes an abusive spouse during a shipwreck in the Mediterranean

and then falls in love with one of the men sent to find her. Her other book titles include The Wrong Lover, The Wrong Brother, The Wrong Cop, The Wrong Seal, The Wrong Hero, and Howl in the Heart. The covers of these, have you seen the covers of the books? I have not. They're so corny, so we'll make sure to post a few.

And most of these books are actually on Amazon. Not that any of us should be supporting her writing career, but go take a look. I actually think a lot of them are free on Kindle, so I don't know if anybody wants to read them, but they're there. So her bio includes some information about her of course and the last line says her stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don't always work, and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay. But enough with Nancy's writing career, let's get back to Daniel's story and this case.

So while Nancy was writing these novels and actually working in life insurance sales, Daniel continued to teach at both culinary institutes in Portland, and he also enjoyed his gardening, which included growing various spices for cooking and tending to the chickens that they housed in their yard. At this time, they were living in Beaverton, Oregon, which is a city just outside of Portland that has more of like a suburban feel. And while Nancy wrote, usually during the mornings in bed, Daniel would kindly make Starbucks runs and bring her coffee in their room.

Very sweet. They never had children together, but Daniel began reconnecting with his own son, Nathaniel, like we mentioned we were going to talk about, and Nancy became close with him as well. Nathaniel still water later explained in court that although he and his father Daniel previously had a distant and stained or not stained, strained relationship, they reconnected in the years before his death and developed a quote, strong friendship as well as a father-son relationship. Nathaniel explained that he looked up to his dad and they enjoyed their time

together by working on home projects and of course forging for mushrooms together. Nathaniel continued quote, there wasn't a lot of quit in him. He would get up early, tend to the chickens, go to work, come home to work in the yard, cook dinner, read a book, go to work, come home to work in the yard, cook dinner, read a book, and go to bed. Regarding Nathaniel's daughter, Nathaniel stated, quote, I think he was very proud.

He took it very seriously. While he is known for his dry sense of humor, he was very affectionate and fun with my daughter. Apparently, Nancy also really enjoyed being a grandmother figure to Nathaniel's daughter, but little did Nathaniel know at the time, Nancy and Daniel's relationship wasn't going very well. Although they never fought in front of other people, they did sleep in separate bedrooms on separate floors of the house.

And I know we have discussed this in, you know, a different episode before, and we've heard from listeners saying they sleep in different rooms from their significant other and there isn't any relationship issues and they do it for other reasons, but it is known that things were not very good between Nancy and Daniel specifically, though they really did keep this from everyone they knew. Like from the outside, it appeared they had this ideal like relationship. Yeah, so I mean, it seems like this scenario of them sleeping in different rooms is because their relationship

was not great. Right. But for those wondering, there was never any indication of domestic abuse whatsoever, nor infidelity, and Nancy never claimed either of these things herself. Nancy was really interested in selling their house in Biverton and moving to a smaller plot of land outside of Portland, but Daniel didn't seem as interested as Nancy was. But we will also add that Nathaniel later stated that he had actually heard them speaking

about selling the house around him, and Daniel was interested in buying a ranch-style home in the area. Well, Nancy kind of discussed her interest in traveling to Portugal and Spain instead. So I know she wanted to buy a different house, but she was kind of like, let's sell our house and travel. But he was like, I just want to settle into a different house. But it seems kind of conflicting because she you know, she also may have wanted to move to like a little plot of laying outside of Portland. Right. It just, it just seemed like she really wanted to sell their house and he wasn't as motivated to do that. Sure.

And that does come up later for anybody saying, okay, who cares, you know. Yeah. So Daniel was still working two jobs at OCI and then for a friend's catering company called Avenir And this was quite hard on him though he wasn't known to complain But in the year before his death he just seemed more tired. Well at least according to Nancy She said that he would lie on the couch more and watch sports which wasn't like him since he was always up and doing something He wasn't planning on retiring anytime he was always up and doing something. He wasn't planning on retiring anytime soon and he really did love his career, but on June 2, 2018, something horrible happened to this man. It was a partly cloudy Saturday morning at 57

degrees Fahrenheit or 14 degrees Celsius, when Daniel arrived to the Oregon Culinary Institute, which offered weekend courses. And this was located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood right next to downtown Portland. At this point, Daniel was considered the resident encyclopedia of knowledge, and he was also well respected on campus. When he entered the building, he was the first person in for the day, so he disarmed the school's security system at 7.21am. And within 10 to 30 minutes, he

would be shot dead. Because at 7.30am, Chef Brophy's colleague arrived, so 10 minutes after he disarmed the security system. And 30 minutes later, at 8 a.m., the doors opened and students began to file in. And that's when multiple students of Daniels found him bleeding to death on the floor of the class's kitchen. 63-year-old Daniel Brophy students were the ones to find him, laying on the floor of the school kitchen. He had been shot twice, once in the back, and once in the chest. But while the paramedics were on their way, Daniel had already passed, since both bullets pierced his heart.

