Dateline: Secrets Uncovered is examining the murder of Daniel “Dan” Brophy, who was shot dead by his wife, Nancy Crampton Brophy, at his place of work in the Oregon Culinary Institute in downtown Portland, Oregon.
Crampton Brophy had been a romance novelist who had published works such as The Wrong Husband and an online essay titled How to Murder Your Husband. She turned fiction into fact by killing Dan so she could claim his life insurance money.
Dan Brophy was a chef and a teacher at the culinary school, and on June 2, 2018, his students found his body in a kitchen in the building. The 63-year-old had been shot twice in the chest.
Student Clarinda Perez, who found the body, later said in a court impact statement, “His eyes were green, and they were utterly heartbroken. Utterly heartbroken because he knew who had done this, and I will ever have to live with those green heartbroken eyes.”
Dan’s wife, Crampton Brophy, told the cops she’d been walking her dogs at the time of the murder. However, the investigators found surveillance footage of her driving toward and then leaving the culinary school.
The killer tried to claim that she must have gone on a “coffee run” and forgotten about it due to the stress of the day. The police were becoming increasingly suspicious.
Nancy Crampton Brophy bought gun parts before Dan Brophy murder
Crampton Brophy owned a Glock firearm, the same type of gun used to kill her husband. This gun appeared not to have been the one to fire the deadly shots, but the investigators concluded that was because someone had replaced the barrel of the firearm.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelCrampton Brophy had recently purchased a slide and barrel on eBay. She claimed the gun belonged to her husband and that he used it for protection while mushroom hunting. She also said she ordered the gun parts as part of her research for a new novel.
The police said she killed her husband of 26 years for money. Crampton Brophy was having financial difficulties, but Dan had multiple life insurance policies worth $1.4 million. The cops claimed the killer also wanted sole ownership of their $300,000 home.
Nancy Crampton Brophy convicted of killing Dan Brophy
In May 2022, Crampton Brophy was found guilty of second-degree murder and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. She was 71 at the time.
She is currently incarcerated at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, OR.
At the sentencing, the killer’s stepson, Nathaniel Stillwater, told Crampton Brophy, “You are a monster, and I’m ashamed that I have to admit to my children that people like you walk among us undetected. You lived in the shadow of a great human being.”
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.