Upon looking at the scene, it didn't appear to have been a robbery gone wrong. Daniel's wallet was on him, along with his keys, and his 2010 Toyota Tacoma was parked outside. There also wasn't any forced entry, no sign of a struggle, and Daniel was the only victim. Now, originally, it was believed that a homeless person had potentially been behind Daniel's killing, but nothing was stolen, so this was ruled out. Because there were no security cameras

on the school's campus, this made things a bit tough. But Detective Anthony Merrill, who worked on Daniel's case, mapped out the area to determine where he could collect surveillance footage from nearby, you know, different businesses, camera footage, that could help find Daniel's killer. And he found that on the morning Daniel was killed, which again was June 2, 2018, Nancy's 2005 Toyota Sienna Mane Manivan was seen driving at 7.08am. And then her Manivan was spotted again at 7.28am near the Oregon Culinary Institute near downtown Portland where Daniel was working. And this footage was from Bellagio's Pizza. And remember, Daniel was likely killed

between 721 and 730, or I would say 721 and 725, and then three minutes later, her minivan is seen just up the road. That's obviously very suspicious. Yeah, definitely suspicious. So her minivan had an identifying mark, which was this horizontal scratch above one of her wheels that had a rust

spot within the scratch, meaning it was an old scratch. And this made it easier to determine that the vehicle was more than likely hers. Then about three to four hours later, Nancy was called and informed of Daniel's death. Nancy was interviewed that same day, and during her interview, she explained that Dan left their house for work at 7.05am. And remember, she was originally caught on a surveillance camera about three minutes after this at 7.08am, assuming she's even correct about, or she's even telling the truth about the time you left the house. Nancy asked the detective if Dan had been shot

within AR-15 because of a recent school shooting that she had seen in the news. When asked if she had a gun, she said she had purchased one years earlier because it seemed to everyone she knew had one for protection. Again, this was because of a school shooting. I think it was actually because of Sandy Hook, she had said that she decided to get a gun for protection. Again, this was because of a school shooting. I think it was actually because of Sandy Hook, she had said that she decided to get a gun for protection. So more specifically,

she said that she wanted Daniel to keep it on him when he went out forging for mushrooms, but it's not believed that he ever did. So it's kind of conflicting. Like she had told friends that she wanted to get one after Sandy Ho happened, and then she tells the police, oh, I got one for Daniel. Yeah, I got it for his protection while he's out in the woods. Right, so it's not my gun for me, it was me purchasing it for him.

So just remember that detail. The gun was purchased by Nancy at a gun show, and it was a Glock 17, which is a semi-automatic handgun, and semi-automatic casings had been found at the scene of Daniel's murder. So kind of make sense here. When Detective Rico Beniga asked Nancy

if he could take photos of her minivan, Nancy asked, why? I wasn't there this morning. I was at home. At this time, they couldn't concretely tell if the minivan did belong to Nancy. So detectives looked at 12 different 2005 Toyota Sienes registered in that area. But none of those vehicles matched the one seen in the security footage. Just Nancy's.

Yeah, it seemed like hers is the only one that actually looked the same and made sense to be there at the time. And then also you have the scratch, which is like- Which is like, come on. Undeniable. Yeah. So when asked if Daniel had any enemies, Nancy stated that he didn't, and she couldn't think of anyone who would want to hurt him. They had been married for 27 years, so she knew Dan and his life very well,

and she described losing him as losing her best friend. Of course, detectives checked her cell phone data for that morning, and it wasn't shown leaving her house until 10-20am that morning, when she headed towards downtown Portland after Dan had already been killed. And not to confuse you guys further, but basically Nancy did say that she left the house at about 10-20am, not admitting to going out of the house at 7-08 or 7-28am, but say that she left the house at about 10, 20 a.m. not admitting to going out of the house at 7, 08 or 7, 28 a.m. but admitting that she did go out later and that's when her phone, you know, paying in cell phone towers, you know, in Portland and when she was caught

in Portland, hours after Daniel was killed. Yeah, they could tell when she left later, but it was later hypothesized that Nancy would have left her phone at home if she had driven to the school that morning to carry out the murder. And since she wrote an essay on how to kill your husband, we can guess that she would have at least been versed on leaving her cell phone at home. Another strange detail was that Nancy had a Starbucks coffee that morning, which Daniel usually got for her. The strange detail was that Nancy had a Starbucks coffee that morning, which Daniel usually

got for her, but he didn't that morning, and Nancy had claimed that she didn't leave the house until later. Now the day after Daniel was killed, Nancy posted on Facebook saying, quote, For those of you who are really close to me and feel this deserved a phone call, you're right, but I'm struggling to make sense of everything right now. While I appreciate all your loving responses, I'm overwhelmed. Please save phone calls for a few days until I can function. At Daniel's wake, others notice Nancy's behavior as odd. Now everyone acts differently

in times of emotional duress, as we know. But one friend in particular, a woman named Megan Light remembers telling Nancy that she hoped that they would find whoever did this to Dan. Obviously, you're like, your husband was murdered. Oh my god, I hope they catch the guy. Right. Yeah. But Nancy just said that she wondered how it went down. So she wasn't sharing in that. Who did this to my husband that outrage? She just wanted to know the details of, oh, how did that happen? Yeah. So during the conversation, like Megan wasn't getting the feeling that Nancy was passionate about finding her husband's killer and seeking justice for him,

which to me is very abnormal. I mean, especially just looking at every single case we cover, everyone's like, I will find the person, you know, yeah, I agree with you. Just a little odd. Nancy also seemed to make somewhat of a joke after Megan offered to bring cookies to Dan's memorial memorial. Sorry.

Nancy allegedly replied with something along the lines of no need. When someone gets murdered, OCI puts on quite a spread. Yikes. Yeah, but she also spoke about Dan publicly at the wake, and it was a nice thing she said, saying, quote, he loved teaching. He loved mushrooms, and he loved family. Dan was one of the very few people I've known

that knew exactly what he wanted in life and loved doing it. As the months passed, and police continued to question people in Daniel's life and look into Nancy, they believed more and more that she could have been behind it. So on September 5, 2018, three months after Daniel's murder, they finally were able to execute a search warrant for Nancy and Daniel's home. Amongst the seized items included a silver HP laptop in a box in Nancy's bedroom closet and another computer by Nancy's bed.

They had to get a separate warrant to search the laptops, which they did, and they also executed a separate search warrant on a storage unit that Nancy rented in Beaverton, Oregon. So in the storage unit, they opened a cardboard box and saw a black plastic Glock handgun box, but back to the computers. On them included recent searches for gun shops in Portland, Oregon, a search for power tech precision services so a gun service shop, and then more searches

for Portland gun shops. Now, of course, the only reason this is weird is because she had a very nonchalantly said, yeah, about a gun years ago for Dan. Yeah, and not for me. Yeah, and now it's like all this stuff are recent searches, so carry on, because it gets greater.

Yeah, this. The other searches include ghostguns.com, kick back with Glock, Glock 19 YouTube, cost of Glock 17, gunbroker.com, what do you have to do to register a gun in Oregon, gun safety classes, Portland Expo Gun Show, Glock 17 slide for sale, Glock 17 Gen 4 Ebay, Glock 17 Slide, Glock 19 Slide, Glock 9mm, and how to sell a gun in Oregon.

The last one is pretty suspicious because all the other searches involve buying a gun, and then finally how do you sell one? Like, sell one after you've murdered someone perhaps and need to get rid of the evidence? I think so. So on top of this, on Nancy's computer, within she and Dan's joint iTunes account, was a bookmarked story called,

10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder. Not suspicious at all. I'm sure she could get away with this by saying, oh, it's for my research, for my books. But I mean, what the hell? After the two spent shell casings at the scene of Daniel's murder were analyzed, firearms expert Leland Samuelson determined

that they most likely were fired from a Glock. When he used Nancy's Glock 17 for test firing, which was the gun she had bought years previously, he compared the shell casings and decided that the bullets either were not fired from that gun, or they weren't fired with the slide embarral that came with the gun. And they were not a match for a Glock 19 either. But knowing that Nancy had purchased a Glock 17 slide off of eBay, he wondered if that was used to fire the gun, but it wasn't tested. Nancy's cell phone data was analyzed closely looking back at the months leading up to Daniel's murder. And on February 17, 2018, four months before his killing near the Portland Expo Center, there was

a gun show. And the man who sold her the gun came forward to confirm that Nancy Crampton Brophy had indeed purchased a Glock 17 from him. Then six days later, during a bid, she won a Glock 17 slide in barrel on eBay, and it was delivered to she and Daniel's home five days after that. And to be clear, this is another gun, because the gun that she had purchased for safety was years earlier.

And remember, this is just extra weird considering Nancy was very aloof about guns, and acted like she didn't use them or know how to use them. Yet that doesn't appear to be the case. People in Nancy's life continue to notice her behavior following Daniel's death, including her hairdresser. Shortly after Dan was killed, Nancy went to get her hair done. And when Nancy told her hairdresser Michelle, what had happened, Michelle began to cry,

whereas Nancy did not. Again, everyone handles grief differently, but this is just what Michelle said. And Michelle kind of thought that was weird. She was like, why am I crying? Yeah, totally. So the day police executed their search warrants, 68-year-old Nancy Crampton Brophy,

was arrested on suspicion of murder. When she was being arrested, she said, quote, you're arresting me? You must think I murdered my husband. Yeah. Definitely. Nancy was held at the Multnomah County Jail in Portland, and five months later, her stepson Nathaniel still water filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her, asking for $1.7 million for the murder of his father. Now this is $200,000 for his father's pain and suffering, $500,000 for estimated losses to the Brophy estate, and $1 million for Nathaniel's loss of a parent. After numerous hearings and many delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy Krampton's trial

finally commenced in April of 2022, which is literally like a little over a month before we're recording this, but it ended like last week. So she was charged with the second-degree murder of her husband by fire arm and her plea was not guilty. During trial Nancy's defense tried to paint the picture that a homeless person had been the one to murder Daniel and they showed several videos of various people in the area on the morning of Daniel's murder who they stated could have been behind it instead. It's pretty shitty though to just be like like, oh, there's homeless people around,

they must have done it. What is your proof? Right, I'm just gonna blame it on a homeless person. Right. The defense also tried to prove that one homeless resident in particular named Oscar Taylor often frequented the area outside of OCI and was described by students to be hostile.

He had previously been in prison after being charged with 15 felonies over the course of his life. Now the state rebutted by explaining that just because Oscar Taylor had been in prison didn't mean that he committed the murder nor was capable of committing murder and that none of the students at OCI even believed he had. And a lot of the students knew who this guy was because he frequented the street. So they were like, none of the students were like, he must have done it. It was just the defense. Yeah, kind of outlandish. Right. Also shortly after Daniel's killing, Oscar was seen in the area canning, which is just collecting cans to turn in for money.

So the prosecution pointed out that it wouldn't make sense for Oscar to kill Daniel, not take anything, and then go outside and look for cans like it was a normal day. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. No. Going back to the gun that Nancy purchased years earlier, so she told police that she didn't use it and didn't know how to and didn't have ammo. But two romance writers she knew stated otherwise.

One of them, Terry Reed, testified that she had previously taken a shooting course with Nancy, and Jessica Smith testified that she had spoken to Nancy about purchasing a gun kit about one to three months before Daniel's murder. Now Steven Santos was the person who analyzed Dan's life insurance policy after his passing, and he explained to the courtroom that their long-term retirement plan didn't make any sense because it wasn't sustainable with the life insurance plan that they had. After a cross-examination, Steven explained that the amount of Daniel's policy did make sense with his gross salary, but again, it wasn't sustainable for the future.

After Daniel's killing, Nancy was called by Andrea Alderson Such, who handled Daniel's workers' compensation claim, where Nancy was set to receive a hefty sum of money if they decided in her favor. But strangely, Andrea called her four days after Daniel's death to offer her condolences and explained that it would take up to 60 days to make a decision and that she couldn't guarantee her payment. But Nancy told her that she couldn't wait that long as if she had been expecting this payment. Well, also, yeah, like, I can't wait that long. If you're innocent of this murder, you didn't even know that such money would be coming in. Right. So why can't you wait

for it? Exactly. And the total amount to be paid to Nancy was $438,000. Whereas with the life insurance, she listed as the beneficiary would be eligible to collect a minimum of $815,000 and up to 1.4 million for her combined policies. Now, let's look back at Nancy's how to murder your husband, Essay, where she talks financials. She wrote, quote, financials as her number one motive and stated, this is big. Money came up a lot in this essay, and as we know, at the time of Daniel's death, they weren't in great financial standing. In

fact, it was reviewed after his death that the Brofys often were hit with insufficient funds charges, and were having a hard time paying their mortgage. Nancy took the stand at her trial trial and she described herself as a chatterer and then said Dan was more quiet and reserved. She also said that she's impulsive whereas Dan was a planner and actually the prosecution kind of rebutted this as well saying well you are a planner because you're a writer and there was just so much proof that she was a planner and she's not this, you know, I think even saying that you're impulsive isn't a great thing to say when you're up for, you know, you're on trial for murder.

Right. Yeah, exactly. She's trying to say, oh, yeah, I'm not a planner. So like, I couldn't have planned this murder. Right. But it's like, she absolutely was a planner. She also discussed that she and Daniel's deep commitments, or that she and Daniel had deep commitments to each other and that losing him felt like losing an

arm, saying that when he died, they had been in some of the happiest days of their lives. Nancy also admitted that if Daniel didn't die before the age of 78, remember he was 63 when he was killed, that the life insurance policy she took out on him would have been significantly less totaling to sixty six sixty seven thousand dollars versus around one million so she's admitting yeah if he died after seventy eight i would basically get nothing i would get like significantly less

when discussing her gun purchases she told the courtroom exactly what she told police that she bought it for protection since she was worried for Dan safety while he was out mushroom hunting in the forest alone a lot. But when Daniel died, she said she never hated the gun more, that it was supposed to protect them and it didn't. Then Nancy admitted to buying the Glock 17 slide on eBay because she was, quote, obsessed and fascinated with gun parts. Get this, get this bullshit excuse.

I mean, but that she owned these items for research purposes for her books. But I think her direct quote was, frick, it was like, frick, sorry. It was like, it's something, oh god, I'm sorry, I don't have the quote in front of me. It was something about how she was, um, almost like fascinated by how obsessed she are surprised at how obsessed she was with guns.

Yeah, but also, like, what? But also then saying, like, saying like oh well I bought it for Research purposes for my books. Why do you need to buy that's when I'm saying like she's caught in all these lies She had told police. Oh, yeah, we have a gun, but I don't know how to use it I don't use it and it's for protection. Oh also, it's not for me. It was for Daniel Or it's not for me. It was for my husband, you know, and now she's saying I Do have guns and actually I'm obsessed with guns, but I use them for research. Yeah, only for my books.

It's just, I mean, like literally you just got caught in a lie. The funniest thing about all of this is that she went through all of these different things of how to get away with murder and all this blah, blah, blah, but this ding-dong literally did not get away with murder. She didn't get away with it. Yeah, I'm sorry, I hate to keep laughing because this is obviously a horrible story, but it is kind of funny how ridiculous she is.

Yeah, absolutely. She's like a character. Yes. So regarding her seeming lack of emotions after Dan's death, because this was brought up, Nancy said it was because she didn't grieve outwardly because it doesn't accomplish anything. So she's like, I don't want to cry in public because it doesn't accomplish anything.

She's a character. Yeah. So in closing, the prosecution highlighted the fact that Nancy mentioned her memory issues quite a bit, which is the ultimate alibi because the defense had claimed that Nancy suffered from retrograde amnesia from the trauma of learning her husband was killed. How convenient. How convenient. I don't remember anything because I was in such shock when my husband died. Sorry, I just hit the table. That's okay.

The husband... Oh my god. Sorry. The prosecution also mentioned that she consistently appeared uncomfortable when responding to questions from the state, but while answering her own attorney's questions, she appeared quite relaxed. Then they went through the surveillance footage again, and pointed out that the minivan scene had to have been Nancy's, which Nancy slightly admitted, saying that she thinks that she was writing in her car by OCI, but that she couldn't remember how she got there. This is so ridiculous, because originally she said, I didn't leave my house until 10-20 am, and now she's saying,

well, maybe I did, but I can't remember, but I do write, I do drive around for inspiration and write in my car. Yeah, so many lies here. But I just don't know for sure. So she had stated during her testimony that she often drove around that area for inspiration and that it, quote, was a place that I would have felt very comfortable writing, and so I'm sure that it's a true memory. When questioned about the Starbucks that she had that morning and how she had gotten

it, she testified that she might have made her usual run to Starbucks while she was jotting notes for her latest book idea in her van, but that she just wasn't sure. So again, she's she's saying I might have been out around 7 a.m. but I'm not sure and I might have gotten Starbucks but I'm not sure. But also I have Amnesia. But again, when this happened and they originally interviewed her the same day None of this was said she didn't say I might have gone out this morning or I did it She said she didn't leave until after 10. This is what happens when people get backed into a corner They just start reaching and throwing anything and everything out there

Yeah, and it's just like the prosecution said that her memory issues is the ultimate alibi because she can sit there and just say, Oh, I don't remember which is a lie. Yeah, and the prosecution pointed out that they believed she was not there to write but instead to wait for Daniel to drive in so that she could follow him and fatally shoot him. They also highlighted that it seemed strange that during her questioning with police the day of Daniels killing, Nancy didn't ask very many questions at all about what had happened to her husband. Which also looks weird because I think any of us can agree that the first thing you would ask when you hear about a loved one's murder is What happened who did this? How did it happen? What's going on the questions?

So Nancy had spent around $1,500 on gun parts so they're pondering why she would have spent that much on guns when she already had some of these parts and guns Already and when money was as tight as it was and the mortgage was barely being paid The prosecution concluded with the theory that because Nancy and Daniel didn't have a sizable retirement plan, especially since Dan had taken out half of his 401K at the previous year to fix up their house, this worried Nancy so much so that she murdered her own husband, likely so that she could sell the house, take all of the insurance earnings, and move to Portugal like she had been dreaming

to do. Meanwhile, the defense's closing arguments included the thought that there was reasonable doubt in Nancy's case, and to convict her, they should be certain, which the defense didn't believe they were. They also painted the picture that the Brofys had an ideal relationship and had a lot of love for each other. They didn't believe the motive for insurance money was enough, calling it weak, because the Brofys were not desperate for money.

Dan wasn't particularly interested in retiring, as Heath has mentioned, and if it was money that Nancy wanted, she could have just gotten a divorce. But referencing Nancy's own words in her How to Murder Her Husband essay, quote, I think this kind of proved that divorce was not something she was down to do. Yeah, definitely not. On May 25, 2022, after 27 days on trials on the 28th day, a jury found 71-year-old Nancy Krampton-Browfee guilty in the second degree, 2018 murder of her husband, 63-year-old Daniel Brophy. Sentencing is scheduled for June 13, 2022, but we can imagine Nancy will never get out of prison for her crime. Both of Daniel's parents, Karen and Jack were present at the trial, and both of them

testified as well. After the trial was over, his mother Karen Brophy said that she felt that justice was served, and she appreciated that the world was able to learn more about her son through the trial. She said, quote, I feel like through the trial Portland has learned that our son was a great guy, and we really miss him, and it's been a heartwarming experience in that way to know how much people thought of him. And what a great guy he really was. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Tuesday we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. Yes, another big shout out to Tiffany. She recommended this story to us months ago, like right before the trial was set to happen. So every day that the trial was going on, like I kept checking Google for updates, just waiting for it to end. And I think it ended the way we kind of all expected it to end with a guilty verdict. But I was just like desperately waiting for this to end, so we could tell the story because this is genuinely such a crazy story and just so stupid, you know, because she's just such a dumb dumb.

Yeah, if she did this for money, I like the call her ding-dong earlier. Definitely a ding-dong for sure. If she really just did this for money and just Daniel seemed like such a great guy had so much passion for life and he didn't deserve to be murdered by his stupid wife. Yeah, absolutely. I just yeah I feel terrible for his family and especially for his son just because they were kind of rekindling their

relationship and reconnecting you know and then for that to just be taken away so quickly. Yeah and now Nathaniel's dad, or Nathaniel, doesn't get to have his dad in his daughter's life. Because he has a young daughter and Daniel was a grandfather and he doesn't get to see his granddaughter grow up, you know? So just so stupid and now Nancy's not even going in Portugal. So just if that was even her motive. But anyway, we'd love to hear what you guys think about this case and every other case We cover the best place to do that actually I say I would say is Instagram which is at going west podcast Also, we have a discussion group on Facebook. You can join heathenair always commenting You guys can post your thoughts that is going west discussion group and then we're also on Twitter at going west pod

Also if you guys are looking for more episodes of Going West, head on over to our Patreon. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Going West Podcast. We have a ton of episodes. They're ad free and full length, so go check those out. Yeah, and we're going to add two more this month and a lot of them are international. So we do Canadian cases, et cetera. I'm not just Canada, but... You do, but England, Australia, you know, you're up, so please check that out.

Yeah, and if you have suggestions for those cases as well, let us know. Exactly. Alright, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% Thank you. you